ILCA 6 National Championship at Hayling Island Sailing Club - Overall

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island prize giving - ILCA 6 - 1st Daisy Collingridge, 2nd Matilda Nicholls, 3rd Ben Elvin © Georgie Altham

256 entries, of which 104 ILCA 6s turned up raring to go for the 2022 ILCA National Championships held at Hayling Island Sailing Club. With Hayling being a tidal venue, the forecast showing a range of wind strengths and directions on top of the looming heat wave the UK was set to experience, we were undoubtedly in for an exciting week of racing!

We got away with no delays on day 1 (Southeast Sailboats Day) with the wind settled in from the south-east at between 5-8knots. Both split flights got two races in. Despite Ben Elvin and Molly Sacker demonstrating impressive light wind speed work and tactics to take the first race wins of the day in their respective flights, it was William Pank who triumphed, scoring most consistently in two second places.

A big shoutout to newcomer Hazel McDonnell who scored a third and fourth placing her fifth overnight.

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham

The second day (Vaikobi Day) was always going to be a tricky one. Early Tuesday morning there was breeze from the south-east but the forecast had it dropping throughout the day and moving over to the south-west with a potential wind increase.

The race committee were determined to give it their best shot and although the conditions initially looked promising the wind rapidly decreased and we were left drifting around in scorching heat with minimal shade. The committee made a good decision to get us back ashore and unfortunately it was only until the evening the breeze began to build.

No racing on day 2 but the sailors enjoyed a great evening of beach games.

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham

The lack of racing the day before meant we were scheduled for up to four races on Wednesday (Sailingfast Day). In absolute glamour conditions all fleets headed to the race course eager and ready to go. 6 hours of racing later and its sufficient to say everyone had done an incredible job. The race committee rattled through the races.

It was Ben Elvin who produced the best score line of the day with 3,2,2,1 after some intense battles with Daisy Collingridge who found herself caught up with a group at the pin in the last race to score a BFD.

In the other ILCA 6 flight Matilda Nicholls and Ross Harvey put in some strong performances. The points at the top were extremely close. Everything was still to play for.

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham

Most sailors were grateful for the delay at the start of day 4 (Ovington boats Day) as we waited for the breeze to build and the prospect of hopefully a shorter day. Eventually around 7-10knots came in from the south and we were off once again. Daisy managed to score consistently with two firsts whilst in the other flight Matilda came away with two seconds.

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham

The pressure was on for day 5. The racing format of the week meant we were split into gold and silver fleets for the last day only. A shown by the results, this meant it was very challenging for any competitors to develop any meaningful points gap between themselves and others. Instead, only a handful of points separated the top five meaning anyone who bought their 'A' game could end up on top and become the ILCA 6 National Champion.

After a slight altercation with some thunder and lightning we got out onto the race course with enough time for the two planned races. Initially, the breeze was up at around 14-16knts and it was Ben Elvin who made his mark, sending it off the start line and extending around the race course to take the win.

The rest of the fleet participated in a game of snakes and ladders trying to get on top of the massive bands of pressure and sizeable wind shifts as well as the added variable of significant tide running with us upwind. In the end it was Jon Emmett who took second place in front of Daisy in third and Matilda in fourth.

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham

It was all going to come down to the last race. A significant left shift caused difficulty on an already pin biased line and Ben and Daisy were left playing catch up after both doing penalty turns. However, given the conditions of the day the race was far from over. Daisy managed to hook into a band on the right to lead around the windward with Ross Harvey and title contender Matilda Nicholls in hot pursuit.

With the wind dropping rapidly, gaps were starting to close up as boats behind managed to scoop up more pressure as they sailed downwind. Daisy just managed to hold onto the lead with Matilda finishing just behind followed by William Pank.

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham

Ben Elvin sailed an impressive week to come away in third overall, British Sailing Team member Matilda Nicholls finished second, and fellow teammate Daisy Collingridge completed the podium.

Sponsored by: Ovington boats, Sailingfast, Vaikobi, Southeastsailboats, Harken, Fenrnhurst books.

A special thank you to all the volunteers from UKLA and HISC on the off the water. The teams were dedicated, professional and enthusiastic and all the competitors whole heartedly thank you all.

Gold Fleet Results:

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham

Silver Fleet Results:

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham