NZ ILCA (Laser) Nationals Day 4 - Light air races wrap up a fantastic contest at Napier

Greta Pilkington leads Louie Poletti - ILCA (Laser) NZ National Championship - Napier - January 2023 © Richard Beauchamp

The final day of the 2024 NZ ILCA Nationals in Napier was hot, humid and in the end sunny, but got off to a slow start, with a delay to launching for the 100 boat fleet while the easterly breeze got established.

Once on the water we again enjoyed lovely conditions for the final two races of the contest. The breeze was lighter than the first three days, varying from about 5 to 8 kts during the races, with a very small chop. The tide was quite strong across the course, making lay lines tricky and seeing even some of the top sailors parked against the top mark for a quick, unintended, break. The lighter breeze saw some different faces at the front of the pack, and resulted in some changes in the final results from the placing going into the day.

We have a new ILCA 6 overall champion, with Naomi Ferrissey from Murrays Bay holding her nerve to close out the overall ILCA 6 crown and the Women's division after a very close fought contest. The big mover of the day was local star Winston Liesebach, who scored a 1st and 2nd today to leap up to second in the overall standings.

It secured him the youth boys crown but it was not quite enough to take the overall title, ending up two points behind Naomi, who's second in the days first race proved enough to secure the title for her. A single point back in third was Greta Pilkington (W), who in turn was just one point ahead of todays second race winner, World ILCA 6 Mens champion George Lane. Australia's Frances Beebe (W) and Zach Stibbe (YB), who were both in contention going into the last day, found the light conditions tricky, ending up 6th and 7th overall. In 8th was Fiji's Sophia Morgan, who was very happy with her day after winning a new sail as a spot prize at prize giving! The top 10 was rounded out by yesterdays race winner Miro Luxford (YB), who definitely found the light conditions challenging, but just held out Sam Clarke from Murrays Bay, who capped off a great series with a 3rd in the last race.

Leading Youth Girl was Chloe Turner from Murrays Bay, who had enough points in hand to stay ahead of Napier local Rose Dickey, in spite of Rose having a great day with two top 10 results. Pupuke's Daniella Wooldridge rounded out the top 3 for the youth girls.

In the ILCA 7 the lighter conditions broke overnight leaders Master Nik Burfoot's run of bullets, but a second and third in the two races was enough for him wrap up the overall title and leave prize giving with a raft of trophies, for overall ILCA 7 2024 champion, overall Masters Champion and divisional winner. Scott Leith (M), one of those who had a top mark rest, won the days second race, which was just enough to hold off the fast finishing George Pilkington, the under 21 trophy winner, by a single point. George had the best day of the fleet, convincingly winning the first race and then finishing 2nd to Scott in the second. While the top three pretty much dominated the results all series there was a fantastic contest behind them between the top two GM's, Andrew Dellabarca and Rohan Lord and Master Kris Deck for 4th, 5th and 6th. In the end it was Andrew who had the most consistent day to hold onto 4th and the leading GM spot. Two to really make the most of the lighter conditions were Irish GGM visitor Bill O'Hara, who's 3rd and 4th on the day well and truely secured the GGM cube and simply had the balance of the GGM's watching in awe, and Mike Knowsley, who's 5th in both races saw him lock in a top 10 finish.

In the ILCA 6 Masters fleet Phil Wild (M) easily took the title but saw his monopoly on race wins broken, with Hamilton's GM Werner Hennig taking the first race of the day and second overall. Ed Tam (M) held on for third, just ahead of fast finishing Dave Johnson (M) and Roger Winton(GM). GGM Graeme Tee continued his strong regatta to win his division from Pete Thomas while in the Women's Hamilton fleet mother Helen Spencer's 10th in the first race was enough for her to secure the Women's trophy from Georgina Wooldridge.

In the ILCA 4's Tom Pilkington continued to dominate, winning both races and the overall series. The close contest between Lucy Millar, Hermione Arsis and Lucy Yang for the minor placings continued, with Lucy holding on to take the girls prize and second overall.

So after what everyone agreed was an exceptional contest in all respects; weather, venue, quality of racing, race management, everything, we have lots of satisfied sailors and our 2024 champions. We are all looking forward to doing it again next year in Nelson, January 15th to 19th 2025.

Results:

Day 4 results