ILCA NSW & ACT

The 2024 ILCA Under 21 World Championships have concluded  in the Atlantic Ocean waters off the historic city of  Viana do Castelo, Portugal. The event ran from July 1st to 8th and was blessed with great sailing conditions. All 12 races were held as scheduled.

There were 13 Australian sailors Frances Beebe. Lili Mcaullay, Ellen Sampson, Evie Saunders, Jack Eickmeyer, Tom Holmes, Lawson Mcaullay, Edward Reid, Isaac Schotte, Max Sturman, Julian Taylor, Lachie Weber and Myles Wilson competing alongside 235 sailors (80 women and 155 men) from 41 countries.

The Australian sailors all put in strong performances with Evie Saunders leading the charge finishing second in the ILCA 6 to Ireland’s Eve McMahon who was dominant posting four wins for a 30 point winning margin.

In the ILCA 7s Theodor Middelthon from Norway had a comfortable win. Isaac Schotte was running 4th mid series but faded in the last days to finish 10th with Edward  Reid 12th and Jack Eickmeyer 13th.

Event links are.

Results
Event Photos
Event Videos 
Event Website
ILCA Facebook

Qualification for 2024 Olympics Sailing is now finalised with 330 sailors from 66 Olympic nations set to compete in 252 boats spread across the 10 Olympic sailing events in Marseilles starting on 26th July. The nations set to compete and how they qualified are tabulated in a detailed Wiki here.

Australia will compete in 9 of the 10 events (missing out in the Men’s Kites). In the ILCAs Zoe Thomson and Matt Wearn have been selected as reported Here.  In the ILCAs from our Oceania Region four nations Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa each have qualified and will send sailors in both ILCA 6 and 7.

It is a great honour to be chosen to represent your country in an Olympics and we wish the sailors and their support teams all the best for their events. Behind their success all these sailors have coach and sport professionals and especially supportive families to sustain, motivate and improve them. We thank them one and all.

One special Oceania qualification we would like to highlight is that of Samoa in the ILCA 6. There Vaimo’oi’a (Vai) Ripley achieved her lifelong ambition of competing in the Olympics. Via won one of two of the IOC’s Universality Places which are a lifeline to athletes from underrepresented Olympics nations.

Vai has been sailing and training at Middle Harbour Amateur Sailing Club in Sydney while competing in all the ILCA local and many international events and fully deserves her coveted place. There is a great post on MHASC web site Here on Vai’s quest.

Need a charter boat for Nationals in Brisbane or Sail Sydney or Melbourne then PSA has offers on their web site.

Charter Offers Here
Phone: 02 9371 7475
Mobile: 0432 823 872
Email: info@nbsailsports.com.au

ILCA have announced that they have acquired royalty and legacy builder rights owned by Spencer family companies Global Sailing (GS) and class builder Performance Sailcraft Australia (PSA). This will give the class greater ownership and control over the design rights and building specifications of ILCAs as well as a greater share of the income from hull & equipment manufacture.

The two acquisitions from the Spencers are the design rights for the class which GS purchased from Bruce Kirby in the early 2000s and the royalty payment rights issued to PSA in 2019 to compensate them as one of the then two legacy builders for the agreement to, and effect of, the introduction of multiple new class builders. See Here for details of these royalty payments.

The ILCA web site post Here has more on this positive move by the class to secure its future.

The 2025 Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships will be held at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly Queensland  between 1-8 January 2025.

The Notice of Race for this event is Here.

Entries prior to 30 November $450 can be placed Here.

The Regatta Competitor Page with links to race documents, entry, venue information and WhatsApp Chat Group for notifications of new information is Here.

Charters may be available from NB Sailsports and Performance Sailcraft Australia.

This event is the qualifying event for Australian sailors applying for entry to any 2025 ILCA World Open and Youth Championships.

Following on from the changes in ILCA boats & equipment supply with now nine approved licensed builders around the world  we are advised that PSA has reviewed its operations here and plans to move to a smaller factory where they will deploy new world standard moulds and hull/deck joining jig.

In the interim they have reduced staff and staffing to three days per week.

PSA say they are looking forward to the future in their overhead reduced form.

We are running a Youth 3 day training camp from 29 June leading up to coaching during the four day Queensland Youth Week Regatta 4-7 July at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly Queensland.

The program will have top coaches including Brett Beyer and will cost $350. You can register here.

Sailors will be responsible for their own:

• Regatta Entry 
• Travel
• Accommodation
• Food & personal costs

Chris Stannage has put this program together and in it we will be combining coaching forces with the RQYS coaches, led by Olympic Coach Adrian Finglas. There are opportunities for young NSW Coaches to donate their time and come along and learn from Brett and Adrian as part of a regatta set up.

Two great days on the water at Vaucluse for  the 2024 Metros.

8-12 knots N-NE breezes and two lovely sunny days – what’s not to like.

Jon West has captured tons of photos of the action which you can see and purchase on his web site Here.

Updated results for the series are Here

The ILCA NSW & ACT Metropolitan Championships are on at Vaucluse Yacht Club 9-10 March.

VYC will have people to manage parking and trailers on the Saturday from 1000.Rigging will be on the beach north of the club and on Robertson Park behind.
The local council will permit competitors to leave boats over Saturday night in the grassed area of Robertson Park immediately adjacent to the Club. However, no security is provided and boats and equipment are left there entirely at owners’ risk.

Venue Information and map is Here.

We  have arrangements for sailors  to rig at other harbour clubs and sign on and off online.

The Notice of Race is Here.

The Sailing Instructions are Here. Note the first warning will be at 1200 on Sunday 10 March as per SI 6.1.

You can enter online Here up until 1130  on Saturday 9 March.

The 2024 Oceania & Australian Masters Championship is on at RQYS 12-15 April.

The event is being staged after Easter – later this year to allow the excitement and sore limbs experienced in the ILCA World Masters in Adelaide to settle.

This year ILCA Queensland are making a special effort to encourage ILCA 4 sailors to compete. We have included ILCA 4s in the National Masters for some years and we have been lobbying ILCA International to re-instate them in the World Masters. ILCA indicated that they would support the inclusion only if the districts could demonstrate stronger interest.

George Meikle from RQYS is leading the charge to increase interest in ILCA 4 Masters participation. For its part ILCA Queensland is halving the entry fee for the Masters Championship for ILCA 4s.

Entry is available online Here for $300 (half for ILCA 4) if placed by 15 March and $350 after that.

The event NoR is Here.

RQYS is always a great venue for sailing and this National and Regional cube event will provide a great wind down (or wind up) for the season.

Brett Beyer on His Way to His 16th World Masters Title

The 2024 ILCA World Masters wound up at Adelaide Sailing Club on Saturday 10th January with the presentation dinner attended by over 300 filling every area of the large club. This event concluded the massive summer of ILCA sailing in Adelaide.

The Masters event will be remembered for strong winds and big swells, some absolutely textbook Adelaide conditions that stuck around for the entirety of the event and gave sailors some tough days, as well as some glamour sailing. The dominant view around the boat park was that the Adelaide Sailing Club and the 100 or so volunteers who made it all happen each day did a great job which was much appreciated by all the sailors.

There were nine World Masters Divisions contested. Some were stitched up convincingly, while a handful of them came right down to the wire, with some tense moments out on the course in the last few races.

Of the nine divisions Australia won five, with New Zealand, Argentina, USA and Great Britain one each.

ILCA 6 Apprentices Franco Riquelme Antonetti BRA
ILCA 6 Masters Simon Small AUS
ILCA 6 GM Andrew Holdsworth GBR
ILCA 6 GGM James Mitchell AUS
ILCA 6 Legends Bill Symes USA
ILCA 7 Apprentices Luke Deegan NZL
ILCA 7 Masters Brendan Casey AUS
ILCA 7 GM Brett Beyer AUS
ILCA 7 GGM Steve Gunther AUS

The run down on the final places from Sail Down Under’s Harry Fisher is Here.

The full results for the event are Here.

The 2024 ILCA 7 World Championship concluded on 31st January at Adelaide Sailing Club with a bang for the top 10 double points Medal Race and a fizz for the other 142 sailors in the final fleet race which could not be started for various reasons.

Still a total of six qualifying and four finals races were completed in good to excellent through to character building conditions on St Vincents Gulf. With the dominant breeze at 210 degrees providing a 100 KM fetch from Kangaroo Island the sailors enjoyed some classic downwind surfing conditions as the waves approached two metres on the stronger wind days.

 
Going into the Medal Race any of the top three could take the title. Matt Wearn was then 8 points ahead of Norway’s Hermann Tomasgaard with Micky Beckett (GBR) a point further back. Matt lead for almost all of the medal race to take his second ILCA 7 World Championship. Hermann Tomasgaard retained his second place with a second in the medal race with Micky Beckett finished fifth keeping his third overall.

Full results for the event are Here.

Tracks of the medal race can be accessed HERE.

Brett Beyer Current ILCA 7 GM World Champion and winner of 15 ILCA World Masters Titles

The ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 World Masters gets underway at Adelaide Sailing Club this weekend with the practice race on Saturday 3 February. The series will run for the a week concluding on 10 February.

There are 231 sailors from 20 countries competing including 136 Australians.

The event web site is Here.

The Event Welcome Pack of information about the venue in Here.

Charlotte Rose (USA), Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) and  Emma Plasschaert (BEL) podium in Mar del Plata

The 2024 Women’s world championship from Yacht Club Argentino in Mar del Plata, Argentina concluded on 10 January with three Australians finishing in the top 20 in the 100 boat event. Elyse Ainsworth, WA was best of the Australians at 13th, Mara Stransky, QLD, 17th; Casey Imeneo, VIC, 19th followed by Zoe Thompson, WA, 30th & Sylvie Stannage, NSW, 64th.

Anne-Marie Rindom was the star of the show with four wins from 11 races needing only to sail in the final medal race to win. Fast improving American sailor Charlotte Rose was second and Belgian Emma Plasschaert third. The event web site is Here and full results are Here.

There were seven Olympic places awarded based on this event. See the Wiki Here for full information on qualification for all 2024 Olympic sailing events.

Mara Stransky had already qualified Australia for an Olympic place with a 10th in the 2023 Worlds in the Hague. We now eagerly await the announcement by Australian Sailing, which of the top Australian women will be our representative in the Paris Olympics in Marseilles 1-6 August 2024.