New Zealand ILCA (Laser) Nationals - Day 4

Final Results

Photos on LiveSailDie

Champions Crowned

Two races today for all fleets completed a very successful contest, with all races completed on schedule. Today the fleet had the lightest breezes of the series, with a weak NE sea breeze which never really got much over 5 knots and consequently pretty flat water. The breeze just held in long enough for all fleets to complete the two races, with the final fleet having to have their course for the second race shortened before the breeze completely disappeared.

In the ILCA 6 Open fleet the women reigned supreme, with a women's trifecta at the head of the 60 boat fleet. 

Annabel Rennie-Younger, who was tied for the lead going into todays races, had a consistent day to wrap up the title by 9 points. Greta Pilkington, who had a stellar day with two bullets, jump up to second overall in the rankings, while Olivia Christie, who was joint overnight leader, struggled a bit with the light conditions and had a couple of tougher races to end up third overall. 

Continuing the strong women's showing in the large fleet, Naomi Ferrissey wrapped up the youth girls title with two solid races, ending up an extremely creditable 11th in the overall fleet. Manly's Maddie Rist was second youth girl ahead of Daniella Wooldridge. In the youth boys George Pilkington held on to take the title ahead of a fast finishing Louis Poletti, who's third and forth places today were the second best on aggregate in the fleet behind Greta. George finished forth overall and Louis sixth, split by leading male open sailor George Lane in fifth.  Ethan Fong was third youth boy just a point behind Louie.

In the 40 boat ILCA 7 fleet the title was there for the taking for Luke Deegan after his exceptional day yesterday and he made no mistakes, with two top 4 placings seeing him finish 12 points clear at the top of the table to convincingly take the title. He was followed by a pair of U21 sailors, both showing real talent in their first season in the ILCA 7. Caleb Armit had two good races today to finish a clear second ahead of Dylan Forsyth in third. Forth overall and thus winner of the ILCA 7 Masters title was Scott Leith, who's first and third today was only bettered by fifth placed Luke Cashmore, who was first and second in todays races, but having to carry an OCS from earlier in the regatta prevented him having a chance of taking the title.

Dean Barker continued his impressive return to the ILCA fleet today, ending up second overall in the Masters to Scott, although only just as he finished tied on points with top GM and last years Masters title holder Andrew Dellabarca. Top AM was Tim Pitchaithly, just 4 points back from Dean and Andrew. He was closely followed by Cris Brodie who was second in the Grand Masters while Barry Cutfield was top GGM.

In the 25 strong Radial Masters fleet Phil Wild had the series wrapped up with a race to spare, winning todays first race and then having the luxury of sitting out the last race. Top AM Josh Edmonds was second overall ahead of Master's David Johnson and Ed Tam in third and forth overall. GM Werner Hennig finished the series on a high, winning the final race to lead the Grand Masters division and secure 5th overall ahead of fellow GM and Hamilton club mate Scott McDougall in 6th. GGM Pete Thomas was a creditable 8th overall while Georgina Wooldridge had a couple of solid races to wrap up the women' masters title from Helen Spencer and Kirsty MacDonald.

So another highly successful ILCA nationals has seen a record ILCA 6 youth turnout, new champions in almost every division, a really strong women fleet and most importantly lots of happy faces after 10 great races. Thanks to Murrays Bay for being a wonderful host for the contest and especially to race officer Dave West, who delivered us great races in spite of the often challenging conditions. We look forward to next years contest in Napier and a continuation of the 50 years of Laser/ILCA tradition of exceptional quality one design racing.

Nick Page
ILCA.nz

New Zealand ILCA (Laser) Nationals - Day 3

 

Experience to the fore

 

Another really successful day, with all scheduled races completed. The weather for day 3 of the NZ ILCA Nationals pretty much followed the forecast, with the mornings 10 knot SW breeze shifting to the S soon after the start of racing and staying there for the afternoon, and unlike yesterday it never got much over 10 knots. The breeze was again patchy and fairly shifty all day, providing plenty of challenges for the fleets. The wind against the incoming tide made the starts tricky, and general recalls, black flags and OCS's featured quite frequently in todays results. 

 

If day 3 is traditionally "moving day" then Luke Deegan from Pupuke sure took it to heart and moved. He simply dominated the ILCA 7 fleet today with 3 bullets, and takes a solid 10 point lead into tomorrows final two scheduled races. Overnight leader Luke Cashmore was one to suffer starting line blues, with 2 OCS's in the 3 races unfortunately dropping him out of title contention. It was a good day for the U21 sailors, with Caleb Armit and Dylan Forsyth having really solid days to lie second and third overall and Matthew Rist having top 4 results in races 7 and 8. Caleb and Dylan have opened up a good points gap over top Master Scott Leith, who is forth overall. Leading AM Tim Pitcaithly is eighth overall while leading GM Andrew Dellabarca and second placed master Dean Barkers also had solid days today, each with three consistent top performances to lie tenth and eleventh overall. Nick Page narrowly held onto the lead in the GGM's.

 

While holding onto a dominant lead in the ILCA 6 Masters Phil Wild finally showed he is not infallible, with second overall Josh Edmonds (A)  taking the bullet in the last race today. Master David Johnson from Tauranga also has a great day to move to third overall, opening up a nice points margin on fourth placed Ed Tam. Werner Hennig remains the leading GM. In the Women's Masters Georgina Wooldridge continues to lead despite the efforts of  second placed Helen Spencer from Tauranga, who reportedly lost focus in the last race while she focused on her key issue for the day, getting the correct beach trolley when she got back to the beach!

 

Starts proved a major challenge for the large 60 boats ILCA 6 Open fleet, with several general recalls and an unfortunate crop of OCS's and Black flags. Cool heads prevailed however and experienced Women Olivia Christie and Annabelle Rennie-Younger stamped their authority on the fleet, both recording 3 top results to be tied on point at the top of the fleet. They are followed in third overall by Open sailor George Lane, another to deliver consistently strong results in all todays races. After sailing exceptionally well on the first two days George Pilkington found todays condition more challenging and while he continue to be the leading Youth Boy he now sits 4th overall. It was a similar story for Ethan Fong, who remains second in the Youth Boys while Louie Poletti from Picton was able to move up to third Youth boy courtesy of 3 good results today. In the Youth Girls Naomi Ferrissey from host club Murray Bay nailed it again today and sits twelfth overall. She takes a big points advantage into the final day over Maddie Rist and Daniella Wooldridge.

 

The weather models disagree on what we might get tomorrow, but it look light and challenging from whatever direction we end up with. We will all be hoping to get the last 2 scheduled races in before the 3:30 cutoff to round out a highly successful event.

 

Nick Page

ILCA.nz

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A BIG day on the water

Today was BIG. 3 races, big shifts, big gusts, big waves, big opportunities, big winners; it was a tough but rewarding day at Murrays Bay for day 2 of the ILCA Nationals.

 

Sailors arriving in the boat park were greeted with a light SW breeze and all looked set for a nice day on the water, and so it proved to be, although I suspect significantly more challenging that many expected as they headed out from the beach! By the 1pm start time for the first of todays 3 races the wind had freshened to about 8-10 knots, but it was shifting significantly from S to SW and there were big holes in the breeze. These conditions continued throughout the first race and into the second, but as the second race progressed the wind freshened significantly to around 15-18 knots, still very shifty and with occasional big gusts. The wind against tide sea built to a really difficult chop, regularly filling the cockpit of even the top sailors, and the conditions became quite challenging, particularly for the less experienced and older sailors. 

 

With 5 races now completed the discard came into play today, allowing many sailors to get rid of various indiscretions on the start line etc.

 

While many found today challenging a few excelled. In the 60 boat ILCA 6 Open fleet youth sailor George Pilkington found the lighter conditions in todays first race difficult, but then did a horizon job on the fleet in race 4 and also won race 5 to lead convincingly overall at the halfway stage go the regatta. He is followed overall by a trio of our top women sailors, all of whom had a consistent day. Annabelle Rennie-Younger is second with Greta Pilkington and Olivia Christie tied on points 3 back from Annabelle. Ethan Fong (Y) from Wakatere also had a really strong day, taking second in two races to be second youth boy, 3 points ahead of Zach Stibbe from Otago . Naomi Ferrissey had a tough first race but was strong in races 4 and 5 with top 10 results to continue to be the leading youth girl, ahead of Maddie Rist and Daniella Wooldridge.

