ILCA 6 Masters Nationals at Stokes Bay Sailing Club

The 2022 Masters National Championships attracted 114 ILCAs, split fairly evenly between the of ICLA6s and ILCA7s, two 50 plus boat fleets and a forecast of big breeze and sunshine would provide some of the most challenging racing many of the UK Masters have seen in years. As promised the breeze came and some of the sunshine but it was certainly not warm!

Camping available on site in a field right next to the dinghy park overlooking the sea, meals laid on every evening and spot prizes available for those who stayed made for a sociable event, helped by a large marquee in case the unreliable British weather decided to rain on our parade!

ILCA 6 Masters Nationals at Stokes Bay - photo © Shaun Roster

The ICLA6s saw the return to the class of Steve and Sarah Cockerill, and Ross Harvey after a ten year break but having stretched his legs in the ICLA a fair few times over the last couple of years, to decided quite suddenly after this Moth broke (again!) to fully commit and buy a fresh new ILCA.

In the first race the 4 boats closest to the pin shot away gaining a small lead on the rest of the fleet. Emmett started closest to the pin and immediately went into high mode, Elvin decided he'd had enough of chopping wood and footed off below Emmett.

ILCA 6 Masters Nationals at Stokes Bay - photo © Shaun Roster

Elvin had slightly more pace on the downwind and took the lead but eventually snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by sailing too high on the final reach, Harvey chasing hard capitalised on this mistake and took the glory of the 'under-role' and the race win.

In the next two races Joe Scurrah was showing good upwind pace but Cockerill had the better of him downwind. The same was true between Harvey and Elvin.

In both these races the eventual finish order was Elvin, Harvey, Emmett, Cockerill, Scurrah.

The moral of the story...
...be fast upwind, be even faster downwind!

ILCA 6 Masters Nationals at Stokes Bay - photo © Shaun Roster

Day 2 dawned bright and breezy, with the tide holding the fleet back from the line it was a battle of the ends, Ann Keates started on port and crossed most of the fleet but it was Cockerill who took an early lead with a great start from near the starboard end.

Terry Scutcher pushed into the top four at the windward mark but couldn't quite match the pace of Cockerill et al downwind.

By the last race the fleet was definitely slowing, sore legs and backs and general fatigue was setting in. The extra freedom of not having Emmett too close behind allowed Harvey close the gap on Elvin downwind to finish close enough it didn't look like Elvin had it all his own way.

ILCA 6 Masters Nationals at Stokes Bay - photo © Shaun Roster

After a short delay due to light wind, the final day of racing got under way. The sailors that started next to the committee boat and tacked to try the get out of the tide soon regretted it as the wind shifted left and built.

The top three deadlock was finally broken. Scurrah took the win which put pressure on Cockerill in the overall standings. Ian Gregory and Max Hunt filled the rest of the top spots.

Going into the final race and with the top four boats overall all using up their discard in the previous race it was lining up to be a great battle.

ILCA 6 Masters Nationals at Stokes Bay - photo © Shaun Roster

With two minutes until the start it was obvious that the ICLA 7s would be coming around their leeward mark as the ILCA 6s started. A difficult decision had to be made, take the bias at the pin but risk being in dirty air or start further down the line.

Emmett, Elvin and Harvey all started at the pin but as predicted the 7s rounded their mark and slammed on some beautiful cover tacks, 'cheers lads'. Harvey tacked and had a bit on to duck the first boat but managed to cross the rest of the fleet. As the fleet got clear of the 7s, Emmett was leading and in the close battle with Elvin, but as they approached the starboard lay line the wind shifted left and they lost their slender advantage. It was a packed top ten at the first mark with Sarah Cockerill, Richard Smith, Ian Gregory and Roberta Hartley all in the mix.

Emmett and Elvin continued their battle with Elvin eventually pulling away taking the race win and the Championship. Harvey caught a couple of waves just before the leeward mark and nipped ahead of Cockerill taking third in the final race and enough to claim second overall. Cockerill's fourth place was still just enough for him to hold onto fourth overall by a couple of points.

ILCA 6 Masters Nationals at Stokes Bay - photo © Shaun Roster

A well deserved win in the ILCA6s by Ben Elvin, combined with 2nd place by Ross Harvey and Nick Harrison 6th place in the ILCA7s was enough for Stokes Bay SC to win the club trophy against rivals Queen Mary SC.

A big thank you to Stokes Bay SC, Tim Pearce and all the volunteers from the club helped make everything go smoothly, particularly anyone who helped with trollies and pulling boats up that lovely beach! The Race Committee, all the mark layers and on-the-water volunteers were superb. UKLA's Ellie and Alison deserve a medal each for pulling the whole thing together.

The next event of UKLA is the Open National Championships just along the coast at Hayling Island 17th to 22nd July - with 250 entries this is likely to be bigger than last year's 50th.

Once again our sponsors provided a fantastic range of great prizes - a special mention goes to Wildwind holidays who provided a free holiday. The lucky winner was Nick VanTienen. Mike Kinnear and Ross Harvey won very posh Ovington foil bags.

ILCA 6 Masters Nationals at Stokes Bay - photo © Shaun Roster

Overall Results:

ILCA 7 Masters Nationals at Stokes Bay - photo © Shaun Roster