ILCA NSW & ACT

Fair dinkum – photo of a spectator at the golf event

A field of 18 players turned up for the annual lead up event to the State Laser Masters.

The event was played at the Callala Country Golf Club on the Friday before the Laser Masters.

The event caters for all skill levels so Tournament Director Hugh Leicester opted for a two person Ambrose format.

Team Hugh Leicester (MHASC) and Sandy Kiernan (NSC) won the event.

You can see details of how the Tournament Director managed to win in organiser Rob Lowndes’ report HERE.

Standards in Action Jervis Bay Masters 2011

The NSW & ACT State Masters is on 13th -14th February at Jervis Bay Sailing Club. This is a great place for Laser Sailing with beautiful open water. If you were at Jervis Bay in 2011, the last time we ran the Masters there, you might remember the lovely NE’ers. The photo above  may remind you.

NB Sailsports‘ Rob McMillan has donated a sail for a lucky sailor at the Masters. The draw will be at the presentation on Sunday. Rob will have his van at the event and will be supporting sailors with charters. If you need any Laser gear at the event come along a see Rob or Ann.

This is our cube regatta for Masters and an event not to be missed.

The event will be run with the usual format of six races over two days.

The Notice of Race is HERE. Entry is $60 and you can enter HERE.  You can see who has entered to date HERE.

The Sailing Instruction for the event are HERE. Venue location, arrival and COVID plan information is HERE.

Online form to sign on and off is HERE.

Check-in to the club via Service NSW is HERE.

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International Laser Class Association has announced that applications for entry for the following World Championships are now being accepted.

• 2021 ILCA Laser Radial Youth World Championships 23-31 July 2021 Arco Italy
• 2021 ILCA Laser 4.7 Youth World Championships 7-14 August 2021 Dun Laoghaire Ireland

Information about all ILCA Laser World Championships and access to applications is available through the ILCA events page HERE.

If these events can’t be held as World Championships due to travel restrictions there is provision for them to be run as International Regattas for those who can travel to and from the venue.

It seems unlikely that Australian sailors will be able to travel to compete in these events. Those considering entering them should carefully read the “Entry Regulations” and Attachment 1 “Application and Entry Procedure” of the respective Notices of Race;

• NoR Radial Youth Worlds
• NoR 4.7 Youth Worlds

Also relevant is the Australian Institute of Sports information on overseas travel for sport HERE.

With border restrictions easing (for the most part) the Queensland Laser Association is welcoming all Laser sailors to participate in a program of regattas and coaching to be held in the pristine waters of the Whitsunday region in April 2021 as follows:

• Sail Airlie – 3-5 April (Easter) – hosted by Whitsunday Sailing Club, Airlie Beach;
• Coaching – 6-7 April – by QAS Head Coach, Shane Smith – from Whitsunday Sailing Club, Airlie Beach; and
• Queensland Laser Championships: 8-10 April – hosted by Port Denison Sailing Club, Bowen on behalf of the QLA.

Further details are provided in the attached flyer HERE.

It’s on again, the legendary Masters Golf Tournament will be held on Friday 12^th February the day before the NSW & ACT Laser Masters.  Venue is the beautiful Callala Country Golf Club. You need to arrive around noon to sign in, be allocated to a team, have a bite to eat and be ready for a 1:00pm first tee time.

Cost is just $25 plus $35 for a cart if you want one.  If you are intending to play please email or SMS Rob Lowndes at lowndesr@bigpond.net.au or 0419 266 257.

The tournament director on the day will be our very own ILCA Vice President, Hugh Leicester.  If you might be a little embarrassed about the quality of your golf, as most of us are, it simply does not matter as we will again be playing an Ambrose format.  So pack your golf clubs (or hire some from the pro shop) and come and join us for a fun afternoon.

Our favourite venue for large Laser events the Port Stephens Sailing and Aquatic Club (PSSAC) at Salamander Bay has now been secured by the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club (NCYC). The clubs memberships will be merged.

This is a good outcome as the Port Stephens Council had sought to get greater community benefit from the the club and its iconic location. It was feared that commercial interests might prevail.

NCYC is a strong and well organised club and its management of PSSAC will help promote and retain sailing in the area. PSSAC President Lachlan McPherson said of the changed management “We see this as a very positive outcome to secure and further develop the venue on Salamander Bay for dinghy sailors both local and visiting”

The newly merged club is off to a flying start with a new name “The Bay Sailing Centre” and a makeover with barista made coffee and snack bar and  a discover sailing experience kicking off from 21st December. The Port Stephens Examiner carried the advertisement of the new initiatives HERE.

We will be running the (one year delayed) Oceania and Australian Laser Masters Championships at PSSAC 10-13 February 2023. NCYC have indicated their support for the event arrangements which we have had for some time with PSSAC.

The NSW & ACT Laser Annual General Meeting was held by Zoom at 7.30pm on 10th December 2020. Online meeting was due to COVID-19.

Minutes and reports from the meeting are HERE.

Matt Wearn on his way to winning the Standards – Photo by Jon West

The NB Sailsports NSW & ACT Laser State Championships were held over the weekend of 5-6 December at Belmont 16s Sailing Club.

Entries were COVID Safe limited to 120 with strong fleets of Standard (55) and Radial (57) and a small 4.7 (8). Olympic representatives from Australia, New Zealand and Belgium ensured some very competitive racing in the Standard and Radial fleets.

The weather on Saturday was forecast to be good and was anything but. 180 degree changes and mostly light and variable winds only allowed R.O. Andrew McLachlan to run two of the three scheduled races. Sunday had a terrible forecast but a good north westerly at 20 plus knots saw the three scheduled races completed – a pretty good breeze for a westerly.

In the Standards Australia’s and New Zealand’s Olympic representatives Matt Wearn and Sam Meech went head to head. Sam and fellow countryman George Gautrey had the upper hand on day one while Matt scored three bullets in the breeze on day two to take a one point win. Australian Sailing Team and Double Bay SC member Finn Alexander was a very consistent fourth.

In the Radials RSYS/DBSC’s Brook Wilson led after day one with a first and second. In the breeze on day two however Belgian Emma Plasschaert the 2018 World Laser Radial Champion scored two wins. Both however were eclipsed by Zoe Thomson from Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club WA. Zoe had a consistent series counting 1,2,2,2 to win by one point from Emma.  Australia’s Olympic Radial sailor Mara Stransky was just one point behind Emma in third counting a win and three 3rd places. Local Under 19 RSYS/GRSC/DBSC sailor Daniel Costandi was the sole male in the top seven places. He had a consistent series in the hot fleet.

Grand Master Pru Bennett RPAYC had a good win in the small 4.7 fleet. Pru sailed consistently for three bullets to second placed Under 16 Nathan Deng RSYS who won two races.

Thanks to the fabulous Belmont 16s club, to Sailing Manager Nadine Steenson and the volunteers, several of whom would normally sail in the event. Thanks also to the our R.O. Andrew McLachlan and to the club for allowing the event to proceed with COVID Safe rules in place.

The full results for the event are HERE.

Photographer Jon West has a huge number of photos which you can browse HERE and buy.

Mara Stransky with chasing Radial Fleet – Photo by Jon West

Due to COVID safe club requirements entries for the NB Sailsports NSW & ACT Laser State Championships at Belmont 5-6 December are capped at 120 and there will be no beach entries.

The event is fully booked and entries are closed as of 30 November.

You can see who has entered HERE

If any sailors cancel their entry we will offer their place in order to folks who register on the wait list HERE.

The NoR for the event is HERE and the SI are HERE.

Following is some information on the venue and the COVID safe arrangements we have.

On Arrival

• Please follow the direction of the club volunteers.
• Trailer parking is provided across the main road (Ross St).
• Trailer parking and coach boat logistics details are HERE.
• Registration will be at the Race Office on the waterfront side of the boatshed at the eastern end of the club grounds from 9.00am until 11.30am on Saturday. There you will need to confirm your entry details, in particular sail number, rig and age category.
• A limited number of printed Sailing Instructions will be available. To save some trees SIs will be posted on the notice board and are available online HERE and from the Australian Laser App.

Apple App Store
Google Play Store

• There will be a briefing at 11.30am on Saturday adjacent to the Race Office.
• There will be rigging area COVID marshals – please follow their directions.

Sign On/Off

• Sign on and off is online HERE. This link is also in Regatta Messages on the Australian Laser app and you can get the sign on/off page by scanning the QR code available at the Race Office.
• If you don’t have access to a net connected device some will be available to sign on/off at the Race Office.
• As part of their COVID plan the club asks that family, coaches and supporters who are on the club grounds register by scanning QR codes which will be placed around the site.  Sailors don’t need to register on the club’s QR codes just the sign on/off.

Keep Your Own Dolly

• This will be a keep you own dolly event.
• There is quite a long water frontage both east and west of the club so finding your dolly should not be a problem.

Results & Notices

• Results & notices will be posted on the notice board in the Race Office.
• These will also be on the Australian Laser app – Select the NSW & ACT State Championships in National & District Events.
• Results will also be on our web site HERE.

