ILCA NSW & ACT

The huge program of National, Regional and World Championships except for the postponed Laser Masters World Championships has now been completed.

What a fabulous job the Victorian Laser Association, its event organising committee and Sandringham Yacht Club and Royal Geelong Yacht Club did in staging these events.

The best way to track what happened at these events is via the Laser2020 mobile app which can be downloaded free from the App Store and Play Store at App Store HERE Play Store HERE. The event web site  Summer of 2020 is HERE.

There are summaries of the event outcomes and links to full results and photos from the events on the Australian Laser web site posts as linked below.

• Australian & Oceania Laser Masters Championships – Geelong
• Women’s and Men’s Laser Radial World Championships – Sandringham
• Men’s Laser Standard World Championship – Sandringham 
• Australian Open Laser Championship – Sandringham 

Based on safety and public health factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ILCA World Council and local event host have decided NOT to proceed with the 2020 ILCA Laser Masters World Championships as scheduled on 21-28 March 2020 in Geelong Australia.

The smaller entry preceding Oceania & Australian Laser Masters event is proceeding.

The ILCA notice on this decision follows.

We understand that some sailors may already be on site, other are en route and some have imminent departures. Given the extreme rapidity of developments and the uncertainty surrounding travel and participation in this event, the decision to take this extraordinary step was decided to be the most prudent course of action under the circumstances.

The Australian government has now issued advise against non-essential, organized public gatherings of more than 500 people as a precaution to reduce community spread of the virus. With the number of competitors, spouses, event personnel, and visitors expected, ILCA has chosen to heed this government health advisory.

Whether the event will be rescheduled to a later date or cancelled will be determined in the near future. Refund arrangements will also be addressed and communicated with entrants as soon as practical.

As well ILCA has reported on the status of the remaining three 2020 World Championships HERE.

• 2020 Under-21 Worlds July in Malcesine, Italy
• 2020 4.7 Youth Worlds August in Arco, Italy
• 2020 Radial Youth Worlds August in Dziwnów, Poland

Presently these events are under review as the COVID-19 situation in Europe (and elsewhere) is very uncertain. Sailors interested should monitor the ILCA web site for updates.

Tracy Usher President of the International Laser Class Association (ILCA) World Council has issued his outlook for the class copied below. In part of this statement Tracy is responding to a recent move by a group of disgruntled Europeans (and an one Argentinian) sponsored by the ex UK based Laser builder Laser Performance Europe (LPE).

LPE is about to be replaced or joined by three new European builders under the requirement by World Sailing that the ILCA open up the supply of Laser equipment. If you want more of the disgruntled group’s views courtesy of a web site set up and run by LPE then click HERE.

Tracy Usher ILCA President and keen Laser Masters sailor – His outlook is below

Throughout its 50 year existence, the International Laser Class Association has endured many challenges – whether it was the bankruptcy of the founding builder and the business failures of a number of other builders over the decades or the outside attempt to start a separate association with the “Torch” trying to supplant the existing class. And yet the Laser Class has worked to meet these and other challenges and continued to grow to become today the largest adult and youth sailing organization in the world and, significantly, the single-handed Olympic dinghy for both men and women.

While many international class associations organize a single annual world championship, ILCA successfully organizes seven annual world championships with charter support across our three rig variants and various age groups including Radial Women, Radial Men, Standard Men, 4.7 Youth, Radial Youth, Under-21 in both Standard and Radial rigs and the Masters. In addition, there are highly successful regional and district and local championships in many of the rigs and age groups. This is only possible because of the broad support of grassroots of the class — from passionate sailors and hundreds of dedicated volunteers all over the world.

This past year has seen another set of extraordinary challenges for the class: undergoing equipment trials to emerge as selected equipment for the next Olympic cycle and reorganizing builder relations in order to comply with the World Sailing Olympic Equipment Policy necessitated by European Union antitrust law. With the same determination shown by our members competing on the water, the association is on the verge of meeting these challenges to ensure the long-term success of the class.

The process to comply with World Sailing’s Olympic Equipment Policy has presented several significant challenges which have taken a substantial amount of time and effort to address. The fact is that nearly 50 years of activity has resulted in a complex web of contractual relationships, including some for which ILCA is not a party but which directly impact ILCA operations. The good news is that this process is finally nearing completion and new builders will be receiving molds and starting production in the near future.

