Winter Arrives for the Freshwater Champs

Results

As forecast, a fresh, gusty, wet, shifty and COLD breeze greeted the competitors on both days of the Freshwater Champs at Lake Pupuke. This contributed to a smaller than usual fleet, with 23 hardy souls taking to the water over the weekend. In spite of the cold many found the gusty conditions interesting, most adding one or more dips in the lake at some stage for good measure. There was a good youth turnout in the ILCA 6 fleet while the majority of the ILCA 7's were Masters.

There were dominant performances in both the ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 fleets.

In the ILCA 6 Caleb Armit, who leave for the World Youth Champs shortly, won 6 out of 7, although in several races the margins at the finish were extremely close. There was a very close battle for second, with ex Olympic Women's rep, now super coach, Sara Winther having a great second day to just get the better of Matthew Rist (Y) from Manly. Third Youth and 4th overall Dylan Forsyth was extremely consistent and right on the heels of the leading bunch, as was second placed Woman, Olivia Christie. Maddie Rist was the leading youth girl, beating Sophia Morgan by a single point. Mike Pascoe was the only ILCA 6 Master to brave the conditions, and was notable for his consistency. I think he capsized in just about every race!

In the ILCA 7's leading U21 sailor Thomas Mulcahy won all but one race, his only hiccup being the result of a quick dip with an unexpected gust on the race 2 final downwind. He clearly had the measure of the Masters fleet in the conditions, with the Masters being led by Nick Page (GGM) in second overall with the consistent Ian Gladwell (GM) and Ken Atchison (M) 3rd and 4th overall. The weekend was completed nicely with legendary commodore John Dowsett's prizegiving speech, plenty of prizes for all and a good Pupuke BBQ to warm everyone up.

Nick Page - 23 May 2022

Caleb Armit

Sara Winther

Thomas Mulcahy

Nick Page

Ken Atchison

Ian Gladwell

Mike Pasco