Rooster North ILCA UK circuit event at Pennine Sailing Club
by Colin Dengate 16 Jul 2025 07:13 BST
13 July 2025
Black flag for a restart - North ILCA UK circuit event at Pennine SC © Andrew Nixon
Ten visitors spanning from Carsington to West Kirby joined sixteen club members for the Pennine Sailing Club ILCA open, which also formed part of the ILCA UK North Grand Prix series. The 26-boat fleet was treated to four extremely close races in light and shifty conditions. Finding your way up the beat was critical. Catching the gusts on a reach or run would allow you to plane, allowing you to open a gap to boats behind or closing to those in front.
For race 1 the bulk of the fleet lined up next to the committee boat. Will Dyson and Colin Dengate went down to the pin end. Will was first onto port tack and crossed the whole fleet except Colin, who pushed left. This gave Colin a strong lead coming into an extremely shifty mark one. Will applied pressure onto Colin through lap one, closing the gap and on the second beat, Will got too windward of Colin coming into the top mark.
By the end of lap two, Colin was now under pressure from the chasing pack and an incorrect strategy call on the second beat allowed six boats to pass him. Alex Horsman broke from this group to try and close on Will but the gap was already too big. Critically the pack which had passed Colin contained two ILCA 6's of Kathryn Smith and Lewis Bacon. With under a minute separating boats, Lewis took the win on handicap and Kathryn was second.
This set up a pattern for the day and showed how light and shifty wind on a close racecourse is a great leveller between the ILCA 6 and ILCA 7.
Race 2 saw the introduction of a movable mark, to counter act an increasingly shifty wind. Local Peter Hallitt took control and slowly grew a gap from a chasing four boat pack. Getting the strategy correct on the beat was again critical. Missing or not acting on a shift quickly would mean boats close, ever crossing you or sailing over the top to windward.
By the end of the race, Pete had extended his lead to just over one minute and forty seconds, giving him the win on the water and handicap. The 6's of Alex and Kathryn took second and third to put them first and second overall going into the break for lunch.
Race 3 after lunch was run over a short windward-leeward course. As the laps were completed, the top half of the fleet had begun to lap the bottom half. Tim Keighley from West Riding showed his speed to open a gap and navigate the congested course, holding the chasing pair of Alex and Lewis. Alex sailing a 7, finished second on the water but was just short of the gap needed to beat Lewis on handicap. Only forty-four seconds separated the next six boats showing how close the racing was. Kathryn again showed great speed to beat the other 7's in this group.
However perhaps the happiest sailor was Tom Green from West Kirby, who's fifth on the water and sixth on handicap generated a huge smile on his face.
The final race switched back to a series of marks in the centre of the reservoir giving the sailors a mix of a beat, a run and a series of reaches. Tim Keighley and Will Dyson broke away but towards the end of the first lap started to sail to the wrong mark. Both noticed their mistake and raced to the correct one, converging with what had been the chasing pack of Alex, Lewis, Andy Fox and David Spedding.
This group remained separated by only seconds for the rest of the race with multiple place changes on each leg and lap. At the finish, the gap was only forty-four seconds from first to sixth place on the water. Will took line honours, but it was Alex and his super speed who came out on top per handicap. This reinforced Alex's overall victory for the event. Behind this group, Kathryn again showed great speed to take second place on handicap and second overall in the event.
From Pennine, a big thank you to all the visiting sailors and from the series to our sponsors including Rooster. The series now moves to West Kirby on 26th July.
Results:
1st Overall & 1st U18 - Lewis Bacon (Leigh and Lowton SC), ILCA 6
2nd Overall & 1st Female - Kathryn Smith (Pennine SC), ILCA 6
3rd Overall - Tim Keighley (West Riding SC), ILCA 7
1st U16 - Will Taylor (Delph SC), ILCA 6