During this transition, there has been understandable concern over supply, particularly in Europe – the largest region for the class – which had not previously seen many of the supply problems that had been plaguing other regions of the world for many years. While we would all like for this process to happen instantaneously, everyone is working hard to make sure it is done properly. And this takes time.

Additionally, we also appreciate the legacy of the familiar starburst logo on our sails, particularly for long-time class members, some of whom have been sailing the boat since the 1970s. All of us would ideally like to maintain the original logo but, unfortunately, ILCA does not have control over the Laser trademark on boats and sails and cannot unilaterally authorize the use of the starburst on the sails.

It is unfortunate that the company who does control this trademark in certain parts of the world has yet to accept the offer to be an approved builder and build boats in compliance with the ILCA Class Rules. Instead it seems that, with the support of some individuals in Europe who appear unwilling to wait for new approved builders to get up to speed, they are attempting to start a rival organization with the express intent to undermine ILCA and its sailors. It is difficult to see how this benefits sailors or sailing.

Regardless of the insignia on the sails, we remain the World Sailing recognized International Laser Class Association and will continue to conduct Laser Class events around the world as we have for the past 50 years.

As we have worked to overcome past challenges, the association is working to meet the current ones. We remain focused on getting additional builders on line in the very near future, including three highly respected builders in Europe. We anticipate that additional builders will enable improvement in supply conditions world wide and that the competition will ensure that the sport remains affordable.

The ILCA actively and fully supports the EurILCA Executive in working to ensure stability in Europe as we work to meet our common goals and address concerns of our membership.

Stay tuned for additional announcements in the coming days.

ALCA and partners OLCA, ILCA have pleasure in announcing the Lasers 4 Africa Appeal.

The appeal aims to collect 20 Lasers donated from clubs or members. Complete boats are preferred however we will be able to add missing parts. We are also accepting sails, spars and foils which are surplus to needs and which can be used with boats donated but incomplete.

These Lasers are the ones sitting in clubs that are no longer used that would be appreciated by young sailors in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. The boats will be shipped to these locations for training and for African events.

The boats and equipment will be shipped from our other co-sponsor PSA’s premesis on the Central Coast of NSW.

It is hoped that these Lasers will be shipped to Africa by June/July 2020.

If you have or know of a Laser in need of a new home under this program please contact Ken Hurling on 0417644086 or kenhurling@hotmail.com

The SPLM is on again this year at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron 9-13 July 2020.

This is always a great event with top organisation at a fabulous club.

You can get accommodation a stones throw from the rigging area and the club restaurant and bar.

The flyer for SPLM 2020 is HERE.

Entry is $200. This includes the Laser Forum on Thursday evening and the event dinner on Saturday night.

You can get information and enter HERE.

There is now a cap of 180 places on the Oceania and Laser National Masters event at Geelong 13-18th March.

There are around 15 places left so if you want to compete in this great lead-up event to the Laser Worlds at the same venue it is time to act.

The site for the event is HERE. The Notice of Race is Here.

You can enter online HERE.

Late entries are still open for the Laser Worlds. There are nearly 300 entries for this event including 166 Australians.

You can apply for Entry for the World Masters HERE.

NoR, SI’s and other documents for the World Masters are on the ILCA web site HERE.

66 Laser Masters competed in the State Masters at Lake Jindabyne Sailing Club over the weekend 8-9 February. With the dire weather prevailing along the coast on the weekend we were fortunate to be able to sail the event at Jindabyne – anywhere else and the series would likely have been run in the bar.

Three races were completed on day 1 in a 12 to 22 knot SE breeze with lots of big shifts to keep the sailors on their toes.

Only one race on was completed on Sunday after the easterly breeze died leaving the Standards a very slow finish of their one race and the Radials somewhat of a lottery in the final stage of theirs.

The results for series day are HERE.

There are some photos taken by the members of LJSC HERE.

The State Masters, which is a cube event, will be held on the weekend 8-9th February 2020 at Lake Jindabyne Sailing Club. This will be a great lead up to the big Masters events following in Geelong.

The LJSC folks are as keen as mustard and offering a great experience and hospitality to all the sailors who make the trip.

There is lots to do in Jindabyne and in the surrounding Snowy Mountains so you can stay a while. They have had a rough time in the Kosciuszko National Park area with the fires. These did not affect Jindabyne and most of the alpine roads are now open again though the scenery may be altered a lot. Road info for alpine travellers is HERE.

