ILCA NZ Nationals: Sea breeze stunner delivers close racing - Day 2

U.S. Women's Laser Radial, Erika Reineke - Ready Steady Tokyo, day 5 © Jesus Renedo / Sailing Energy / World Sailing

The sea breeze filled in just before todays scheduled 1pm start time, providing ideal conditions for today's three races for the 100 boat ILCA fleets to be completed on a warm, sunny, stunning Bay of Islands day.

The sea breeze never got to much over 10 knots and there were plenty of shifts and light patches to ensure it was anything but a straightforward days racing for everyone. It tended to be a left hand favoured course all day, with those experimenting with the right hand corner of the course generally disappearing into a black hole.

World No 1 ranked Micky Beckett (UK) had the best of the day in the ILCA 7 fleet, winning the first 2 races and getting 3rd in the days final race to close to within a point of day 1 leader Duko Bos (NED), who bagged two 2nd's and a 6th to just hold onto the overall lead.

The top two are followed by Finn Lynch (IRL) , Ryan Lo (SIN) and leading kiwi George Gautrey, who's 12th in the days first race dropped him a bit down the order. Kiwi under 21 sailors Caleb Armit and Zach Stibbe both put together consistent days just behind the leading pack to sit 6th and 7th overall ahead of two other international visitors, Haruto Kuroda (JPN) and Ewan McMahon (IRL).

Ex Laser World Champ Nik Burfoot has built up a solid 18 point lead in the ILCA 7 masters, ahead of very consistent Aussie GM visitor Sean Atherton-Feeny and multi past ILCA masters world champ Scott Leith (M).

In the ILCA 6 Erika Reineke is really showing her class, with two race wins and a second today to open up a good points gap over NZ Olympic rep Greta Pilkington and Australian visitor Frances Beebe. Arran Begic had a stunning afternoon with a 2nd and a 3rd in todays last 2 races to move into 4th overall and lead the youths. Miro Luxford is the leading men's open ILCA 6 sailor after George Lane got a little too keen at the start of race 5 to record a UFD. Chloe Turner leads the youth women in 12th overall, but she is right in the mix and is only a point off the top 10.

In the ILCA 4 Nathan Soper, Ava Wu and Sofia Turner are having a battle royal, with Ava winning 2 of todays races to sit just 2 points back from Nathan, with Sofia right on their heels just a couple of points further back. Both Ellie Tapper and Madi Smith broke into the top 3 in one of todays races to sit 4th and 5th overall.

In the ILCA 6 Masters defending champion Phil Wild (M) dropped a point to Dave Johnson (M) in the days first race, but then went on to win both the days other races to tighten his grip on his title defence. Leading GM Werner Henig holds onto 3rd overall while in the GGM's Graeme Tee just leads Roger Winton.

For Day 3 tomorrow another three races are scheduled, with moderate SouthEasterlies forecast set to provide a new set of challenges for the fleet. Th discard also comes into play tomorrow, which is likely to shake up the results a little

Everyone in the fleet is carrying a tracker, thanks to assistance from YNZ. The tracking for all completed races is available to view here www.tractrac.com/event-page/event_20260113_NZILCACham/3427.

The contest results are available at Day 2 Provisional Results ILCA Nationals 2026