ILCAs in the Frostbite Series 2023/24 at Queen Mary Sailing Club - Week 7

Twenty ILCA 6 and 7 competitors lined up for races 13 and 14 of the Queen Mary Sailing Club Frostbite series in a mild but gusty southwesterly ranging from 12-20 knots. A great turnout considering several of the regulars are competing in the Masters Worlds in Adelaide.

In the first race, the fleet got away the first time. Marshall King won the pin start and headed left, earning a small lead at the first mark from Alex Davey and Tony Woods. Neil Peters, John Curran and Tim Crook were in hot pursuit, but the top three rounding order at the leeward remained the same. Marshall continued to keep a small but comfortable lead around the 4 laps, whilst Alex and Tony had a good battle for second, eventually won by Tony. The finishing order was Marshall, Tony and Alex.

The second race was similar, except a left shift at the start resulted in a few boats unable to lay the pin. First race winner Marshall King was one of these, but managed to gybe around and get away on the lifted port tack, and soon re-emerged near the leaders on the first beat. This time Neil Peters rounded first, closely followed by Simon Cavey, Marshall King and Tony Woods.

By the leeward mark, Neil was leading, closely followed by Marshall and these two had a good battle for the lead, with Marshall eventually finding a gust on the 2nd reach to nip over the top of Neil and grab the lead, which he held to the finish. David Surkov, fresh (?) back from the World Championships in Adelaide, had powered through into third position, but lost out to Tony Woods who found a gust in the final 50 metres of the race. Finishing positions: Marshall, Neil and Tony.

The key to the racing today seemed to be about staying on the lifts, hiking very hard upwind, and searching for the pressure lines downwind. The shifts were far from regular, so the temptation to tack too frequently had to be resisted, as some of the headers were very short. Downwind, one had to beware of gusts dropping in from above - they weren't always moving across the water so going high in the lulls wasn't always the right call.

Overall after 7 weekends, Tony Woods leads the series on 10 points net, followed by Guy Noble on 19 points.

Results can be found here.