There had been some concern about the road access via the Monaro Highway (Canberra to Cooma). A few days ago the highway was closed but now with conditions moderating the highway is open though there are reports of smokey conditions in parts.

Accommodation is plentiful and diverse from camping to fancy apartments. There is a list of links to some accommodation and things to do options HERE.

The club will be running a dinner on the Saturday night and has a twilight race starting at 6.00pm on Friday 7th followed by a BBQ. Breakfast, snacks, lunch and coffee will be available at the club on Saturday and Sunday, with the bar open when the fleet is ashore. A Masters event at the highest sailing club in the land – not to be missed.

A flyer for the event is HERE. The Notice of Race is HERE and you can enter online HERE or up to 11.30am on 8th February at the Lake Jindabyne Club.

The Sailing Instructions for the event are HERE.

A regatta of two breezes Saturday top – Sunday bottom

98 Lasers competed in the Laser Metropolitan Championships at Double Bay over the weekend 1-2 February.

The first three races on Saturday saw a classic Sydney Harbour NE’er around 20 knots with gusts to 30 knots as recorded at the BoM weather station on the west harbour wedding cake.  There was lots of chop from the marine traffic and the wind and a lot of activity on the harbour only some of which was under full control. Three races were completed.

Day two saw a S to SE with the first race run in Double Bay. This proved problematic so  R.O. Andrew McLachlan moved the show to Rose Bay which offered a better breeze. The breeze was quite tricky but as usual the top sailors almost always managed to hit the right side of the big shifts.

In the 4.7′s Ethan Lozevski from Dobroyd Aquatic Club and WSC managed to win in a tight series. Ethan had no wins but a very consistent five second places. Second  was Xavier McLachlan from RSYS and DBSC and a point behind in third was Olivia Williams from RPAYC.

The Radials were dominated by Otto Henry WSC/DBSC/RSYS. Otto had four wins and two seconds. Daniel Costandi RSYS/DBSC/GRSC was a very consistent second from Jack Ferguson RSYS/DBSC/WSC. Evie Saunders was the first female finishing 5th. World GGM Champion Jeff Loosemore was the best of the masters and was 4th Radial overall.

Brett Beyer WSC won five of the Standard rig races and dominated this fleet. Fredrik Westman who is visiting from Finland and sailing from WSC was second in every race except Race 4 in which he beat Brett.  DBSC local Luke Parker had a consistent series beating fellow club mate and Laser State Championship winner Campbell Patton.

The results for the event are HERE.

Finally the long awaited carbon Radial bottom mast section has been approved for use.

The new mast section can be used from February in Club and District events and from September (after the Olympics) for National, Regional, World and Olympic events. This means the carbon lower section can’t be used in the World Laser Masters or National Masters events in Geelong.

The cost of the new section will be around $1,300 – current aluminium section is $440.

The Metros are on 1st and 2nd February at Double Bay Sailing Club “the best Laser Sailing Club in the World”.

A great chance for competitive Laser racing on iconic Sydney Harbour.

The Notice of Race for the event is HERE. The Sailing Instructions are HERE. You can enter online HERE or up until 11.30am on 1st February at the club.

You will be able to park in the Double Bay Public School grounds opposite Steyne Park for $20 cash at the gate for both days. Free parking is very scarce otherwise in the area. Trailers can be left overnight on Steyne Park – there will not be any security which has not been a problem in the past.

The club will be running catering on both days and breakfast on Sunday. Drinks will available après race on Saturday. Check out the Double Bay Sailing Club web site  HERE for more updates.

We will have the option to sign on and off via SMS 0477 647 537. Sailors who have pre-entered online can deploy from other harbour clubs for the event.

Double Bay Sailing Club ran a conversation session with Tom Slingsby moderated by Martin White on 26th November 2019.

They have posted a 100 minute video  of the event on Vimeo so you can see some of the great insights presented in Tom’s unassuming style.

You can see the video HERE

For the Australian Championships at Sandringham in January out of 274 boats entered some 97 corrections where required at measurement. The most common issues were sail numbers and national codes (21), rudder angle (14), rudder or centreboard too thick (19).

It is likely that the boats presented for measurement for the World Masters in Geelong will have similar (or possibly worse) compliance.

Now is a good time to check your boat against the class rules. Sail number and national code (AUS) specifications are HERE . For the Worlds all boats have to have their AUS affixed in the right place and a correct full Laser number.

