Lake Pupuke turned on a very tricky but enjoyable weekend for the 2025 NSFWC, with a fleet of over 30 ILCA 6’s and 7’s completing 7 races over the two days. We welcomed a good number of out of town visitors and enjoyed close racing in both fleets all weekend.
The forecast was for light N winds on Saturday freshening significantly on Sunday, however the fresh winds on Sunday never eventuated and racing on both days was held in sub 10 knot N winds with many light patches and shifts to negotiate, taxing the race committee as well as the sailors.
A strong ILCA 6 youth contingent competed, a number of whom are training for the ILCA youth world later in the year. In spite of the tricky conditions results followed the pattern of recent regattas with a super consistent Tom Pilkington convincingly taking the title, winning 4 races along the way. Sam Clarke was a clear 2nd, winning 2 of the other races with Arran Begic completing the podium. Miro Luxford, who travelled up from Christchurch for the weekend, was 4th followed by the first Master, Dave Johnson from Tauranga. Chloe Turner was the first of the women ahead of master Georgina Wooldridge and Boe Reiff from Bay of Islands.
In the ILCA 7 it was another of the Pilkington clan, U21 George, who triumphed, counting 3 wins and 3 seconds, to take the title from Zach Stibbe and Max Faulkner. Convincingly leading the strong masters contingent was apprentice Andrew Child from Taipa. He and top GGM David Giles finished with a significant points advantage over a close group of masters, all of whom seemed to manage to achieve a mix of success and disasters in roughly equal measure over the 7 races to all end up close on points.
Prize giving was the usual entertaining affair, with commodore John Dowsett dolling out prizes with banter to suit, particularly targeting the (to remain anonymous) youth parents urging on selection of the wine and rum spot prizes by their charges from the sidelines!
So another successful event to wrap up a very successful seasons regattas for ILCA and best of luck to all those competing at ILCA worlds over the next few months.
