ILCA Open at Bough Beech Sailing Club
by Dave Robinson 10 Jun 2023 20:57 BST
27 May 2023
A brilliantly sunny champagne sailing day greeted a mixed fleet of 10 ILCA 7 and 9 ILCA 6 sailors, including visitors and first timers to the race meet. Characteristically for Bough Beech, the wind was interesting, dropping to less than 5kts at times and gusting to over 20kts at other points of the race. Couple this with the northwesterly direction rolling over the North Downs and ensuing 50 degrees wind shifts, one could have been forgiven for spilling a drop or two of said champagne!
Class Captain, Pete Young, welcomed the fleet in his usual relaxed and informative style. Focus for the day to have fun, be fair on the water and be kind to newbies! Pete seemed most proud however of his organisation of the post-race activities! He introduced Richard Southern who was kind enough to be race officer for the day. A sausage course with windward spreader and both classes sharing a start was the order of the day. Warnings were given about the use of the I flag (round the ends) and U flags (DSQ in last minute if over the line) should the fleet start to misbehave.
Most of the fleet were well behaved at the start of race one. The author did accidentally nudge a visitor from Weir Wood, Dave Goddard, with an ill-judged tack off the start line, not helping either start their day (apology beer still owed!). David Giles had a cracking start to the day winning race 1 in the ILCA 7, despite having flown in from New Zealand the day before especially for the event. Toby Ayre took line honours in the ILCA 6 first race with a tight pack following, and Sam Boniface and Olly Mayo just behind. Then the bad behaviour started with a mischievous attack on the race organiser which sent Pete swimming. Perhaps Mr Goddard was still a little upset about the start line incident?
Pete had barely rung his gloves out when Race 2 saw Olly (14) from Gurnard Sailing Club challenging some much more experienced (and grey!) competitors. A good win and clearly one to keep an eye on for the future. With jet lag now settling in, David Giles was unable to get a second win in the ILCA 7 leaving that to Dave Binding from Weir Wood. The fleet settling in nicely at this point with all parties united in their confusion at what the fickle wind was going to do next.
Race 3 was where the fleet had a telling off. In difficult starting conditions with a massively biased pin end, half the fleet wanted one space, with the rest of the fleet already turning back in anticipation of the resulting general recall. The feet saw an I flag start for the second attempt bringing everyone back in check, and giving Elliot Marks in an ILCA 7 the opportunity for a port flyer. Never looking back, Elliot lead from start to finish with Dave Goddard behind him now nicely back up to speed. The ILCA 6 fleet also had a change in lead boats. Sam Boniface and Dave Robinson match raced for a couple of laps (with Pete deciding to keep a close eye on the ILCA 6 fleet for some reason). Sam applied just enough pressure on Dave in an incident reminiscent of the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cp final race between Denis Connor and Chris Dickenson. Dave leading to the leeward mark, gybed too close in a gust and hit the mark. As he did his turns, the fleet sailed past him led by Sam who went on to bag a well deserved win in the ILCA 6.
The final race saw another clean start with the wind as challenging as ever. The start saw big shifts and gusts causing more than one accidental tack! Local legends now took the stage in the ILCA 7 with a tight race between Pete Young and Elliot Marks. Pete ended up with a consolation win and Elliot hot on his heels. In the ILCA 6 Olly gained another well-deserved win with a very consistent outing from Toby just behind him.
Olly Mayo was victorious in the ILCA 6 fleet. Equal on points with Toby, Olly's two bullets clinched the win. Amazing results too from Sam in third. If ILCA 6 was close, ILCA 7 was even closer! A number of the fleet shared the top of the leader board with no one person taking more than one win over a day of great competition and ridiculously tight results. Elliot's steady start and stunning comeback meant for the third year running he exerted his dominance, building on his RS600 open victory earlier this year. David Giles a great second and well worth the trip over. Dave Binding was steady in third. Pete (4th, only 3 points behind the leader) was only too happy to hand the trophy to Elliot without any gritted teeth at all. We also hope to see first time open meeting racers Charlotte Cunliffe and Anne-Marie George back again very soon for more racing.
Overall, this was an absolutely cracking day on the water. Sun all day, enough wind (most of the time), a very fair Race Officer in Richard, and great support from the BBSC committee, especially Guy and Debbie Marks. With special thanks to our unused Protest Officer Simon Winn, and of course to Pete for making today happen. Hope you've dried out now mate...