UKLA Open & National ILCA Championships 2023 at Hayling Island Sailing Club - Days 1 & 2
by UKLA 22 Aug 2023 11:40 BST
20-25 August 2023
UKLA Open & National ILCA Championships 2023 at Hayling Island © Georgie Altham /
www.facebook.com/galthamphotography
Sunday 20th August saw the ILCA Open & National Championships get off to a great start - PropVerse and Harken were the days sponsors and the race clinic was taken by the great Steve Cockerill on Regatta preparation.
With the ILCA 4s and 7s racing in Bracklesham Bay and the the ILCA 6s in Hayling Bay, the fleets made their way out to the start. Chimnet reported 11 knts 227 degrees at 13:00 and although this applied to the Bracklesham bay race area Hayling Bay had less, with a 30 degrees righty coming in mid afternoon. The strong tide made starting tricky pushing boats over the line. By the end of the day so many general re-calls kept the ILCA6s on the water until early evening.
The ILCA4s and 7s had more stable conditions. Sebastian Kempe had an almost perfect day with a 2 and 1, Stefan Elliott-Shircore 1 place behind, and James Foster a 2 and 3. In the ILCA4s it was Jaspar Nielsen 1st, Will Hakes 2nd and Leo Yates 3rd.
Eventually the ILCA6 fleets arrived back. The 112 boats were split into two fleets so points were close but Ben Elvin scored 2 bullets to make him top dog, a great performance by Josh Lyttle to take 2nd and Fred Salter 3rd.
(A full list of all the daily trophy winners will be available on the UKLA website after the event finishes.)
PropVerse provided 250 pizzas for everyone and Harken provided the top prizes for the evening prize draw. This pulled in the crowd - more than 200 people gathered in the Sponsors Hub and the prizes were duly drawn and handed out.
Monday 21st was Sailingfast day. Duncan and Emma's first gift was to deposit small gifts under the covers of many boats during the night - nice treat as you rig! Wind conditions were not great so the AP went up - this gave competitors a chance to attend James Forster very informative race clinic on 'settings'. After a short delay and switching Bays, ILCA6s in Bracklesham and ILCA4s and 7s in Hayling, we were off.
Chimnet reported at 13:00 - 5 knots at 225 degrees and by 15:00 up to 14 knots. So a difficult and tedious first race for all and a reasonable second race. As competitors returned their tally they received an event tee shirt from Sailingfast.
By the close of the day the leader boards had a few changes. The Inca 6s - Ben Elvin 1st, John Emmett 2nd, Josh Lyttle 3rd. The ILCA4s - Leo Yates 1st, Jaspar Nielsen 2nd and Archie Munro-Price 3rd. The ILCA7s - Stefan Elliott-Shircore 1st, Sebastian Kempe 2nd and James Foster 3rd.
However further down there were some stand out performances - we need to acknowledge these as they are highly prized by these individuals... Harriet George a 13th in R3, Millie Lewis 17th in R3 (after a BFD and a UFD that's a good come back), Bob draper GGM 27th in R2, Andy Allan 27th in R1, Spirit Anderson 4th !!! in R3, James Curtis 4th in R3, Josh Morgan 2nd in R3, Jack Hopkins 3rd in R4, Edward Roberts Shaw 12th in R2, Sara Goujon 27th in R2 and Toby Waggett a 6th in R2.
Mondays Prize giving and prize draw was attracted another 200 plus crowd (what's going on?). Again the sponsor supplied loads of great prizes all capped off with two ILCA sails for two very lucky ILCA sailors. Finally the evening was rounded off with some riotous karaoke to a live band Random Cow.
Thanks to all the volunteers that are making this another fabulous Nationals.
Thank you sponsors! PropVerse + Harken Sunday, Sailingfast Monday, Rooster Tuesday, Southeast sailboats + Noble Marine Wednesday, Ovington Boats Thursday, Final day Friday.
Results: ilca.uk/ukla-results-2023