Women’s Regatta Vaucluse YC Wrap
Yoga on the VYC Deck to Kick the Day Off
The Women’s Regatta at VYC on 22 March saw an impressive turnout, with 38 sailors hitting the water, including 10 in the combined Green Fleet.
The day started with a morning yoga session, providing a calm and energizing start for the sailors. It was followed by workshops lead by Ellen Sijtsma – Fitness, nutrition and hydration Erica Kirby – Everything you wanted to know about the rules but were afraid to ask, and Vanessa Dudley – Race preparation and starting.
The racing took place in tricky 5-10 knot puffy conditions, with three races completed. Harper Spacey was first overall in ILCA 4s while in the ILCA 6 fleet, Sara Bruce delivered an exceptional performance, dominating the day with consistent sailing resulting in 3 wins. The Green Fleet, comprising novice sailors from the Ladies Learn to Sail program, made their regatta debut, showcasing incredible enthusiasm and determination. Full results are Here.
The event concluded with a prize-giving ceremony a quite special discussion on the VYC veranda at sunset with three guest panellists, all world class women sailors.
Delicious Thai food and an inspirational sunset discussion marked the end of a highly successful regatta.
Thanks to session leaders, panellists and to the VYC and their enthusiastic volunteers for a great and informative day.
Full event report with some photos is Here.
Panel Session MC Lucy Ede with Panelists Carolijn Brouwer, Evie Hasseldine and Vanessa Dudley
Metropolitan Championships HHSC Wrap
Sylvie Stannage in control in ILCA 6s
The Metropolitan Championships were held at Hunters Hill Sailing Club over 8-9 March weekend. the weather gods were with us providing 10-13 knot ESE on Saturday and more squirrely and a knot or two more from ENE on Sunday.
The 70+ sailors enjoyed the conditions and avoided close encounters with the ferries and maritime party people and rev-heads. Commodore Ben Howell and the folks at HHSC did a great job on the water, on the launching ramp and in the canteen. Our stalwart RO Andrew McLachlan as always made the best use of the waterway and had the nine races running like clockwork. The incoming tide running against the start meant less airing of the black flag and only a few OCSs.
The event was sailed in three class fleets 25 in each of ILCA 4 and ILCA 6 and 22 ILCA 7s. It was difficult to avoid the tide except on the sides of the Parramatta River and there the wind was less kind so the fleets wisely chose their course to stay on the lifted tack as far as possible.
In the ILCA 6 top local sailor Sylvie Stannage dominated taking four bullets and a second. GM Bruce Savage from MHASC posted a 2,1,1 for a leading position on day one and finished second overall. Bruce was first GM in the Australian Masters at Westernport last month. Third was up and coming RPAYC/DBSC sailor Charlie Byford. Charlie was first Under 19 as well. Another Master GGM Lyndall Patterson RPAYC was 4th overall. First Under 17 was Raphael McLachlan DBSC.
The ILCA 4s went down to the wire. In the last race either of local sailors Harper Spacey HHSC/DBSC or Zac Howell HHSC could have won. In the end they finished even on points with Harper taking the win on a countback. Harper was first Under 18 and Zac was first Under 16. RQYS sailor Blair Dobson was third.
Daniel Costandi GRSC/BDSC was the clear winner in the ILCA 7s counting three bullets and two second places to finish ahead of Thailand Olympic representative Arthit Romanyk and Campbell Patton DBSC/RBYC/RSYS. First Under 21 was new graduate to ILCA 7 Healy Ryan who finished a creditable 5th. 4th and first Master was GM Brett Beyer WSC. Brett won the Oceania & Australian Masters GM in February and is the current World ILCA GM Champion.
Lots of photos of the event thanks to HHSC volunteers are Here.
Gusty and tricky winds at the top end of the course
Metropolitan Championships 8-9 March HHSC
The Metropolitan Championships at Hunters Hill Sailing Club are coming up 8-9 March. This event for all ILCA classes has prizes for Open, Youth and Masters age categories.
HHSC is a great venue with copious rigging area, good sailing water right in front of the club and terrific viewing from Clarkes Point park.
The Notice of Race is Here. You can enter online Here any time or up until 11.30 on 8 March at the club.
Sailing Instructions are Here. Parking, trailer storage, RIB, rigging, club facilities and food information in on the Competitor Information Document Here.
Results of Oceania & Australian Masters Westernport YC Victoria
Chris Rodowicz enjoying the downwind ride
The final results for the 2025 Oceania & Australian Masters Championships held at Westernport YC, Victoria are Here.
113 boats lined up for the 2025 Masters at Westernport (27 ILCA 7s, 80 ILCA 6s and 6 ILCA 4s) sailed 21-24 February.
Conditions after Day 1 were excellent to challenging. Day 1 saw no race started with the tide velocity at times exceeding the wind. PRO Col Dods then ran three races per day so 9 of the scheduled 10 races were completed.
There was great racing in all the fleets and some fabulous rides across the reaches and with some decent wind and wave waves down the runs.
Lots of action photos of the event are available to free download thanks to Tom France @thomasfrancephotography.
Bruce Paine upwind in waves rather larger than he is used to in Canberra
Women’s Regatta Vaucluse YC 22 March
The fabulous 2025 Women’s Regatta will be held on 22 March at Vaucluse Yacht Club (VYC).
The Regatta is being run by VYC with support from ILCA NSW & ACT and major sponsors Zhik and Performance Sailcraft.
There will be a full day of activities kicking off at 8.30 with yoga on the deck, followed by a breakfast, sailing workshops at 10:00. Racing will be from 13:00 with the prizegiving at 17:30 and concluding with a cocktail reception with a guest panel from 18:00.
The event is open to all women ILCA sailors and there will be prizes for age categories.
This event is run in conjunction with the Helly Hansen Women’s Challenge and the Manly Yacht Club. The Green Fleet will race as a part of the Helly Hansen Women’s Challenge (HHWC) organised by Manly Yacht Club.
Entries Here are $75 and $50 for U18 and students.
The Notice of Race with all the details is Here.
2025 Australian Championships Planning
The next Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships will be held at Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania Hobart 1-8 January 2026.
The NoR will be posted soon on the Event Web Site Here.
For sailors planning to tow trailers across then Spirit of Tasmania bookings are open for the period Here.
TAS ILCA is currently in discussion with one of the freight companies transporting across Bass Strait. If you are planning to to send boats to RYCT by container please advise TasILCA President Edward Fader by the email below of the number and size. He may be able to provide contact and support for making these arrangements.
Eight Bells Col Chidgey
Sad to report our long term NSW & ACT Laser RO Colin Chidgey passed away on 23 January 2025. Col was a revered figure in the Australian sailing community generally.
As well as being an exceptional race officer, he contributed significantly to clubs and other class associations, holding prominent roles with Yachting NSW and Yachting Australia and was a Commodore and Life Member of Hunters Hill Sailing Club.
Col dedicated countless hours to race management and administration, driven by his passion for sailing, especially junior and youth sailing. He supported numerous events and classes, including Lasers, Manly Juniors, Skiffs, Flying 11s, Sabots, 420s, Optimists, NSW Youth Championships, Sail Sydney, and Teams Racing.
Mentor to many, Col was known for his enthusiasm, fair decision-making, and infectious humour. Coming from his career in Army Engineers he never needed a PA to get his instruction across or leave anyone in doubt about who was in charge.
He will be dearly missed. Condolences to his family, and fair winds to Col.
There is to be a celebration of his life and sailing get together on Friday 21 February between 2-5pm at the Woolwich Pier Hotel, 2 Gale St Woolwich.
State Masters South Lake Macquarie ASC 1-2 February
The State Masters at South Lake Macquarie ASC was a great event enjoyed by 107 sailors. The weather was great for Masters ILCA sailing with 12-13 knots of generally easterly breezes on both days 1st and 2nd February. Considering the mix ordinary and ornery weather we have been getting this was a blessing. There were plenty of wind shifts across the inner and outer tracks of the course but as always the best sailors managed to find the right way to go.
The event was run with three fleets one ILCA 7 fleet (36 boats), an ILCA 6 “young” fleet with Apprentice, Master and GMs (43 boats) and an ILCA 6 “senior” fleet with GGM and Legends (28 boats).
Under RO Andrew McLachlan’s experienced management and great support from the SLMASC race management team all six scheduled races were completed expeditiously give or take some time for re-orientation of the course on day two as the wind oscillated.
There was a great roll up of NSW sailors in particular 29 from DBSC. The club is highly organised even coming with their own coach and on water support by Zander Bijkerk. There were nine sailors who travelled up from Victoria.
Brett Beyer WSC convincingly won in the ILCA 7 fleet posting a 1,1,2,1,1 and dropping a 6. Matthew Faddy VYC was second and James Tudball third . Brett was first GM and James first Apprentice Master. Chip off the old block Tom Lowndes VYC was fourth and first Master. Leading GGM was strong class enthusiast and supporter Steve Gunther from Royal Brighton YC.
