ILCA UK National and Open Championships 2025 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy - Day 2 & 3
by Jonathan Stirling 13 Aug 15:57 UTC
10-15 August 2025
Unusually for Plas Heli, on day 2 of the ILCA UK Nationals the sailing conditions were rather light with the decision made to fly AP over A. A Race Clinic led by ILCA 6 sailor Iris Singleton on boat settings drew a substantial crowd before sailors limbered up for the Pwlheli Chaser 3km run.
The Race Management Team saw a potential weather window for on Tuesday, bringing the warning signal forward by an hour to give us the best opportunity of racing. Over two hundred boats made their way to the beach and everyone hoped, but the wind wasn't listening. Flying AP over 4 and then 5 gave ILCA 7 sailor James Curtis the opportunity to run a race clinic for expectant sailors, popularly attended in sunny conditions on the beach!
Never down-hearted, the ILCA fleets and army of volunteers took to the beach on Monday afternoon for the Wildwind Games. Beach football, badminton and tug-of-war were all enjoyed before people turned their attention to the real competition: who could build the tallest sandcastle? Whose structure would catch the judges' eye as most creative? Judges Neil Collingridge and jurist Simon Philbrick applied their characteristic rigour and humour to deciding on the relative merits. Samson, Nathan, James and Lewis ran away with the tallest sandcastle with an impressive 1.37m (pretty much judge Simon's height?). Neil was particularly taken with the aesthetic of Alana, Christa, Ava and Charlie's Bear Grylls Island, paying tribute to the local attraction and incorporating fauna in impressive detail.
Winners were awarded £100 vouchers towards holidays at Wildwind where 'Eric', the thermal cross-shore, is pretty much guaranteed to arrive shortly after lunch every day!
Fi Attwell marshalled some sixty sailors for 'knock-out water-balloon catch' which demonstrated the dexterity of the fleet as it took twelve rounds, fifteen metre throws and resorting to rock-paper-scissors to find the winning pair of Ollie and Freddie.
With AP flags flying again on Tuesday, sailors were keen to explore every detail of Rule 42 - propulsion, so judges Mike Butterfield, Steph Gunn and Simon Philbriok hosted an impromptu workshop to explain what the rules say about sculling, "falling leaf", rocking and rolling which was attended by some sixty sailors keen to understand the finer details of R42.
Despite the best efforts of the Race Committee, AP over A was flown at 2pm on Tuesday so once more Fi Attwell delivered an excellent prize draw sharing prizes from SailingFast with the three fleets and Tideway's prizes for the volunteers.
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