Noble Marine Ovington UKLA Qualifier 5 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine Ovington UKLA Qualifier 5 at Hayling Island © Peter Hickson

The 191 ILCAs found themselves at Hayling Island for the fifth qualifier of the season. The rash vests confidently worn on Saturday did not return for Sunday in what were considerably colder conditions. This was not the only lesson of the weekend however, as the ILCA 6s were assembled on Sunday morning for a lesson on starting etiquette - more on this to follow.

Day 1

On Saturday morning the fleet of 89 ILCA6s was raring to go, buoyed by being first start for once and apparently absent-mindedly heeding the warnings of the race committee about the risks of general recalls. A slight delay whilst the wind tried to make up its mind and the first start of the day passed with an all clear. Immediately, the complications of the day were visible as the wind was super patchy and super shifty meaning that a few boats could take the pressure that never reached half of the fleet.

By the first mark Molly Sacker was clearly ahead of the chasing boats of Matilda Nicholls and Daisy Collingridge but a chaotic second beat with missed opportunities meant that the chasing group caught up and the race lead reshuffled, with the chasing groups closing in with some big right shifts. A great final leg finished race one with a top three of Daisy, Matilda and Molly.

A seemingly smooth transition between races was again slightly delayed, this time by the ILCA 4's finishing and then by the 6's recalled on a frankly outrageous attempt to be behind the line, (the tide really does push you fast!) but the second race was well under way into the chaotic upwind shifts.

Some of the fleets more experienced sailors got caught out by that first beat, hanging on for a right-hand shift that never arrived but Terry Hacker, Edwin Cross and Jack Graham-Troll showed their strengths by maintaining a great first beat and defending well into the second beat as others tried to climb back through. A great chase in the final downwind gave Daisy her second win of the day and an outstanding performance by Edwin Cross to take second, followed by Jack Graham-Troll.

Noble Marine Ovington UKLA Qualifier 5 at Hayling Island - photo © Peter Hickson

Race 3 has two versions. Version one was the sailor's perspective. Version two had the race committees' facts.

Version one: Sneaking in a start before the ILCA 4s finished and with a ripping tide heading up the course, the pressure was on to get the race away as not to delay the day further. The ILCA 6s crumbled in that pressure and sent it with everything we had, clearly over but no-one too concerned, so despite a few looks of people waiting for the general recall flag to appear the race went off seemingly with no issues. Another tricky first beat separated the fleet, and the day was finished with the 6s chuffed they were first up the beach!

Version two: The ILCA 6 fleet at 1min 30 to go was 30m over the line. The race committee was far from impressed and decided to instead try to record the 15 boats that were behind the line in order to BFD everyone else.

That evening after rumours of everyone being BFD, the Race Committee made the decision to throw out race three and re-run it the next morning. All ILCA 6s were also to attend the briefing.

After the ridiculousness of the start was drawn onto the whiteboard, the race officer then clarified that due to being unsure they had recorded all the boats behind the line, he would instead be black flagging the most prominent offenders who (in accordance with the rules around the black flag) were prohibited from racing the repeated race.

A dramatic revealing of the numbers was an entertainment for some, not for those on the board!

Noble Marine Ovington UKLA Qualifier 5 at Hayling Island - photo © Peter Hickson

Day 2 - Sunday

A bit more breeze at 9-12knts forecasted from a similar direction gave way to similar levels of unpredictability but Matilda Nicholls claimed the first followed by Jack Graham-Troll and Daisy Collingridge. With race four under way pretty quickly after the rest of the fleet re-joined from their detention and we got racing! Ben Elvin found his form and confidently took the win from Matilda Nicholls and Paige Caldecoat.

Despite the challenging conditions and various attacks from Max Hunt who stormed across from the pin end several times with a quiet confidence, Daisy and Matilda put on a great display of racing, particularly in the final race for Daisy to finish with two wins and Matilda two seconds. The thirds were claimed by Chloe Elvin and Molly Sacker respectively.

The ILCA 6 Fleet would like to thank all the volunteers who put on another great event hosted by HISC. A special thank you to Tim Hancock and the race committee for handling BFD-gate so well, and congrats to our top three: Daisy, Matilda and James Curtis.

Thanks also to our main weekend sponsors, Noble Marine and Ovington Boats 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. Ovington Boats are one of the biggest and best dinghy builders in the world and are now the official UK builders of ILCAs.

Daisy Collingridge wins Noble Marine Ovington UKLA Qualifier 5 at Hayling Island - photo © Peter Hickson

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