The ILCA 6 “young” fleet was lead convincingly by Bruce Savage MHASC posting 2,1,1,2,3,1. Bruce was first GM. Fellow GM David Early GRSC was second and first Apprentice and first woman cube winner was Vai Ripley. Vai was Samoa’s 2024 Olympic sailor and currently sails at MHASC/WSC. Master cube winner and 4th in the fleet was Scott Hunter DBSC. Second place women’s cube went to top Master Kate McHugh DBSC in a close tussle with Justine Gowland-Ella GSC who won the GMs.
The ILCA 6 “senior” fleet saw a close tussle at the top with Royal Brighton YC sailors Michael O’Brien the fleet and GGM winner on a countback from Jeff Loosemore MHASC. Rick Longbottom CYC/RANSA/GRSC was close in third with a late run first and second in the final two races. Legend cube winner was pocket dynamo Peter Heywood DBSC/BSC/B16. To win the Legends Peter had to finish ahead of 2024 World Masters Legend 2nd and 3rd placed Tim Alexander NSC and Rob Lowndes MHASC.
Thanks to South Lakes ASC and its fabulous volunteers who did a great job on the water and in and around the club. This is a first class venue with lots of parking, rigging space close to the uncrowded Lake Macquarie.
The full results of the event are Here.
State Masters Golf
Masters Golf Tournament organiser Peter Doyle reports that the event at Kooindah Waters was enjoyed by nine sailors who had a fun afternoon on a beautiful course with team Martin Wilson (GRSC), Mike Dunne (DBSC) and Rob Lowndes (MHASC) easily winning the Ambrose event with an even par round which is pretty good.
The Ambrose event works well with golfers of mixed abilities, and makes for a lot of fun and the use of carts helps save energy for the ILCA racing.
Peter is keen to run the event again next season and will pick another quality course.
NSW & ACT 2025 State Masters SLMASC 1-2 February
The 2025 ILCA NSW & ACT Masters is coming up 1-2 February at South Lake Macquarie ASC at Sunshine on Lake Macquarie.
This is one of our favourite venues with a great friendly club, heaps of rigging area and terrific uncrowded sailing waters. At this time of year sailing conditions on the lake are excellent.
We have always had well over 100 boats competing in the several times that we have run our State Masters at South Lakes.
The Notice of Race is Here. The Sailing Instructions are Here.
Entries can be placed online Here or at the club up until 11.30am on Saturday 1 February.
Entries to 30 January are Here.
Oceania & Australian ILCA Masters
Entries are now open Here for the 2025 Oceania & Australian Masters Championships 21–24 February at Westernport Yacht Club Balnarring Beach, Victoria.
To encourage growth in the ILCA4 division, a special entry fee of AUD120 is provided.
Charter boats are available through Martin Sly (contact Martin at info@slyboatbuilding.com.au) and NB Sailsports order online Here.
This is the Australian ranking event for the 2025 ILCA World Masters 19-28 September Formia, Italy.
The Notice of Race is Here.
A pre-regatta coaching clinic with lead Olympic winning coach Jon Emmett will be held at Westernport Yacht Club on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the Australian Masters championship on the 21 February. Click Here to register.
For additional information on Jon please visit Jon Emmett Sailing Here.
ILCA 2025 Handbook Now Available
The ILCA Handbook which contains all you want to know about the class. It is online Here.
It is updated annually and contains Class Rules, Constitution, Organisation and Contacts, Age Policy, Measurement Information, Technical Tips and World Championships Results Archive.
This 2025 edition contains an informative column by ILCA President Tracy Usher on the state of the class and how it has achieved full control over the class’ design rights and builders manual to ensure its future.
2025 Oceania & Australian Youth & Open Championships
ILCA 6 Action Mara Stransky Leads Evie Saunders & Hugo Ralph Photo by Spikey Mikey
The Oceania & Australian Youth & Open Championships was held at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly Queensland 1-8 January 2025. There were 53 NSW & ACT sailors among the 223 in the three ILCA classes sailed in five fleets. The full 12 scheduled races were completed in mostly variable sea breeze conditions.
The first day saw very strong SE winds with the second race of the day abandoned when a 35 knot front moved over the course. Three races were scheduled on the second day with PRO Col Dods keen to get back onto the regatta schedule. This day proved to be the toughest of the regatta.
Days 3 to 6 were sailed in predictable moderate seas breeze conditions allowing the event to proceed like clockwork give or take a few general recalls.
Almost all the top Australian ILCA sailors were competing along with sailors from 10 other countries in Oceania, North America, Europe and Asia regions.
