ALCA has announced that with regret, due to ongoing uncertainty about travel logistics and border closures, they have decided to cancel the Laser Australian Open & Youth Championships 1-8 January 2022 in Fremantle WA.

ALCA considered delaying the event to later in 2022 however there is no guarantee, with the strict stance taken by the WA Government,  that  this will be possible. ALCA COVID policy requires that sailors from all states and territories can travel quarantine free to and from the event for it to be the National Championship.

In place of 2022 Australian Championships each district has been invited to designate an event as the ILCA World Championships selection event. The results from these district events will be interleaved and scaled for size to rank sailors for 2022 ILCA World Championships. The ranking event for NSW & ACT sailors will be the NSW & ACT State Championships 4-5 December at Georges River Sailing Club.

Michael Blackburn, three-time Olympic gold medal-winning Laser coach, will talk about the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday 7 September at 7 – 8 pm (AEST).

This Australian Sailing webinar is free and open to all. If you are interested in attending the webinar, please register Here.

You can see a fine tribute to coach Michael Blackburn by Tom Slingsby Here.

Due to the continuing uncertainties of COVID restrictions Double Bay Sailing Club has made the decision to cancel The Women’s Regatta, which was scheduled for 25-26 September 2021.

This event has been an important part of DBSC’s aim to support and promote women’s participation in the sport and the ILCA/Laser class. It is an event like no other and will be back when COVID is controlled.

Thanks to volunteers and participants who had planned to be part of the event.

You can see the video of the Laser 50th Regatta on 20 June here.

Thanks to Double Bay Sailing Club for staging this event.

Special thanks to the great organising by Diana Chen the video capture by Aero Media with video production by James Tudball of The White Tree.

Matt Wearn has maintained Australia’s dominance in the Laser Class at the Olympic Games, winning the nation’s third consecutive Gold in the event.

Matt overcame a nervous start to the regatta to completely dominate the middle and late stages to have the Gold wrapped up in advance of the Medal Race.

Matt had only to “make a genuine effort to start, sail the course and finish” in the medal race to take the gold. He did that with ease sailing conservatively with a come from behind second in the medal race to cement his series win from Croatian Tonci Stipanovic who was also silver medalist in Rio and Norway’s Hermann Tomasgaard.

“Probably relief,” was his first emotion after securing the Olympic crown. “It has been quite a long journey and a particularly stressful week. It wasn’t the ideal start to a regatta, so I couldn’t have felt better than locking away a gold medal before the Medal Race.”

Australian Sailing reports the man behind Australia’s three consecutive Laser gold medals is master coach Michael Blackburn. Michael is a four times Australian Laser Standard Champion and also a World Champion 2006 and bronze Olympic medalist in 2000.

“Quite a thrill to get it done early,” Blackburn said before today’s Medal Race. “It has been a goal of mine to have someone win the regatta before the medal race, because the medal races can be a bit iffy sometimes. To get it done in such a good style and quite unexpectedly is quite the thrill.”

See photos of Matt and Mara Stransky from World Sailing Here.

See Tom Slingsby’s terrific tribute to Matt Wearn and Michael Blackburn Here.