ILCA UK Sailingfast National Open at Warsash Sailing Club - ILCA 4

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 69 ILCA 4 sailors took part. Parents and supporters were enjoying watching from the shore, through live tracking with TracTracuk and live streaming from the media RIB!

Although I have sailed from the Hamble many times before, I had never been to Warsash SC, and I always enjoy going to new venues. With glorious sunshine and blue skies, we arrived at the club on Saturday morning to a hive of activity, with people busily rigging their boats and getting ready for the day's sailing.

The wind was light but looked like a stable 4-8 knots from the northwest, and with the normal Hamble tide running as quickly as ever, it was going to be an interesting day on the water.

In the first race of the day, the pin end felt like the place to be, but it was in deeper water and stronger tide. After starting in the middle to ensure a clean getaway, I headed out to the right along with the majority of the fleet to try and get up-tide of the mark. I made the mistake of allowing myself to get tempted out to the left, with the plan to lee-bow the tide as I came to the top mark. This didn't work, and I suffered a big loss — I wasn't going to do that again!

With a strong right-to-left tide, as the fleet condensed at the top of the course the wind became really confused, and the effect of the tide really started to take its toll with a number of people getting caught up trying to get around the top mark. Some sailors made big gains by opting to keep out of trouble. Sam Dence made a spectacular recovery, making up a lot of places coming in from the right. It was, however, Noah Mathers who snuck around the windward mark first, with Harry Brown in second and Jasper Jenkinson just behind in third. Fraser Hakes (4th) and Jai Mutreja rounded out the top five.

Normal jostling and place-changing was the order of the day on the reach before the fleet headed downwind. The right-to-left tide was still making its presence felt, and a lot of us got swept away from the rhumb line, but those who didn't made valuable gains. Noah managed to hold onto the lead, opting to take the right-hand downwind gate and leading the pack back upwind. The wind had decreased quite a lot at this stage, so getting out of as much of the tide as possible was the key objective. Jasper got this leg spot on and took the lead and with the race shortened finishing at the windward mark, took the win with Harry second and Thomas Knight third.

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

Race 2 got under way but was subsequently abandoned due to a 50-degree wind shift. The race management team worked their magic and got racing back under way as quickly as they could.

When we eventually got away for the second time, the majority of the fleet headed out to the right of the course. Noah was again at the front of the fleet, showing fast pace. Sam Mason overtook Noah towards the top of the first beat, and the usual suspects, Toby and Alex, were also in contention. Ruby Coster had a great first beat and was looking really strong coming in from the left, managing to round in ninth. Sam Mason rounded first, a few boat lengths ahead of Alex in second, with Toby third. The top three remained unchanged on the reach and run.

At the leeward gate, Sam and Alex rounded the left gate, but Toby went right, having clearly seen something on the left of the course that he liked. It looked as though Toby was taking the lead, but as they reached the top mark Sam came in from the right, leading the pack. Harry Dence had gained on the final beat and was now in third. Sam held the lead to the finish, and despite a really good tussle, Alex held on to second with Harry third.

With a sea breeze of 10-15 knots having built and a weaker tide, the final race was going to be a pure boatspeed race. Another pretty clean start saw the fleet get away, and with less tide the boats were more evenly spread across the course. At mark one, Toby led the fleet with Alex Stainton second and me in third, with a small gap back to fourth. Toby started to pull away on the reach and, by the time he hit the leeward gate, he had built a small cushion on Alex and me.

Toby did a great job of protecting his lead up the final beat and had extended it further. Alex and I were having a good tussle when Harry Dence caught us up. I hit the windward mark and had to do a spin — an opening that Harry pounced on, moving into the top three. Toby was gone in the distance and took the win comfortably.

On the final run, Harry moved up to second, overtaking Alex by the narrowest of margins. The three of us were neck and neck coming into the final leeward mark. Harry held on to second place and rounded the final mark about 10 metres ahead of Alex, who rounded third, with me in fourth. On the final reach, I managed to get a big gust and sail over the top of Alex to take third. It was a great race with lots of place changes, which made it great fun.

Pasta was served at the club, which was most welcome after a long day on the water, and people retired from the club shortly after. As for me, I took the opportunity to get an early night.

ILCA 4 winners (boys and overall) - Sailingfast ILCA UK National Open at Warsash - photo © Megan Farrer Captures

The forecast for Sunday had always looked a little ominous. The sailors arrived raring to go but were waiting for a decision from the race officer. A short while later, the news we didn't want to hear broke: racing had been cancelled for the day. While disappointing, it was clearly a sensible decision taken by the whole race management committee.

Congratulations to all the sailors who took part — you made it a great event. Well done to the podium three: Sam Dence (1st), Sam Mason (2nd) and Alex Stainton (3rd), to Ruby for being first girl with Philippa Knights second and Isabella Deas third. As for me, this was my first National ILCA event and I absolutely loved it and finishing 5th overall was the icing on the cake. I can't wait to do it all again next week in Weymouth.

Thank you to all the organisers and to Warsash Sailing Club for making this such a success.

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 for prizes this weekend.

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

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Overall Results: