Noble Marine / Ovington Boats UKLA ILCA7 Qualifier 1 at Brightlingsea Sailing Club

Noble Marine /Ovington Boats UKLA ILCA7 Qualifier at Brightlingsea © Lotte Johnson / www.lottejohnson.com

Noble Marine /Ovington Boats UKLA ILCA7 Qualifier at Brightlingsea © Lotte Johnson / www.lottejohnson.com

Seventeen ILCA7s made the trip to Brightlingsea SC for the Noble Marine / Ovington Boats UKLA Qualifier.

With numbers slightly down, due to a few of the big players in the fleet resting the legs after a winter of World and European championships, this gave a great opportunity for the young up and coming talent of the class to showcase their skills at the front of the fleet and get a solid counter on the overall series table. Pushing those young guns were 9 Masters - a mark of just how diverse, enthusiastic and able the National ILCA7 fleet is.

The weekend started with the race team putting the 17 salty sea dogs under postponement ashore whilst they waited for a lapse in the wind which was forecast to drop off slightly as the day went on.

The race team saw their opening just after midday, the launch horn blared and the ILCA 6 & 7 surged forward to the race course. There was a southerly wind of 15-20 knots on the course. The race team decide to set up shop slightly closer to the shore than the usual mile and a half sail out to the normal Brightlingsea racing area. This was music to everyone's ears as it was very nippy and the heavens were open and it would have been an upwind slog all the way.

Race 1

The 17 boats lined up on what felt like a huge start line, the course was set as a windward leeward to keep things narrow as we were racing close to the main channel of estuary.

The fleet got away cleanly apart from Rob Holmes who entered course side within a minute of the start heading upwind to set his controls without enough time to get round the end before the one minute gun.

The fleet where jockeying for position up the first beat but it was Christopher Marsh who emerged first at the top mark showing good upwind pace and clean tactics with Rob Holmes next totally oblivious that he had UFD on the scoreboard in third was Luke Anstey.

Downwind Luke showed fine downwind speed skipping past holmes and Marsh to the be leading at mark 2. Luke held onto his lead and with a fine last down wind Oliver Allen Wilcox took second and Marsh third.

Noble Marine /Ovington Boats UKLA ILCA7 Qualifier at Brightlingsea - photo © Lotte Johnson / www.lottejohnson.com

Race 2

The starting sequence for race 2 was sharply followed after the last ILCA 6 trotted through the finish. It was similar conditions to race one, if anything a slight lesser breeze, beautiful surfing waves rolling in from Mersey island.

Once again the 7s were away clean showing the 6s how it should be done.

A close fought first upwind leg ended in Holmes rounding the windward mark first closely followed by Luke Anstey second and Marsh closely up the chuff in third, Again it was Anstey boat that danced across the waves showcasing good downwind pace to take the lead off Holmes at mark 2 and Chris Marsh closely behind Holmes.

Noble Marine /Ovington Boats UKLA ILCA7 Qualifier at Brightlingsea - photo © Lotte Johnson / www.lottejohnson.com

The final up wind saw Marsh and Holmes close the gap of Anstey to leave a close battle for the top three places on the next leg. At the leeward mark the same three met in the three boat lengths after a close fought downwind, Anstey managed to get the controlling position of inside boat with Marsh outside and Holmes on the hip. On the final reach Holmes pushed high and managed to get on a wave to get over the top and in front of Anstey and the talented youngster Marsh to take the win. Second was Christopher Marsh followed by the overall event winner Luke Anstey in third, closely flowed by Oliver Allen Wilcox coming 4th.

With the forecast for the Sunday looking very light across the whole country the event organisers waited ashore in hope of some wind However the wind gods decided not to play ball and the organisers made the decision, nice and early, that no further racing would take place. With only 2 races sailed it was still a great well organised event the conditions on Saturday more than made up for the no sailing on Sunday.

The UKLA Qualifier series is kindly sponsored by Noble Marine, Ovington Boats, Sailingfast and Rooster. In Qualifier 1 Noble Marine and Ovington supplied the prizes which were gratefully received by all the sailors.

A special thank you goes out to all the volunteers, RO and race team who helped make this a great start to the season. And thanks to all those at Brightlingsea Sailing club for hosting.

Overall Results: