ILCA 7 National Championship at Hayling Island Sailing Club - Overall

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island prize giving - ILCA 7 - 1st Jake Farren-Price, 2nd Finley Dickinson, 3rd James Foster © Georgie Altham

What a week - we had it all, heatwaves, thunderstorms, no wind, more wind, shifty, stable, the lot. Through all of that the race team managed to get the whole series in for the ILCA 7s despite losing a whole day.

In the ILCA 7 the racing was fierce, 57 of the nation's best descended onto Hayling Island to battle it out for the national title. Finley Dickinson and Jake Farren-Price sailed an impeccable series sharing 90% of the race wins between them.

Unfortunately, a gear failure on the third day meant Finley had a maximum point discard hanging over him which meant no more slip-ups. Jake managed to sail a consistent series discarding a sixth which meant if it came down to it a match race could be on the cards in the final race.

Fortunately, that didn't happen as it was all wrapped up in the penultimate race. Great news for Jake as trying to match race in those super shifty conditions with a dying breeze would have proved near impossible.

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Shaun Roster

There were a few other stand-out performances that are worth a mention. Luke Deegan from New Zealand was the first apprentice master in fourth. He started with a slow start carrying an 11 and 23, but from there kicked it into gear and only top tens were on the menu for the rest of the regatta. He clearly just needed a day to warm up.

The battle for first great grand master was tight and it came down to the last day where Alan Davis of Parkstone Yacht Club pulled through. Mark Lyttle was comfortably ahead going into the final day but he pushed the line a little too much resulting in a UFD.

Some say the race committee has it in for the new chairman of the class that week as he'd had a DSQ on day 3 for allegedly hitting the pin...

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham

Each day was sponsored by one of UKLA's much appreciated sponsors - Monday Southeast sailboats, Tuesday Vaikobi, Wednesday Sailingfast and Thursday Ovington boats - they provided some amazing prizes for the days prize-giving and draws that evening. This rounded off each days racing perfectly.

A special thank you to all the volunteers from UKLA and HISC on the off the water. The teams were dedicated, professional and enthusiastic and all the competitors whole heartedly thank you all.

It was a great weeks racing, and we can't wait to do it all again next year, again at Hayling Island, if they could organise the heatwave for the same week that would be great.

Overall Results:

ILCA 7 Open Champs U21 - GBR - 213519 Finley Dickinson
ILCA 7 Open Champs U19 - 218433 Kai Wolgram
ILCA 7 National Champs U19 - GBR - 219812 Tom Mitchell
ILCA 7 Open Champs U17 - GBR - 219366 George Colquitt
ILCA 7 Open Champs AM - NZL - 217841 Luke Deegan
ILCA 7 Open Champs M - GBR - 213640 Andy Le Grice
ILCA 7 Open Champs GM - GBR - 220433 Alan Davis
ILCA 7 Open Champs GGM - GBR - 216500 Peter Sherwin

2022 ILCA Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Georgie Altham