2025 Oceania & Australian Youth & Open Championships

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.