ILCA Open at Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club
by Greg Liggins 7 Sep 10:00 PDT
5 September 2026
Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club welcomed 19 entrants to their annual ILCA open on Saturday 5th September, forming part of both the 2026 ILCA Lakeland & Borders Series and the ILCA Regional Youth Series (the latter being kindly sponsored by Rooster).
Competitors were welcomed by blue skies and a fresh breeze as they rigged ahead of a 12pm start with four races scheduled back to back. The forecast was for 14-25kts westerly, with the wind proving to be at the upper limit of that range throughout racing.
A mix of triangle, sausage, and triangle/sausage courses were sailed and the pecking order at the front of the fleet was soon established. On the water the racing at the front was close between the ILCA6 of Toby Waggett, Spirit Alderson and Henry Blades, and the ILCA7's of Alastair Conn and Greg Liggins. Further down the fleet, there was significant attrition of the fleet size, as a number of sailors re-evaluated their decision to sail, either on the blast downwind to the race area, or as racing progressed.
PRO Hender Blewett and team ran a prompt set of races with short turnarounds in between.
In the Lakeland Open event which is scored on a single fleet based upon PY, the top 3 were nothing but consistent as Toby took a string of bullets, followed by Spirit recording four second places and Alastair all third places.
For the Youth Series the results are awarded on the basis of separate rig fleets. Henry took third place in the male ILCA6 class after Toby and Spirit, with Alanna Starkie first female ILCA6. Generous prizes were provided by Rooster as sponsor of the ILCA Regional Youth Series.
Thank were noted at the prize-giving to the number of club volunteers who made the event possible. DRSC once again proved its ability to run quality racing in beautiful surroundings and the club looks forward to seeing the fleet return again in 2027.