2025 ILCA 6 & & 7 World Championships Qingdao China Wrap
Zoe Thomson showing how it’s done in strong winds on Day 6 in Qingdao
19 of Australia’s top sailors (8 ILCA 6 and 11 ILCA 7) competed in the 2025 ILCA Open World Championships at the 2008 Olympic venue Qingdao, China. There are 99 women and 139 men sailing in the event which ran from 10 to 17 May.
No races were completed on any of the first four days. Reasonable winds were forecast but no really sailable winds arrived until Day 5. The event finished will bang on Day 6 with 25 knot plus winds sweeping across the two course areas.
The ILCA 6 Women completed 6 races and the ILCA 7 Men just 5. All races were sailed as qualifying races with the split fleets (3 for ILCA 7 and 2 for ILCA 6). There were no gold and silver finals fleet races.
In the ILCA 6 event the winner Louise Cervera FRA posted two wins in the light wind races and then consistent places when the oysters were blowing off the rocks on the final day. Agata Barwinska POL and Eve Mcmahon IRL were separated by a tie break in second and third. The Australian team performed very well with Elyse Ainsworth 7th, Zoe Thomson 12th and Sylvie Stannage 16th.
In the ILCA 7s it all came down to the last race in a semi gale as all the top ranked sailors were very close on points and already had a bad race to drop. In the end there were just three points separating the top 6 sailors. In the last race Willem Wiersema NED and Pavlos Kontides CYP won their respective fleet races and finished one point apart in that order. WA’s Zac Littlewood after a great and consistent series had a 6th in the final race and finished two points away from Willem in third. Fellow WA sailors Ethan Mcaullay was next best Australian in 16th.
Full results are Here.
There is some great commentary on YouTube by Jon Emmett and Lily Xu over the live stream of Day 5 and Day 6 races. Well worth watching for the Olympic sailor and coach insights on the tactics and techniques of the competitors.
The Regatta Online Management System with links to results and all information is Here.
