UKLA National Championships at the WPNSA - Standard ILCA6 Fleet day 1
by Hannah Snellgrove 28 Aug 2020 12:52 BST
27-29 August 2020
Portland is well known for regularly having four seasons in a few hours, let alone a day, and that certainly proved to be the case on day one for the three-day ILCA6/Radial Nationals.
The fleet rigged in sunshine, launched in drizzle and a light southerly breeze, and ended race three in full blown torrential downpour and "borderline scary" wind speeds, wishing they had donned an extra few layers of kit.
With the fleet split into two flights for the first two days of racing, there was a moderate southerly breeze for the yellow flight's second attempt at getting off the line. The unusual wind direction - straight off of Portland Bill - made for some tricky strategic decisions. There were bands of pressure coming down the left hand side of the course, and the successful sailors managed to link these up with the shifts - and it only got shiftier and patchier the further up the course as you progressed into the wind shadow of 'the rock'.
In the yellow flight it was Finley Dickinson who won the pin and rounded the top mark first with a clear lead, with Stokes Bay's Chloe Barr second. British Sailing Team members Ali Young and Matilda Nicholls overtook Barr downwind to finalise the podium positions for the race.
In the red flight Hannah Snellgrove started just above the pin and managed to tack across "in her own personal gust" (the words of Ben Elvin) to round the top mark first with a sizeable lead that proved insurmountable. Elvin's downwind speed elevated him into second position down the first run, and he played the shifts up the left hand side of the second upwind to maintain his placing with Daisy Collingridge playing the shifts up the middle of the course to move up into third.
The wind started picking up in the second race of the day, but was to prove no less patchy and shifty. A good start at the committee boat end of the line for Young saw her in control to win the yellow flight race two from multiple National Champion Jon Emmett and Nicholls rounding out the top three.
A big right shift with pressure off the line for the red flight threw some new names into the mix, with the sailors quite bunched together at the top mark and the shifty conditions causing some close crosses and nearly some catastrophic capsizes to windward. Collingridge and Elvin got away and planing onto the downwind, and separated at the gate with Elvin electing to tack and cover Collingridge over on the right. This enable Arthur Farley and Snellgrove to escape to the left and a huge left shift gave them the overtake on the previous two leaders, with Collingridge finishing in third.
With the wind speed mounting up, the key was getting over the chop and minimising manoeuvres for race three. The left-hand side came in for both flights but there were some shifts you could take to get back across from the right. Dickinson was first to the top mark for the yellow flight but was overtaken by Young on the downwind. Kai Wolgram finished in third. In the red flight Snellgrove rounded the top mark first and held her position on the downwind, but Farley's upwind pace proved superior and he pulled away to take his second bullet of the day from Snellgrove and Elvin.
Results after Day 1: (top three, 3 races)
1. Ali Young, 4pts
2. Hannah Snellgrove, 5pts
3. Arthur Farley, 8pts
Women
1. Ali Young, 4pts
2. Hannah Snellgrove, 5pts
3. Daisy Collingridge, 12pts
Men
1. Arthur Farley, 8pts
2. Finley Dickinson, 8pts
3. Ben Elvin, 9pts
Full results so far can be found here.
Day 1 Interviews:
Hannah Snellgrove
Ben Elvin