The specifications for centreboards and rudders are HERE  We will have a rudder and centreboard gauge available at both the Metropolitan Championships Double Bay and the State Masters at Lake Jindabyne so sailors can check out their blade thickness and rudder angle.

It is a World Championship at Geelong and Laser is a strict one design class. Check your boat and expect no mercy at measurement and you won’t be disappointed.

In November 2018, World Sailing approved its Olympic Equipment Strategy, which requires that any interested party who meets the necessary technical qualifications must be allowed to manufacture and sell Olympic equipment.

Seven manufacturers are now being offered provisional licenses to move forward in the builder application process. The manufacturers approved to move forward in the application process are:

• Devoti Sailing s.r.o. (Poland)
• Element 6 Evolution Co Ltd  (Thailand)
• Nautivela srl (Italy)
• Ovington Boats Ltd (United Kingdom)
• Qindao Zou Inter Marine Co., Ltd (China)
• Rio tecna srl (Argentina)
• Zim Sailing (United States)

In addition in December 2019 ILCA offered UK based builder Laser Performance an agreement allowing them if they choose to be re-instated as a builder. The other two existing builders Performance Sailcraft Australia and Performance Sailcraft Japan remain as fully qualified builders.

Because the Laser trademark is held by other parties the boats and equipment from the new builders will be ILCA trade marked.

The builders won’t have designated territories so any builder can sell to anyone in the World if they choose. This open market should put downward pressure on price and eradicate pockets of Laser supply drought.

There is more information on this change and the new builder selection process on the ILCA web site HERE

The Australian Laser Championships were sailed between 3rd and 8th January at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne with 264 competitors from 26 countries competing. The Nationals attracted many of the very best Laser sailors in the World so the standard of racing was very high.

The event is the first of a string of big Laser events including the Men’s Standard and Women’s and Men’s Radial World Championships at Sandringham in February and the Oceania and Australian and later World Laser Masters events in March at Royal Geelong Yacht Club, Victoria.

Conditions where quite variable and at times challenging as Port Phillip can be. Conditions ranged from bush fire smoke affected days with light and variable winds on two days to steady winds with ideal sailing conditions and then a testing 18-25 knot south-westerly day to conclude the series. Day 2 was blown out with a strong south-west front moving over the course at start time and blowing all day. Unusually there were no sea breeze days for the whole series. The conditions were a really good test and as is often the case the top sailors managed a string of consistent places with a sprinkling of brilliance.

11 of the schedule 12 races were completed.

In the Standard rigs Australian 2020 Olympic representative and World ranked number two Matt Wearn had the series won with a race to go. This was Matt’s 5th National title. Second was World ranked number three New Zealander Sam Meech followed by his countryman George Gautrey. Mathew finished just ahead of the Kiwi duo in the 2019 Laser Worlds in Sakaiminato, Japan in July. The 2019 Worlds event was won by the 2019 National Champion and 2016 Australian Rio Olympic gold medalist Tom Burton who did not contest the National Championship.

Eight of the top ten places in the 126 boat Radial event were filled by the very talented women sailors. These were headed by two Netherlands sailors Marit Bouwmeester and up and coming Maxime Jonker who went head to head with Marit winning by just four points after a bullet in the final race.

Brody Riley from Victoria was third – a great result leading up to the Men’s Radial Worlds on the same race track in February. Queenslander Mara Stransky won a cube for fifth and was the first Australian women. Mara, who was also the first Australian woman in the 2019 Nationals in Devonport, started this series with a bang with two bullets on day 1 and looking forward to the Radial Women’s Worlds in February her form is excellent.

The 79 boat 4.7 fleet was dominated by Team Singapore’s Jonathan Lio. Jonathon won 7 of the 11 races in all conditions to be comfortably ahead of fellow Team Singapore sailor Russell Yom. First Australian was third placed Toby Coote from WA and the first female was 2019 National 4.7 Champion Queenslander Kristen Wadley. Kristen was 7th in this event.

You can see all the results HERE and event photos HERE.

You can see write ups of the event on the Laser 2020 event web site HERE.

The best way to stay in touch with this and all the Laser 2020 events is with the Laser2020 app which you can get free on the AppStore HERE or PlayStore HERE.

Matt Wearn leading the pack in the Standards at 2020 Nationals