ILCA Midlands and East Youth Series at Waveney & Oulton Broad Yacht Club

ILCA Midlands and East Youth Series concludes at Waveney & Oulton Broad YC © W&OBYC

Thrilling Finale

A superb summer of competitive youth racing reached its climax as Waveney and Oulton Broad Yacht Club (WOBYC) hosted the latest leg of the ILCA UK Rooster Regional Youth Series - Midlands & East Region. Incorporating the ILCA Open Grand Prix event alongside crucial points for the overall regional youth standings, the regatta brought together seasoned series regulars and rising local talent on Oulton Broad across the ILCA fleets.

The ILCA 4 fleet delivered a tightly contested and highly tactical three-race series, with consistency proving crucial in the light and shifting conditions. Emily Hooton emerged victorious overall, posting an impressive 1-3-3 scoreline to finish on just 7 points. Isobelle Johnson (WOBYC) enjoyed a close battle with local rival Will Key-Baston throughout the afternoon and responded to a fifth-place finish in Race 2 by winning the final race of the day, securing second place overall on 8 points.

Special recognition also goes to Isaac Thomas, who recently stepped up from the Optimist class and, in one of his first ILCA events, achieved an outstanding fourth-place finish overall.

In the ILCA 6 fleet, Nathan Clark delivered a dominant performance, recording a clean sweep of three race wins. Having only recently moved into the ILCA 6 fleet, Nate Sparrow produced a consistently strong results to finish second overall, closely followed by Harry Wemyss in third place with a scorecard of 4-3-2 (9 points).

ILCA 6 Results:

ILCA 4 Results:

Overall Regional Youth Series Standings

The event at WOBYC capped off which saw events at Rutland, NBYC and Draycote Water, a brilliant inaugural season for the combined East and Midlands regional youth circuit, generously sponsored by Rooster.

ILCA 4 Championship: Toby Turner (Draycote Academy) crowned a dominant season by taking top honors on the regional leaderboard with a perfect net score of 3 points (winning at Rutland, NBYC, and Draycote). Lucas Rooke (Grafham Water SC) finished 2nd overall through consistent attendance across the circuit, while Isobelle Johnson (WOBYC) and Faith Turner (Draycote Academy) claimed joint 3rd with equal points.

ILCA 6 Championship: Kieran Vanhoutte (Ely SC) showed exceptional form and dedication across every venue to secure the overall ILCA 6 Regional title with 7 points net. Sienna Beer (Benfleet YC) finished runner-up on 20 points, with Kit Lester (RHYC) taking a well-deserved 3rd place overall on 21 points.

It has been fantastic to compete at such a diverse range of venues across the Eastern region, each offering its own unique racing challenges and conditions. The standard of competition continues to rise, and it is a privilege to race against some of the country's best young sailors at these regional events.

Many of us have spent years progressing through the junior classes, and it is particularly rewarding to see sailors from the Topper, Optimist and Tera fleets making the transition into the ILCA class while continuing to represent their clubs at regional, national and even international level.

Special thanks go to the race committee, volunteers, and safety teams at WOBYC, as well as series coordinator Mark Turner and sponsor Rooster for making the series such an overwhelming success for youth sailing across the region and some generous spot prizes!

Overall Series Results - ILCA 4:

Overall Series Results - ILCA 6: