Sailingfast ILCA Thames Valley Series Grand Prix at Queen Mary Sailing Club
by QM 4 Jul 02:27 PDT
24 June 2024
Queen Mary Sailing Club hosted the a Thames Valley Series ILCA / Laser Open on Sunday in a shifty 4 to 10 knots.
ILCA 7
With an encouraging forecast, the Thames Valley Open, Big Sunday and normal summer series racing, a very decent turn out of nearly 40 boats looked forward to 3 highly competitive races. As usual with a NW at QM the wind played silly buggers - in the first race the ILCA7 fleet had 6 different leaders. With Josh Lyttle rounding the first windward mark first, Guy Noble, Tony Woods, Orlando Gledhill, Matt Fletcher and Chris Ellyatt all leading at one point. However it was Orlando who was leading at the important moment, the finish. Second was David Surkov and third Chris Ellyatt.
Race 2 saw a dying wind so it was unsurprising that Marcus Bird, Light wind supremo, crossed the line first with James Baxter second and a very well sailed race by Will Macdonald in third.
As the first 2 races were about 50 sometimes painful minutes each the RO made the final race was short and sweet. Rupert Bedell made all the right decisions at the right time, unlike his pervious race in which he got a great start at the wrong time (UFD) and was rewarded with top spot. Marcus Bird was second and Tony Woods third.
It was great to see sailors from Llandegfedd Sailing Club, Papercourt Sailing Club, Wembley Sailing Club,Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club, and London Corinthian Sailing Club.
ILCA7 Overall (no discards)
1st Tony Woods
2nd Marcus Bird
3rd Orlando Gledhill
ILCA6 Overall (no discards)
1st Mark Sanken
2nd Lauren Irons (Papercourt SC)
3rd John Curran
ILCA4 Overall (no discards)
1st Isobel Jefferies
2nd Sylvia Jefferies
A word from the winners...
Tony Wood ILCA7 Winner:
"It was a tough day with huge shifts and holes. Markus is a master in the light stuff but he had a bad first race. Orlando has fantastic speed but couldn't quite read the wind every time on Sunday. Even though I didn't win a race - my best result was 3rd - I was pretty consistent over the three races and with no discard that proved to be the deciding factor."
Mark Sanken ILCA6 winner:
"Very difficult starting with almost 40 boats; quite easy sailing when the breeze was up and all of us fighting together and picking the shifts. Then I needed to remind myself I was only racing the smaller sails and had to watch where they were going and stay with them. Constantly looking for the wind especially when it dropped away to nothing."
Full results can be found here.