It was another antagonising day on Galveston Bay at the ILCA6 World Championships as the Tropical Storm in the Gulf of Mexico continued to disrupt the weather in the area.

After heavy rain, lightning and thunder in the morning, the fleet was sent out on time as the Race Committee attempted to stick to the schedule. Unfortunately, the wind then dissipated and the sailors were sent ashore to play the waiting game. 

ILCA 6 fleet under postponement CREDIT Helen Galli 

Following several hours of postponement, a light to moderate easterly wind began to fill in and the fleet once again headed out onto the race course. 

Coach Ben Walkemeyer commented, “It looked pretty good when we first got out there, but the wind was still around shifting a little. We just had a lot of general recalls, so a couple of black flags in the fleet, no one in our squad, which was good.” 

Today was even longer than yesterday, with the final sailors getting off the water just before 19:00 local time after a scheduled midday start. 

“By the time we had the last race I had my Navigation lights on, so it was a real character day,” Walkemeyer said. 

It was the longest day for Elyse Ainsworth as the only Australian squad member in the Blue fleet. Unfortunately, due to a number of general recalls the Blue fleet did not end up starting until the Yellow fleet had finished their first and only race of the day. 

Walkemeyer was impressed with her resilience, “She stayed nice and composed and put a keeper on the board. The wind got pretty funky in the last race for them, they had a downwind turn into a reach and things like that.”

Ainsworth came away with 11th place and climbed a few points in the overall rankings. The WAIS athlete agreed with her coach, “Today was an extremely character-building day and those days are really tough, but those that can stay in it the longest mentally will often do well."

She commented on her regatta so far, “I think I just need to loosen up a bit. I’m probably over thinking the venue a bit too much and this is most likely restricting my sailing a little. I’m having a good time, lots to learn and there is still a lot of racing to go.” 

In the yellow fleet, Zoe Thomson came away with the best result of the day with ninth place and sits in 24th overall. Casey Imeneo finished with 13th in today’s race and is just a few points ahead in 22nd. Whilst Queenslander Mara Stransky fought back after a penalty in the pre-start to finish 12th and lead the Australians in 21st overall. 

Walkemeyer added, “Mara said she earnt every point she clawed back after a penalty at the start, and she was exactly right with that. She took her penalty, cleared herself and got herself back into the race.”

Racing finally underway CREDIT Helen Galli 

The scoring discard also came into play today, with sailors able to shed their worst score from their total points. This has condensed the overall rankings dramatically with just ten points separating the top fifteen sailors. A second discard may come into play in the final series if the fleet completes ten or more races. 

With four races down, qualifying is officially complete and the ILCA 6 sailors will be split into Gold and Silver fleet for the final series and the last three days of racing. 

Full results can be found here: https://jpvm.org/results/2022/ilca6_men_women/ILCA_6_Women_results.html

Australian Sailing Team (AST), Australian Sailing Squad (ASS), Australian Sailing Futures and other Australian (AUS) entries:

ILCA6 (85 Boats) 

21st - Mara Stransky (AST) – 8,10, (20), 12 (30pts) 
22nd - Casey Imeneo (ASS) – 11, 8, (12), 13 (30pts) 
24th - Zoe Thomson (ASS) – 12, 11, (17), 9 (32pts)
25th - Evie Saunders (ASF) – 9, (25), 10, 14 (33pts) 
29th - Elyse Ainsworth (ASS) – 16, 12, (17), 11 (39pts)
58th - Sylvie Stannage (AUS) – 29, 21,25, (29) (76pts)

Words: Lisa Darmanin