Noble Marine ILCA 4 UK Inland Championships at Grafham Water
by Henry Cruse 7 Nov 16:44 UTC
31 October – 1 November 2026
Noble Marine ILCA UK Inland Championships at Grafham Water © Saillotts / Lotte Johnson
The final event of the year was the much-anticipated Inlands at Grafham Water, Cambridgeshire’s premier sailing venue. Despite the anticipation the weather was offering little reward for such an early start with a very light forecast for the entire weekend.
Saturday morning started foggy and windless which unfortunately held all day.
Sunday arrived with a similar light northerly breeze, but the fog seemed to be holding back. From midday the breeze eventually filled in and the mad rush to launch commenced. It is worth a massive thank to all the volunteers in waders helping everyone to make it across the mud and recover trolleys.
Sailors were determined to test the race officials with several general recalls. Finally, the fleet got away albeit in very light conditions. In the first race the right-hand side was favoured on the first upwind beat and on the second beat it became more favoured to the left. Grafham was supplying classic inland conditions and the sailors who spotted the shifts were rewarded handsomely. A result of note for race 1 was Hendricks Long taking 3rd place in his first national ILCA event.
Race 2 was again followed up by multiple general recalls and when the fleet finally got away a number of sailors were over the line in the fight for the most black flags given in one weekend. All change for this race as the left-hand side was significantly favoured with not many sailors noticing the shift. Sailors of note are Faith Turner who hung onto 4th place with the entire fleet stacked ready to pounce. Also, Benjamin Smallwood who was rewarded for taking the right-hand gate to make big gains.
Finally the top three overall were: 3rd:Benjamin Smallwood 2nd:Callum Marshall 1st:Hari Clark. 1st girl Fallon Day
Obviously, consistency paid for this event and it seems a lot of the fleet were over the line making it impossible to come back from a black flag with only a two race event. Thanks to the volunteers and organisers for making this event possible and for managing to just about get us racing in some tough conditions to set a course.
ILCA 4 Results:
Overall Top 3
1) Harry Clark
2) Callum Marshall
3) Benjamin Smallwood
Top 3 Male
1) Harry Clark
2) Callum Marshall
3) Benjamin Smallwood
Top 3 Female
1) Fallon Day
2) Edith Phillips
3) Meri Greenaway
U16 Male – Harry Clark
U16 Female – Fallon Day
Female Master – Sarah Harding
Full results can be found here.
Title Sponsors: Noble Marine
Class Sponsors: Sailingfast, Rooster, Ovington and Fernhurst Books.
We used Trac Trac technology.