Club Facilities & Membership

• The boatshed, shower and toilet facilities will be available.
• A limited range of food and drinks will be available in the boatshed next to the Race Office.
• Due to COVID restrictions the main club, details of which you can see HERE, is only open to members.
• You can join the club for one year ($8). Join mornings only at the front desk.
• A better strategy if you want to avail of the club’s excellent facilities is to join online HERE and then just pick up your membership card at the front desk.

As Billy Joel sang in The Piano Man back in 73 “It’s a pretty good crowd for a Saturday” Double Bay Sailing Club set a new fleet record last weekend for a Saturday club race with 76 Lasers competing.

Three were elite sailor visitors Mara Stransky (Australian Olympic Rep), Zoe Thompson (Australian Sailing Team Member) and Emma Plasschaert (Belgian Olympic Rep). They along with DBSC’s NSW Institute of Sport members – Daniel Costandi, Mina Ferguson, Evie Saunders and Brooke Wilson made for stiff competition in the Radials.

If you want to join the crowd at DBSC check their web site HERE.

We have a new mobile app which each Australian Laser district can use and which will provide notifications, information, documents, results etc. relevant to our district and regattas.

Many sailors will have seen how useful this information and notifications are for regattas when a similar app was used at the Victorian 2020 events earlier in the year.

The app is free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store – just search “Australian Lasers” and look for the distinctive app logo or click on one of the links below.

Apple App Store
Google Play Store

You will get notifications of any new information on one Australian Laser district and one Regatta which will be the last district and last regatta which you accessed.

With the October changes to COVID health orders we are able to run the  NB Sailsports NSW & ACT Open State Championships at Belmont 16s 5-6 December.  Everyone who enters will have the chance to win a Laser sail  donated by NB Sailsports’ Rob McMillan. The winner to be drawn at the presentation.

The States is a cube event for  open and youth categories. As usual there will be prizes for masters categories  at the States but  Masters cubes will be awarded at the State Masters event at Jervis Bay 13-14 February 2021.

We will have some new land arrangements for the States as part of our COVID Safe Plan  to maintain social distancing. Due to COVID safe requirements of the club this event will be limited to 120 entries and no beach entries will be accepted. We average around 100 entries for our States so the 120 limit may not be reached. If it is then entries will be closed so best to place your entry now online HERE. See who has entered HERE.

After the disappointments of postponed Nationals and cancelled World Championship events we are all looking forward to actually sailing in an event in our own bubble.

The Notice of Race for the States is HERE and the SI are HERE.

Don’t forget if you are entering the States or our other events you need to have current membership. Membership runs from 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2021 and can be paid HERE. Members of Lane Cove 12 ft SSC and MHASC have membership paid by their clubs.

One of the first regattas back the Bubble Cup Pittwater Centreboard Regatta will be run at Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club on 3rd and 4th October.

The site with regatta information is HERE and you can enter online HERE

You can see the results of the event HERE.

Australian Sailing has announced HERE that it has ceased running Australian Youth Championships. It will continue to run State Youth Championships once COVID-19 orders allow.

Following AS’s change ALCA has announced that it will be placing additional emphasis on Youth at the Australian Championship events. The Laser Australian Championships already include Youth categories as cube events. These championships will become the selection event for the Laser sailors in the World Sailing run Youth Sailing World Championships and are and will remain the ranking events for applicants for all ILCA World Championships.

ALCA will rename the Australian Championships as Australian Laser Open and Youth Championships. Going forward these championships will always be run as separate events from the Masters while the Australian Laser Masters will be run as a separate annual event.

The Australian Open and Youth Championship 6 year rotation around the states will be unchanged though as previously advised the WA event at Fremantle SC due to COVID-19 will be postponed for one year.

The separate Australian Masters event will be held on a three year rotation around the east coast mainland states.

ALCA expects that with the greater focus on youth in the National Open and Youth Championships and with the increase in emphasis and numbers in the 4.7 at these events the Laser Nationals will continue to grow and prosper.

The separate National Masters events have always been popular and very well attended. ALCA considers that running more of these will increase Master’s participation and interest.

The rotation sequence for these events will be as follows:

Double Bay Sailing Club have decided to cancel this year’s Women’s Regatta.

The decision follows from the NSW Office of Sport recommendation last week that community sports organisations cease activities that result in the mixing of participants and staff from different regions including participants from different regions within Greater Sydney.

DBSC Commodore Andrew Cox’s notice on the event is HERE.

The club is really keen to run the event  and it has been scheduled for 25-26 September in 2021.