Noble Marine / Vaikobi UKLA Qualifier 4 at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy

Noble Marine / Vaikobi UKLA Qualifier 4 at the WPNSA © Giles Smith

Noble Marine / Vaikobi UKLA Qualifier 4 at the WPNSA © Giles Smith

It was with great respect for the Queen and the Royal family that the competitors arrived at Weymouth on Saturday morning. Each boat flew a black ribbon from their mast heads in memory of the Queen.

After a break from National racing since the ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island, the first of the autumn Qualifiers got under way in Weymouth with two days of racing for a 175 ILCAs. The weekend also saw the annual Barts Bash. Here, Samson Cross reports on the 60 boat ILCA 4 fleet.

Sixty aspiring young sailors who have just moved into the class from Teras, Toppers, Oppies and some experienced ILCA 4 sailors merged at Weymouth for a ILCA 4 qualifier.

On day one we experienced a west to south westerly inside the harbour wall with big shifts intertwined with little infrequent ones. Just before the start of race 1 there was a huge shift to port, leading to the port end being immensely favourable, this led to around 5 people doing a port flyer including Ben Anderson who took the race win well done him.

Race 2 saw the wind shifting with the pressure, Leo Yates mastered these and came out on top with the race win closely followed by Cameron Bignold-Kyles. Race 3 saw some of the older more experienced sailors coming back into the mix, Henry Keegan, Noah Evans and Nathan Russel took the podium respectively.

The end of day one saw many sailors ready and raring for a tough day's sailing hoping for better results the next day, the pressure was on.

On day two we experienced as forecasted 8-13 knots with a 90-degree shift to the south as we were launching. Because of this the sea state outside of the harbour was not as big as usual so we were expecting the chop to build up throughout the day while the wind staying pretty constant and level across the course.

Race one saw Archie Munro-Price taking the lead. The top 3 were all now competing for pole position. Aside from the podium competition everyone fought hard to gain just that extra boat length - no matter were you were in the fleet everyone had a great weekend. As the sailors made their way back to shore the dolphins arrived to lift the spirits of those who were downhearted and another great event was completed.

Final results were 1st Archie Munro-Price (13 points), 2nd Leo Yates (14) and 3rd Cameron Bignold-Kyles (20). Top Girl was 7th Erin Pank (46 points) then 11th Ciara Murphy (59 points) and finally 16th Kaitlyn Wyatt (77 points).

A special thank you to the Andrew Simpson Foundation and Lindsay Porter who help provide some excellent photos. Also our terrific sponsors, Noble Marine and Vaikobi who support the class so loyally:

• Noble Marine has crafted a very competitive and excellent insurance product for all Laser/ILCA sailors. A very personal service and an extremely useful website help make this the 'go to' company. www.noblemarine.co.uk

• Vaikobi - a brand born on the waters of Sydney Harbour, out of a passion for all ocean sports. Across the team, we paddle, Surfski, SUP, Wing Foil and Sail. www.vaikobi.com

The ILCA4 Fleet would like to thank everyone who made this great event happen.

Overall Results: