Noble Marine ILCA 7 UK Inland Championships at Grafham Water
by Nathan Russell 8 Nov 04:01 AEDT
31 October - 1 November 2026
Noble Marine ILCA UK Inland Championships at Grafham Water © Saillotts / Lotte Johnson
The Inlands is always a great (while cold) opportunity for some competitive racing. Unfortunately, this year the weather was not on side.
On Saturday, in true Halloween fashion, thick fog rolled over the lake and combined with the no wind we had resulted in no sailing on Saturday.
Forecasts looked promising for Sunday and after a bit of waiting 5-8knts breeze rolled in and the clock began to tick to get races in. In the ILCA7 fleet the first race saw the left side come in with Tom Hakes, Robbie Phipps and Joe Rowe punching out in front. For Tom hakes' debut in the ILCA 7 the extra mast length became too much for him as he decided to capsize around the reach mark. Pressure was patchy and the shift range was large keeping all the sailors on their toes, and for the 2nd lap it was still all to play for. Hugh Andrews managed to sail into a hole on the course and drop from 5th to 16th - an impressive feat. Joe Rowe showed his talent by linking pressure and shift exceptionally well to take the win in race 1.
Excitements were high for race two as the 7 fleet couldn't seem to keep behind the line but after a few generals the fleet got away clean. With some increased breeze coming down the course we saw our first sailors getting into the straps. An impressive performance from Julien Rohart saw him rounding 2nd at the windward but racing was still tight with the top 10 separated by only 20 seconds. Coming downwind, Julien received his second yellow flag from the jury disqualifying him from the race. Joe Rowe - who let to the windward - also received a yellow flag. This was an excellent downwind from me jumping 6 places into 3rd. With the front two out of the picture, it was Lewis Bacon who took the lead, ultimately winning the race closely followed by Tom Hakes and Robbie Phipps who made the most impressive comeback of the event from 15th to finishing in 3rd closing out the top 3.
The final race got under way with just 10minutes to spare in the most breeze of the day. An impressive start saw Ralph Musto leading at mark 1 followed by Robbie Phipps and Tom Hakes. Dave Rowe's power trip continued as he gave a second yellow flag to his own son - disqualifying him from the race. On the second beat large pressure and shift brought big bias to the right-hand side of the course and saw Ralph extend his lead with Tom and myself behind. The final victim to the jury was myself flagging me just before the finish with Jack Lewis taking 3rd place.
At an event with no discard, consistency is king. Greg Carey made an impressive comeback to the sport taking 1st master. Ewan Mcanally, Robbie Phipps and Tom Hakes all put up impressive results ending up on the podium with Tom Hakes winning his first ILCA 7 major event - huge congratulations to him as well as all the competitors for making the racing so tight, it is a privilege to sail in a fleet with so much talent.
A massive thanks to all the volunteers and race organisers. I have sailed ILCA's for 5 years now and I have never seen as many volunteers helping with launching as I saw this weekend.
1st - Tom Hakes
2nd - Robbie Phipps
3rd - Ewan Mcanally
1st master - Greg Carey
1st U19 - Tom Hakes
1st U21 - Robbie Phipps
Full results can be found here.
Title Sponsors: Noble Marine
Class Sponsors: Sailingfast, Rooster, Ovington and Fernhurst Books.
We used Trac Trac technology.