Action a Plenty in the ILCA 4s at RQYS
It was great to see the large number of ILCA 4 sailors. ILCA 4s were the largest class with 92 entries with 27 from NSW & ACT. Just more than half the ILCA 4 fleets were female. The ILCA 4s sailed for the first time in two fleets. In a close contest they were lead home by Tinaroo Queenslander Breanne Wadley RQYS/TSC from Victorian Callum Simmons SSCBC/IHYC who was first Under 18 and Singaporean Ian Goh. First Under 16 was overall 4th placed WA sailors Thomas Cooper RFBYC/FSC. Raphael McLachlan DBSC/RSYS 9th and Zac Howell HHSC 13th were the best placed NSW sailors.
The ILCA 6s had 85 entries sailing in two fleets. They were dominated by the top women sailors with 8 of the top 10 and all of the top 6 places filled by women. The clear winner was RQYS and Tokyo Olympic representative Mara Stransky. Mara overcame a F3 race retirement due to a second Rule 42 infringement with a strong finish to win from Marseille Olympic representative WA’s Zoe Thomson RFBYC.
Manly YC sailor Evie Saunders won three races to finish 3rd and was first Under 21. NSW sailors Healy Ryan DBSC/HHSC was first male first Under 17 and 7th place overall. Sylvie Stannage HHSC was 13th.
Hamish Gilsenan Leads Mike Wilson in ILCA 7
The ILCA 7s fleet of 46 podium was dominated by WA sailors with four of the top six from that state. Zac Littlewood RFBYC won after a first place in the final heat. Zac received a second yellow flag in the first race of the final day setting the scene for a nail biting finish with Netherlands Olympic sailor Duko Bos. Zac’s win in Race 12 got him across the line on a countback.
Ethan McAulay RPYC who had beaten Zac and Duko in the lead up event Sail Melbourne was well placed until a second yellow flag in Race 9 forced him to withdraw from that race. Ethan finished 3rd. WA sailors Stefan Elliott-Shircore FSC and Michael Compton SoPYC/FSC completed the WA domination with Finn Alexander RSYS/DBSC completing the podium places. First Under 21 in the ILCA 7s was Isaac Schotte RQYS. Campbell Patton DBSC/RSYS was 8th with Daniel Costandi DBSC/GRSC 12th and Alexander Bijkerk RPAYC/DBSC 13th.
The Battens Trophy for the best performing state returned to WA where it has resided for most of its life since 1975. Victoria in 2023 and Queensland in 2024 interrupted the line however the fabulous strength of the WA ICLA 7 team carried the day in 2025.
Winners are Grinners – Battens Winning Team
The next ILCA Australian & Oceania Open & Youth Championships will be held at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania 1-8 January 2026. Information on this event is in a post on our web site Here.
The full results of the event are Here.
All the event details are on the competitors page on the RQYS web site Here.
RQYS event photos are Here.
There is a more detailed wrap on he event by Andrew Stransky Here.
ILCA Masters Golf Tournament 31 January
The State Masters Golf Tournament returns this season in the new hands of Northbridge SC’s Peter Doyle.
Peter has gone a little upmarket and booked the beautiful Kooindah Waters Golf Club in Wyong for Friday 31 January 2025. So plan your trip to South Lake Macquarie with a stopover around midday for a light lunch and team selection before a 1:00pm first tee time.
It might sound grand to play in a Masters Golf Tournament but for ours you don’t have to be a good golfer, just come for fun. It will be an Ambrose style format. Cost will be $100 per head with cart.
Please let Peter know if you are a likely starter by text (0413 872 787) or email (peterdoylenorthbridge@gmail.com).
Oceania & Australian Championships RQYS Information
The 2025 Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships will be held at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly Queensland between 1-8 January 2025.
Racing will start on Thursday 2nd January with the practice race. From Friday 3rd until Wednesday 8th January two races back to back are scheduled 12 races in all. The ILCA 4 (91 entries) and the ILCA 6 (87 entries) will both be sailed with split fleets. The ILCA 7s (44 entries) will sail as a single fleet.
The Regatta Competitor Page with links to all information is Here
You can joint the Whatsapp Group Here to receive notification on your mobile when a notice is posted
Competitor List is Here
Sailing Instructions are Here
Notice of Race is Here
RQYS Video will be posted Here
RQYS Weather and rigging area webcam are Here
BoM MetEye (Peel Island) 7 day 3 hourly forecasts are Here
AusILCA AGM will be held at 0900 on 5 January at RQYS Agenda is Here
