CSC ILCA & Topper Monsoon Regatta 2022 (Day 1)

While the big boats spent the day circumnavigating Pulau Tekong and Pulau Ubin, Singapore’s best sailors in the ILCA and Topper Classes came together to race in the waters off Changi Sailing Club at the inaugural CSC ILCA & Topper Monsoon Regatta. What initially started off as a plan to get more of our nation’s youth sailors the necessary exposure/experience in strong wind sailing through off-site training opportunities became a full-fledged regatta held at the peak of the North-East Monsoon. The Event saw a total of 72 boats split across 4 classes in participation.

After completing 3 races, competition is tense in the top 5 of the largest fleet, ILCA 4. Russel Yom (213191) currently holds a comfortable lead of 6 points going into Day 2 of racing. Positions 2 to 9 all hold a bad race each, and will look forward to having the discard coming into play after 5 races. Top CSC performer and best girl Meghan Tan (205778) sits in 5th with a total of 18 points. Her best performance was in Race 2, where she mustered a 4th placing to cement her position in the top 5. Other notable mentions from CSC include Faith Ng (219765) 22nd, Angyal Chew (206799) 27th and Nadia Chan (15) 31st.

In the ILCA 6 Class it was a battle of youth versus experience, as Kyle Lim (214779) and Victoria Chan (194946) tie for first place on 7 points. Will Victoria’s wealth of experience in regional and international competitions triumph over the young and talented upstart? We also cannot overlook Jania Ang’s (216432) performance, as she only trails the leaders by 2 points. We look forward to the remaining races today.

The 2 smaller fleets, ILCA 7 (2 boats) and Topper (7 boats) also had a good time on water despite the lack of substantial fleet competition. It was great to see the youngest sailors venturing into bigger boats after growing out of the optimist, and the Topper is a great in-between dinghy to bridge the gap from Optimist to ILCA. Caio Sullivan (13) tops the fleet with 3 bullets from 3 races, but will have to watch out for experienced competition from the likes of Luka, Theodore & Theo, all seasoned sailors in their previous classes. It was a Hungarian event in the ILCA 7 Class, as earlier entries chickened out to sail the ILCA 6 instead, due to the supposed brutal NE Monsoon – leaving the duo in an unintended match-race. Kudos to Vincze Balazs and Rigo Akos for handling the boat well in the prevailing conditions, flying the ILCA 7 flag high.

Fingers crossed for another fruitful day of clear skies and consistent winds today!

Results