ILCA Grand Prix at Bowmoor Sailing Club

ILCA Grand Prix at Bowmoor © BSC

Twenty-one ILCAs turned out at Bowmoor Sailing Club on Saturday September 20th for their ILCA Grand Prix meeting. It counts towards both the Wessex Grand Prix series, which is sponsored by Performance Sailcraft Australia and Rooster Sailing, and for the Thames Valley series which is sponsored by Rooster Sailing.

Four races with two back-to-back before and after lunch were planned by Race Officer Phil Benn. The first race started in a force three which was close to some of the forecasts, which also suggested the southerly would build throughout the day culminating in 30 mph gusts. This had caused a few indecisions and last-minute rig changes in the run up to the start.

The heavier winds duly arrived after lunch but never quite reached the heights predicted. The whole fleet of 13 7s, 6 6s and 2 4s started each race together on a first pass the post basis.

In the 7s, John Ling from Bartley was quickly out of the blocks in the two morning races and, despite some competition from home sailor Pete Allsop, Paul Robinson from Datchet and John Lapes from Bristol Corinthian, put two bullets on the board before lunch. In the first race he was followed home by Pete, John Lapes and Paul. Paul managed second in the second race followed by Pete and John, which meant the race for second overall was very close.

The afternoon was a different story. Not only did the wind build but so did the competition.

The third race saw Pete win from John Ling with John Lapes third. Paul suffered from a minor setback with an uncharacteristic ninth. He was at the front end of the chasing pack with Neil Crosby in his 6 and Julian Barker but the three of them decided to sail part of the penultimate lap twice, forgetting which parallel beat they were on. Half the rest of the fleet followed them but those that didn't reaped the reward.

Pete now had a chance of winning overall if he could take the last race, but it was not to be as it was Paul who redeemed himself by winning race 4 from John Ling and John Lapes. Pete failed to finish but still took second overall behind John Ling with Paul third and John Lapes fourth.

In the ILCA 6s, Daniel Saddler from Whitefriars had a brilliant start in the first race and rounded the first mark in the leading group. He maintained his ILCA 6 lead for the first half of the race but home sailor Neil Crosby, after a mediocre start, slowly caught up, manged to overtake and then stay in front of Daniel to the finish with Nick Ryles from Wimbleball in third.

In the second race it was Neil who nailed the pin at the start and rounded in the leading group of 7s and held on to win from Daniel and Nick. The same thing happened in race 3 with Neil getting a very good start, and in the building wind, now competing more evenly with the 7s. However, he was involved in the decision to sail extra distance allowing Daniel to sail the course correctly and get the win from Neil and Nick.

Daniel didn't finish the last race leaving Neil to lead the 6s home and take the ILCA 6 competition overall from Daniel and Nick.

The two ILCA 4s battled it out with Jemima Ryles taking the honours from Nathan Cleminson with three wins to Nathan's one. In the last race Jemima put in a stunning performance in the now very frisky conditions which, if it had been a handicap, might well have challenged the leading 6s and 7s.

Overall Results: