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.

Saturday Photos

Sunday Photos

 Bruce Paine upwind in waves rather larger than he is used to in Canberra

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.

The Event Web Site is Here.

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.

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.

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.

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.