 

In the 40 boat combined ILCA 7 fleet the racing was extremely close all day, with 3 different winners for the 3 races meaning that so far every race has had a different winner. In race 3 it was overnight leader Luke Cashmore who got the bullet, and a second and third in the other two races see him continue to lead overall. 

 

After a tough reintroduction to the ILCA fleet in the first 3 races Americas Cup skipper Dean Barker (M) showed his true mettle, winning race 4 today and then holding off many of the young guns again to be 6th in todays last race and move up the standings overall. The third race of the day was won by Luke Deegan, who is second overall, closely followed by top U21 sailors Caleb Armit and Dylan Forsyth in 3rd and 4th. 5th overall and convincingly leading the masters is Scott Leith. Tim Pitcaithly is the leading AM in 9th overall while  Grand Masters Andrew Dellabarca and Cris Brodie are having a really close battle for the GM crown, lying 10th and 11th overall. Nick Page is the leading GGM in 19th overall, having managed to stay upright all day.

 

In the ILCA 6 Masters fleet Master Phil Wild continued his domination, winning all 3 races to lead convincingly overall. Ed Tam (M) and Josh Edmund (AM) continued their close battle for second, with Ed winning the day to lie 2nd overall just a point ahead of Josh, with Tauranga's David Johnson (M) close on their heels. Werner Hennig leads the GM's while GGM Pete Thomas is keeping all the young bucks in sight in 8th overall and Georgina Woldridge leads the Master women.

 

Tomorrow we again have 3 races scheduled and similar SW winds are again forecast, although many will be hoping for slightly more forgiving conditions!

 

Nick Page

ILCA.nz

After a bit of a wait the forecast westerly managed to push the light easterly breeze out and we enjoyed the scheduled 2 races in a typically challenging 10 knot off shore breeze under sunny skies and with lovely warm temperatures.

 

Race officer Dave West set great courses for the fleet of 124 for todays 2 races. The ILCA 7's raced as a single fleet of 40 while the ILCA 6 were split with the ILCA 6 Masters starting separately from the large Youth, Women and Open fleet.

 

The ILCA 7 combined Open and Masters fleet led off. A light patch on the starting gun caught out many of the favourites at the boat end of the line, allowing Bluff Yacht Club's Darryl Park to lead at the first mark. The cream however soon rose to the top on the downwind legs and it was U21 sailor Dylan Forsyth who eventually claimed the race ahead of Luke Cashmore and Luke Deegan, both of whom had fairly miraculous recoveries after getting caught out on the first beat. In the second race Master Scott Leith flew the flag for the host club, taking the race ahead of Luke Cashmore and Christchurch sailor Charles Corston. Two seconds has given Luke Cashmore a tidy overall lead after day 1, 5 points clear of a close bunch of 3; Luke Deegan, Caleb Armit and Dylan Forsyth. Scott Leith is the Leading Master. Defending Masters champion Andrew Dellabarca is 2nd master overall and is the leading GM, Tim Pitcaithly the leading AM while Barry Cutfield from Ohope leads the GGM.

 

In the ILCA 6 Masters Phil Wild (M) from Manly took out both races but it was close racing with Josh Edmonds (AM), Ed Tam (GM) from Worser Bay and Tauranga's David Johnson (M) all getting top 3 places. Leading the Masters women is Georgina Wooldridge, just a few points clear of Helen Spencer and Bridget Gordon, both from Tauranga.

 

In the 60 boat ILCA 6 fleet it was a great battle between the leading Youths, Women and Open sailors. Many sailors found the size of the fleet and the conditions challenging and consistency hard to find. The first race was won by Akarana's Stefano Santella (Y) from Annabelle Rennie-Younger, recently returned to the ILCA after stint in the 470, with youth George Pilkington 3rd. Both Stefano and Annabelle had problems in the second race however, while George took it out to lead overall. Second in the second race was George Lane from Hamilton, who also sits second overall, one point clear of a consistent Zach Stibbe from Dunedin. Greta Pilkington leads the Women and is 4th overall, with Naiomi Ferrissey from host club Murrays Bay the leading female Youth.

 

Tomorrows forecast is for pretty much more of the same, with a fresher offshore breeze, so we can can hopefully look forward to getting tomorrows 3 scheduled races completed and to plenty of opportunities for everyone in what is again likely to be a shifty and challenging day.