ILCA UK Sailingfast National Open at Warsash Sailing Club - ILCA 7

Sailingfast ILCA UK National Open at Warsash © Lotte Johnson / www.lottejohnson.com

The first ILCA UK National Open event of the season took place at Warsash over the weekend of 14-15 March 2026. A competitive fleet of 32 ILCA 7 sailors took part. Parents and supporters were enjoying watching from the shore, through live tracking with TracTrac and live streaming from the media RIB!

The ILCA 7 fleet gathered at Warsash with great anticipation of tight racing in the first National Open.

Race 1 was held in a fickle breeze from the northwest. A large pin end bias distracted most of the fleet from the favourable right side of the course, housing less tide. After a tricky first beat where the tide played a large role, Archie Munro-Price and Ewan McAnally led to the windward. The outer loop made the fleet's job harder still with a considerably stronger tide. The right side was still favourable, and a tricky tide line positioned in the middle of the beat caused many place changes.

Despite these challenging conditions throughout, light wind specialist, Archie Munro-Price led start to finish, closely followed by Matteo Bertacchi from Italy and Arthur Farley.

Sailingfast ILCA UK National Open at Warsash - photo © Lotte Johnson / www.lottejohnson.com

Following an abandoned attempt for race 2, the wind shifted to a south-westerly and built to hiking conditions. This meant sailors had to rethink how the tide was impacting the racecourse. James Foster led the race at the top following a strong start. The order stayed relatively similar throughout the race as the max power conditions, meant that boat speed differences across the fleet were less significant. At the finish, James held his lead, again followed by Matteo and Alife Noel, who maximised his home advantage.

For race 3, Robin Phipps led a group from the pin end who successfully crossed the fleet following a heavy line sag. Despite this, James and Alistair Brown led to the windward after leading to the right. The cross tide on the downwind meant that the fleet could afford to sail the majority of the leg by the lee or gybe onto port. Unlike race 2, the positions changed considerably with a big left shift and pressure dominating the top of the second beat as the wind became less stable.

Once again, James took the win, followed by Hamish Collingridge and Matteo, capping off a very consistent day for him.

ILCA 7 winners - Sailingfast ILCA UK National Open at Warsash - photo © Megan Farrer Captures

Unfortunately, the building conditions for day 2 were unsuitable for racing. Overall, Matteo Bertacchi finished first, followed by James Foster and Alastair Brown in second and third. Next weekend, WPNSA is hosting the second national open with the forecast looks light.

A huge thank you to the race committee for delivering great racing on Saturday at a location that we have not been for some time! Unfortunately, the weather did not play ball on Sunday but we thank the team for considering every possible scenario before deciding not to race.

We thank our title sponsor Sailingfast the prizes this weekend.

Supported by: Noble Marine, Rooster, Ovington Boats and TracTrac UK.

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Sailingfast ILCA UK National Open at Warsash - photo © Lotte Johnson / www.lottejohnson.com

Overall Results: