by Gary Finkelstein

The weekend of 17th & 18th October saw 118 sailors spread across the ILCA-4, 6 and 7 fleets. Two events were combined, the UKLA Marine ILCA7, ILCA6 & ILCA4 and the RYA Youth Nationals. (See separate write-up for the ILCA7 ).

Wind conditions started with a wonderful 12 – 15knts, a fresh 12 degrees centigrade, and almost champagne conditions if not for the very grey skies, and the drop to below 10 knots during the last race of the day.

ILCA-4’s

This was an important event for the ILCA-4’s as, in addition to being the second UKLA qualifier event in the new season, it was the RYA’s Junior (U16) Championship, which was rescheduled due to Covid-19 restrictions on the original date.

Keijiro Kikkawa, Max Steele, and Antonio Pascali took the lead on the first day, jostling for the podium places in each of the races, but with last year’s champion Jack Graham-Troll not far behind in fourth place. Newcomer to the fleet, Arwen Ffler was the leading girl in 5th place and 17points.

The second day saw much lighter winds, generally 5 – 10 knots, depending on which patch of the course you were in. Jack Graham–Troll showed his skill in identifying the wind pressures and shifts, and scored two bullets to win both the qualifier event and the RYA Junior Championships.

It was very pleasing to see a growing female participation (almost 50%) in the fleet. Arwen Fflur had a very strong performance, particularly in the light winds of the second day, scoring a hat-trick of silver placings, and breaking the dominance of the boys in the middle of the top 5 placings on the score board. Hazell McDonnell was 2nd placed female with Leah Fidling defeating Honor Proctor by 1 place to claim third placing overall, although Honor wins the bronze medal in the U16 category.

Due to Covid restrictions, there was no prize giving, but medals are being sent to the winners as follows:

RYA ILCA-4 Junior (U16) Championship

Boys

Gold – Jack Graham Troll
Silver – Max Steele
Bronze – Antonio Pascali

Girls

Gold – Arwen Fflur
Silver – Hazel McDonnell
Bronze – Honor Procter

UKLA Sailingfast Youth (U18) Qualifier ILCA 4

Boys

Gold – Jack Graham Troll
Silver – Keijiro Kikkawa
Bronze – Max Steele

Girls

Gold – Arwen Fflur
Silver – Hazel Mcdonnell
Bronze – Leah Fidling

ILCA-6’s

The ILCA-6’s (and ILCA7’s) will have their RYA Youth Championships 24th – 27th at WPNSA, but the event is an important qualifier to represent the UKLA at next year’s international events.

Unlike the ILCA-4’s, the ILCA-6 fleet was dominated by the experienced woman sailors, with Matilda Nicholls scoring a bullet and two 2’s on the first day, and a further 2 bullets on the second light wind day to claim the podium gold placing ahead of Hannah Snellgrove in second.

This was Matilda’s first qualifier win - congratulations. Only Fin Dickinson was able to stop an all-girls 1, 2, 3 by finishing a whisker 1 point ahead of Daisy Collingridge.

Last year’s Inland Champion, Shotaro Kikkawa showed his skills in the light winds to fight back from 7th place at the end of the first day to finish second boy, ahead of Bermuda’s Sebastian Kemp (QMSC) as third boy and 8th overall. Fin’s brother Sam, achieved second place in the U17 age group, with Tom Mitchell coming third.

It is always a step up when sailors enter a new fleet, and the highly experienced ILCA-6 fleet is no exception for ILCA-4 sailors who transition into this fleet.

It is therefore very encouraging to also see Oliver Allen – Wilcox (the 2020 ILCA-4 national champion) and Freddie Howarth achieving 11th and 12th placings in their first qualifier event in the ILCA-6 fleet.

Coco Barrett won the girls U19 fleet ahead of Charlotte Videlo and Samantha Edwards, with Iris Singleton winning the girls U17 ahead of Lucy Davis and Dru Townsend.

South East Sailboat’s Max Hunt continued to impress again, winning the master category.

Medals Winners:

Mens Overall

Gold – Finley Dickinson
Silver – Shotaro Kikkawa
Bronze – Sebastian Kemp

U19 Winner – Finley Dickinson

U17 Winner – Sebastian Kemp

M Winner – Max Hunt

Women Overall

Gold – Matilda Nicholls
Silver -- Hannah Snellgrove
Bronze – Daisy Collingridge

U21 Winner – Matilda Nicholls

U19 Winner – Coco Barrett

U17 Winner – Iris Singleton

Many thanks also to Paul Jackson and his team for being so patient particularly with the ILCA6 fleet on Sunday and our event sponsors:

Noble Marine - Ian MacManus (the man behind the name) has crafted a very competitive and excellent insurance product for all Laser/ILCA sailors. A very personal service and a extremely useful website help make this the ‘go to’ company.

Sailingfast – Duncan brings his battle buss down from Scotland for most the big events, which is so ridiculously well equipped, you could replace everything on your boat. Although based in Scotland they will get anything to you super fast. He also supplied many of the prizes.

Weymouth & Portland Sailing National Academy - The home of the British Sailing Team and one of the best racing venues in the country if not the world the WPNSA offers first class facilities with either harbour or open water racing and hosting the sailing for the 2012 Olympics.

FUll results