UKLA Open & National ILCA Championships 2023 at Hayling Island Sailing Club - Days 3 & 4
by UKLA 24 Aug 01:56 PDT
20-25 August 2023
Day 3 - Tuesday 22nd. Rooster Day - There were some karaoke throats in the dinghy park on the morning of day 3 - a sure sign the evening entertainment went well. The telegram message board told us to look out for a tag on several several competitors tallies entitling them to a spot prize from Rooster. Ben Flower did a great race Clinic on up wind sailing in waves which was to prove very useful later.
An overcast sky, and a very soft breeze, was due to clear. This, Tim Hancock assured us, would allow for a thermally enhanced wind to build. - and it did. Although there was a fair amount of variation between the two courses some great racing got under way about midday.
ILCA7s and ILCA4's - Bracklesham Bay Course
On the Braklesham Bay course Race 5 started for the ILCA7s and ILCA4 in 5/7 knots at about 280 degreesand went down to 4 knots during the race, making the downwind rather painful. In the ILCA7s Finley Dickinson was 1st, Sefan Elliott-Shircore 2nd and Sebastian Kempe 3rd. The ILCA 4s saw Archie Munro-Price take the win, Jaspar Nielsen 2nd and Leo Yates 3rd.
As Wednesday's forecast was looking rather uncertain the RO took the opportunity to put on a third race. Race 6 and 7 started in a nicely building breeze and although still shifty wonderful downwind surfing conditions banished memories of the pervious race. A very decent 13 Knots provided some absolutely fabulous racing. James Percival-Cooke scored 2 bullets in these races.
In the ILCA4s Leo Yates and Ralph Surguy were the two race winners.
ILCA 6s - Hayling Bay Course
Over on the Hayling course the two fleets had Ben Elvin, Hamish Collingridge, Samson Cross, Josh Lyttle, Thommie Grit, Chloe Elvin, Robin Phipps, and Jon Emmett have a top three finish in at least one of the day's two races. As the ILCA6s were flighted they couldn't race a third race and had to return to an very leisurely pack up and shower.
The Day 3 Prize draw was packed again... with Rooster giving away a full sailing kit. So far 75 prizes have been given out... thanks to our incredibly generous sponsors. The evening was rounded of with Bongos Bingo with yet more prizes supplied by Rooster. If you don't know what Bongos Bingo is then I suggest you google it... basically it's mad bingo.
Day 4 Wednesday 23rd - Southeast Sailboats and Noble Marine Day - Max supplied some absolute fabulous packs of rigging for the Prize draw again attended by more than 200 people and Noble Marine teated everyone to beers or soft drinks as they came off the water.
Wednesday brought much lighter winds with an expected delay to racing - this allowed James Percival-Cooke to take a great Race clinic on downwind in waves. With the lighter winds it allowed some of the light helms to shine.
In the ICA4s Merryn Attridge was first in Race 8 and Tatiana Hazelwood first in Race 9 - others in the top 3 were Platon Khodykin, Ciara Murphy, Archie Munro-Price and Will Webster.
The ILCA 7s Sebastian Kempe and James Foster won Race 8 and 9 with Claudio Natale, Gordon Cogan Sivarajan and Alastair Brown in the top 3.
In the ILCA6s the fleets had been separated into gold and silver although they only managed to get one race in. Thommie Grit won the gold fleet, now only one point behind Ben Elvin who was 2nd and Amelie Hacker putting in a great performance to get 3rd. In the silver fleet Poppy Luxton was 1st, Alex Cogan Sivarajan 2nd and Georgia Hughes 3rd.
With rain moving in for tomorrow and light winds forecast it's not looking very good but so far Hayling has delivered some great racing and we live in hope for more super racing....
Thanks to all the volunteers that are making this another fabulous Nationals.
PropVerse + Harken Sunday, Sailingfast Monday, Rooster Tuesday, Southeast sailboats + Noble Marine Wednesday, Ovington Boats Thursday, Final day Friday. Thank you sponsors.
Results: ilca.uk/ukla-results-2023 (A full list of all the daily trophy winners will be available on the UKLA website after the event finishes.)