ILCA Midlands GP at Trimpley Sailing Club

Trimpley SC hosted their annual ILCA Open Meeting on 4th September and OOD Keth Budden and his team worked very hard to set a challenging course for the home sailors and visitors alike to enjoy.

After a detailed briefing, 16 sailors set about preparing for the start. Early on George Panter (ILCA 7) from Ulley and Paul Powell (ILCA 7) from Blithfield got away cleanly leaving John Ling (ILCA 7 from Bartley) to battle hard to get through. By the time the downwind leg was completed, John had managed to stamp his mark on the fleet once again with his winning ways at Trimpley. The whole fleet had to work out the shifty conditions which lead to plenty of place changes. At the finish it was John who was well and truely home by a sizable distance, followed by Paul & George. Further down the fleet youth sailor Toby Gammond, who is 14 years old and sailing in his first ILCA event, showed why moving into the class earlier this summer was a good decision as he scored a creditable 6th place, whilst Matthew Chadderton also did very well but was unfortunately DSQ due to a technical issue of port/starboard buoy rounding. Guy Pearson, who sails at Looe (Southeast Cornwall) came along flexing his skills but was also DSQ along with Mike Homer (Midland SC). This opened the door for Andy Allan in his ILCA 6 to get into the top 5, as did Ian Davies sailing very well coming 4th.

ILCA Midlands GP at Trimpley - photo © Mike Stout

The fleet came ashore and were welcomed by a wonderful pasta bake that Pat, Jo and Leslie had prepared... simply delicious... Trimpley members are amazing as to how they come together on these occasions to make the open events so special.

Heading out for the two back-to-back races the blustery winds continued to prevail at around 15/18kts making it absolutely essential to get the beats right. Once again John played the shifts better than most of the fleet and lead from start to finish and won both races with substantial margins. Andy Allan read the shifts well both up and down wind finishing with an impressive 3rd & 2nd respectfully. Under pressure, George Panter needed to fight back and did so with consistent sailing scored 2nd & 3rd places. This left Paul, although finishing 3rd on the water, settling with two 4ths on handicap. John Dickinson was so unfortunate on the day by gaining a DSQ in race 1 and then in the last race was seen to be over the start line on the Race Officer's video! Even he couldn't believe it!

ILCA Midlands GP at Trimpley - photo © Mike Stout

Final round up of the day saw John Ling win for the eighth year in succession with three wins, Andy Allan came 2nd after having a tie breaker with George Panter from Ulley SC who took 3rd place overall. In 4th place, just a single point behind George, was Paul Powell. Toby Gammond chalked up a 5th place with some excellent sailing while Ian Davies took 6th and Guy Pearson 7th. Just behind this group came Matty Chadderton aged 15, showing a promising performance from Trimpley's youth squad. Mike Daiziel and Mike Homer each shared the same points overall, showing how very close fought event this was. Sarena Gammond took the next place while Phil Pimble was just ahead of Ben Sutton and Simon Yeoman, who each came in for cake at the prize-giving with smiles on their faces.

Thanks to all who attended from far and wide, 16 entries which made this year the 4th best attended Open during 2022 so far in the ILCA Midlands circuit.

Overall Results:

John Ling wins the ILCA Midlands GP at Trimpley - photo © Helen Chadderton