ILCAs in the Frostbite Series 2023/24 at Queen Mary Sailing Club - Overall
by Queen Mary Sailing Club 4 Mar 2024 15:00 GMT
3 March 2024
A glassy stretch of water greeted the 15 or so very positive ILCA/Laser sailors only to be disappointed, if slightly relieved, with cancellation called at 11:30.
Not the end to a fantastic series we all wanted but this non racing day did give several sailors the opportunity to fiddle around, some even with their boats!
The Frostbite Series Overall
Tony Woods 1st, Guy Noble 2nd, Andrew Whittaker 3rd, Mike Pryer 4th, Marcus Bird 5th. With 53 sailors competing in a 20 race series with 10 races to count congratulation go to Tony for a great win having only one result outside the top 4.
Time to reflect on the series and what QM have achieved. When we say QM (concerning Lasers/ILCAs) of course what we mean is Tony Woods. Winner of this series and class captain. Over the last few years Tony has helped build an incredible ILCA/Laser fleet. A combination of gentle but enthusiastic encouragement has enabled average club sailors improve and become really very competitive and skilful racers albeit on flat water. QMSC have also upped their game to, putting on professionally organised high quality racing every weekend. So who is racing at QM?
Broadly there are 3 groups racing at QM (sorry if I missed out your name). Of course we have a clutch of International and National Champions who have raced different boats to a very high level including running Olympic campaigns. This group also includes sailors who will regularly be in the top 10 of National Masters events: Mark Lyttle, Orlando Gledhill, Marshall King, Michael Hicks, Chris Ellyatt, Roger O'Gorman, Neil Peters, Rupert Bedell and Tony Woods. When these guys are racing at QM it's hard getting into the top 10.
The next group is made up of some really excellent club sailors - often not sufficiently acknowledge, they have some brilliant skills that make them almost unbeatable in certain conditions. An example at QM is Marcus Bird. Marcus is a formidable light breeze puddle sailor. With a combination of technical ability and almost psychic understanding of the wind he is often 50/100 meters in front by the first mark. This is probably the biggest group hindered only by their lack of practice and covers the likes of Andrew Whittaker, once out in front almost impossible to catch, Steve Pears, Andy Omasta, Gary Bullock, Mike Pryer, Ben Sharp, Tom Nash, Richard Gray, Mike Bean, Dick Soderberg, Mark Sanken, Nick Pepper, Adrian Elwood, Matt Knight and several others who can all win.
Then the most interesting and a sizeable group - the big improvers, either potential winners or beginners. John Curran, Joza Cic, Simon Cavey, David Surkov, William MacDonald, David Casale, Mihail Yankov and Tim Crook, fiendish in 8-10 Knots, and many more are improving fast because they are prepared to travel to bigger regattas and train. The new members or relative beginners like Rafael Matarazzo (a big improver recently), Alessandro Versini, Alex Davey, Francesco Anchin and Granik Arkadu and others who have joined this fantastic group at QM have a great opportunity to improve their racing and are more than welcome. A quick mention here for the Greg City Academy boys who occasionally appear at QM. They are also improving all the time - it would be great se you more often.
Looking around at the clubs across the country it's rare to have 20+ ILCA fleets out racing on a Sunday during the winter. Now the weather is warming up QM would love it if more could join in the racing. So if you'd like to revive you're ILCA /Laser racing or if you'd like to develop your bigger fleet skills give QM a call. The Spring series starts next weekend. Some of the top guys are away so it's your chance to chalk up some good results.
Full series Results at www.queenmary.org.uk/racing/results-2/results-2024/frostbite-series-202324-results