by Hannah Snellgrove

With the UK Laser Association Nationals already underway for the ILCA 7s and ILCA 4s, the ILCA 6 sailors are eagerly awaiting their opportunity to get racing again in the latter half of the week.

Here we have a look at some of the top sailors who will be fighting it out for the title, as well as how some of the fleet’s well-known faces have been dealing with lockdown and preparing themselves for a competitive return.

The three-day event will run from 27th – 29th August, and with 100 boats registered to compete, the stage is set for a fun but fierce return to battle for the country’s best single-handed sailors.

The contenders include Team GB’s Tokyo 2021 Olympic representative Ali Young, who has been training from WPNSA since lockdown restrictions eased alongside her three fellow British Sailing Team (BST) athletes – former Youth World bronze medallist Daisy Collingridge, 2019 Youth World Champion Matilda Nicholls and three-time National Champion Hannah Snellgrove. All four will line up on the start line on Thursday looking to add to the tally of females who have become Radial National Champion.

While talking about former National Championship winners, it would be remiss not to mention the renowned Laser sailor Jon Emmett, who must have come close to winning the Nationals more times than everybody else combined! The more experienced sailors in the fleet will be having their own battles for victory in the various masters divisions. Emmett, competing on his home waters, will be looking to hold off a challenge from Stokes Bay’s Ben Elvin - 2019 Radial men’s European bronze medallist and a regular in the top three at World and European qualifiers. The class chairman, Rob Cage, will also be looking to show the youngsters how it’s done!

In the youth division, Arthur Farley will be looking to consolidate his overall win at the second World and European qualifier of the year just three days before lockdown started with a solid performance at this regatta. Last year’s under 17 Worlds silver medallist Finley Dickinson will also be one to watch. Coco Barrett was the top placed British boat in the 4.7 Europeans that recently concluded in Vilamoura, Portugal, and she will be upgrading to the bigger rig here in Weymouth.

Alongside the regulars on the entry list is great to see past Laser stars also making a comeback, excited to enjoy the chance to compete again – certain names that have subtly appeared on the entry list have not gone unnoticed! It remains to be seen how much secret practicing people have been doing since lockdown restrictions allowed us all to return to the water! Let the fun and games begin!

Matilda Nicholls -

“What a crazy few months it’s been and how exciting that we are able to get back on the water and race! Over lockdown I took the opportunity to work hard on my fitness levels. Having spent most days on a road bike getting lost down country roads it’s safe to say I’m not a pro but improvements from my fitness have helped me massively since getting back on the water!

Since the 1st of June I have been based down in Portland training out of WPNSA with the BST Radial girls, including Ali Young, Hannah Snellgrove and Daisy Collingridge. It’s been so much fun having such a strong and competitive team to train with the last few months and with the sun shining most weeks it’s been amazing sailing. Almost every week we’ve been lucky enough to do a few speed runs with the dolphins out in Weymouth Bay and even ended up in the water with them sometimes!

With the Under 21 Europeans in Montenegro being my target event for the year, I am very excited to see how all the work I’ve put in over the last few months will be transferred into these events. I look forward to the Nationals kicking racing off and good luck to everyone!!”

Jon Emmett -

“I guess my biggest project during Covid-19 crisis has been Restart Sailing. To get people back on the water sailing safely. We have of course seen extremes with some people very unwilling to leave their houses to others who just wanted to carry on as normal. The good news is sailing is probably one of the best and safest activities we can be doing and the ILCA Nationals is one of the few Nationals going ahead this year and will definitely be featured on the next show. The RYA have done a great job here and I want to thank the RYA’s Racing Director Ian Walker for appearing on the show.

Coaching has also been an online experience, mostly over zoom, an app I don’t think I had heard of 12 months ago. In fact, I recently went through with the ILCA Nationals PRO Paul Jackson how to do the briefing by zoom, so fingers crossed everything goes smoothly! Actually the ability to share screens and talk through video has been great and it is something that I will be continuing doing in the future and in terms of social distancing you are probably as far apart as you can be when safely at home. I have also been continuing the Neil Pryde team mentoring and actually talking to several people from the same class, at the same time, over zoom has worked really well.”

Lydia Barber - photo credit Georgie Altham

Up and coming Radial sailor, Lydia Barber -

“I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say the first three months of lockdown were particularly difficult, with no sailing allowed and gyms closed it seemed like the end of the world for a brief time! However, the three months soon passed and things started to return to normal. My club back home in Staffordshire was not allowed to open, so I was still stuck at home whilst the coast got going again, and things were made worse by a back injury which still isn't 100% corrected.

Anyway, a few physio appointments later at the start of July I made it back to Southampton, on the 31st July I managed to rejoin the gym and have been training every day. The sailing has been great, luckily there are an abundance of ILCAs at Stokes Bay, so I was never without a buddy to sail with!

I managed to collect 216002 on the 30th May, as it had never been on the water there was lots to do to make her sailable. So the past few months have also meant lots of boat work and tweaking just to get things right and working orderly. Finally on the 20th August (not long to go!) my new Zhik grippy toestrap arrived, thank you Sailing Chandlery for saving me so last minute!

Overall I’m super excited for the regatta - it’s going to be great to see everyone (socially distanced of course) Good Luck!”