ILCA NSW & ACT

The South Pacific Laser Masters are on again at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.

Pencil in 21-24 July, 2017 for great Masters competition and superb sailing.

Early bird discount entry is only $190 including the popular Thursday night Laser Forum and the famous Regatta Dinner.

Don’t miss out – you’ll find the 2017 SPLM NOR and entry form HERE and you can enter online HERE.

Marlena Berzins Radial Winner

Congratulations to Marlena Berzins  and Zac West for their wins in the East Coast Championship held at Georges River Sailing Club last weekend.

Despite the un-cooperative weather Saturday saw four light wind races completed. On Sunday there was no wind to speak of and no races. This saw the series scored over four races with no drops.

Marlena RSYS/DBSC won in the Radials with 1,1,2,2 places from Nathan Bryant RPAYC 2,2,1,4 and Jack Littlechild RSYS/DBSC 4,3,3,1.

In the 4.7′s Zac West RSYS/DBSC was very consistent posting 2,2,2,2 to win followed by Sylvie Stannage RSYS and Archie Gargett KCC (Kurnell Catamaran Club).

The full results for the series are HERE.

The NB Sailsports sponsored East Coast Championships will be held at Georges River 16′ Sailing Club (Sanoni Ave, Sandringham) on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend 10-11 June 2017.

This event is open to Laser 4.7 and Radial sailors of any age as well as Opti and 420′s.

The Notice of Race is available HERE. Online entries can be placed on the NSW Opti web site HERE.

For more information there is a brief for the event HERE.

STOP PRESS

In an effort to encourage a few more registrations to come through before the weekend, the late fee of $100 on this occasion will not be applied if there are any late entries ahead of the weekend for this regatta. We are currently at around 85 boats all up in total across all classes. Would be great to hit the 100 mark!

Finn Alexander at Medemblik

Results from the Grade 1 Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik, Holland are HERE.

There were 100 competitors in the Men’s and 68 in the Women’s.

Well done to Matthew Wearn 3rd and Mitchell Kennedy 4th who were joined by Finn Alexander in the medal race to finish 8th. Not bad with three Aussies in the top 10.

There were 5 Australians in the Women’s event with Zoe Thompson best placed at 37th. DBSC’s Marlena Berzins sailed her absolute best with some great results to come out with 60 out of 68 Competitors in the Women’s fleet.

Finn’s quote from the seat in the A380 on his way home:

” The medal race was intense, to say the least… with the tip 10 best sailors in the world put against each other on a super short course close to shore, it was bound to be a close race. The points were really close, so my plan was to sail the race like any other… The Start went really well and was popped out on the leeward end and ended up crossing most of the fleet… The race went so quickly, a total blur, and was really tricky to find the time to look around and get into the Rhythm of the race… with heaps of boats around, the waves were really choppy and messy (just like Double Bay) so downwinds were quick and require a high degree of precision. I finished 7th in the medal race, overtaking the Cypriot Pavlos Kontides (2012 Olympic Silver medalist) on the final downwind. I secured 8th overall and I am really happy with that result.”

Following is a list of Laser events in NSW & ACT for next season 2017/18.

Masters sailors please note that we have now combined the Open and Masters States to be held at Double Bay 18-19th November 2017. Our traditional February Masters would be very close to, and detract from, the National Masters at Mooloolaba 9-12 February 2018.

The full list of known events including World and National Championships is on the Events Page.

If you have open invitation or inter-club events which you would like us to include on the list please send us a message HERE.

A printable (pdf) summary of the full list of Laser events is HERE.

Laser sailors will go to great lengths to get their boats to regattas to enjoy the racing.

The photo here was taken at the 2017 Adelaide Nationals. It shows a sterling effort.

If anyone has a photo of a larger Laser sandwich we will be happy to publish same or perhaps to create a new Guinness Records classification for the endeavour.

Photos to lasersandwich@laser.asn.au.

PS

Never to be outdone Matthew Blakey reports that 9 Kiwi Laser sailors transported their boats from Melbourne to Adelaide for the 2003-2004 Nationals in the configuration below.

It is a bit hard to see all the boats but we know Kiwis can count and as there are eight Laser sailors in the photo we are assuming that the 9th was the photographer so 9 is the current Laser sandwich record.

PS2

Our European travelling Laser representative Jeff Loosemore sent this hard to beat contribution to the how many Lasers can be packed on a trailer competition.

This is the Spanish team’s Laser trailer complete with 19 Lasers in Gydnia Poland for the Laser Masters Europeans 2015.

Laser legend Mike Mills with wife Jan has sold, serviced and transported way to many Lasers to count. Mike has a good memory and has called for the video ref on the New Zealand effort above while offering his own in the message below.

Great to see one of my old trailers still being put to good use. Jan and I used to load them on our own and they were road legal. The Kiwi effort from 2003 -2004 did get booked for being too wide, so does it count?

From memory our best and biggest load was 25 boats on a semi that brought boats to Royal Brighton for the World Cup, I think in about 2006 . This was hand loaded and unloaded.

These were before I was working for PSA when we did move quite a few boats.

I was always too busy to take any photos.

Michael & Jan Mills
NB Laser Sales
1995-2007

Mike Lee advises that the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron are running their winter series again this year.

Laser sailors are welcome to compete.

There four race days for the series:

• May 28
• June 18
• July 30
• August 27

Racing starts at 930AM each day with up to three races each day (no race after 1130AM).

The sailing instructions are HERE and you can enter online HERE.

Applications for entry will open Tuesday, 4 April 2017 at 00:01 Central US time for the 2017 ILCA World Standard and Masters Championship regattas.

You are encouraged to complete an entry application as soon as possible after it becomes available. Please be aware that if you do not apply by 16 May 2017, you may have little chance of receiving an entry offer.

The links below will take you to the event information sites with access to applications and additional information about each championship, including the Notice of Race and the district entry allocations.

2017 ILCA Laser Standard Men’s World Championship

• Dates: Tuesday, 12 September – Tuesday, 19 September 2017
• Venue: Split, Croatia
• Click HERE for Laser Standard Men World Championship Information & Application

2017 ILCA Laser Masters World Championships

• Dates: Thursday, 21 September – Saturday, 30 September 2017
• Venue: Split, Croatia
• Click HERE for Laser Masters World Championship Information & Application

A word to the wise from our Masters Rep Rob Lowndes follows:

I don’t know how many entries will be allowed but last I heard it will be limited by the amount of rigging space which seems a shame.  It will be the usual thing with limited acceptances to start with.  Our ALCA ranking policy will apply (http://www.lasersdownunder.com/masters-policy/).   It could be quite a while before we know if, for the first time ever, all Aussies who want to go will not get in!  So remember first in, best dressed…..

Final results for the Metropolitan Championship are HERE.

The Laser Metros are on next weekend at Double Bay Sailing Club.

This is always a great event with lots of entries (130 last time). This regatta will also be a great warm up for the Laser State Championship which DBSC will be hosting in November.

The Notice of Race is HERE and  the Sailing Instructions are attached and are available to download HERE.

You can enter online HERE (cost is $60 or $30 if you are under 21). Beach entries will be accepted up to 11.30am on Saturday 18^th March with payment by cash, Visa or Master card.

For sailors rigging at other clubs we will again have sign on and off by SMS available – just send an SMS to 0477 647 537 with the boat number/s and the words “sign on” and “sign off” (SIs 22.4 applies).

DBSC has arranged car parking at the Double Bay Public School just across Steyne Park from the club – entry is off William Street. Cost is $20 for the weekend going to the school’s P&C. Otherwise limited on street parking can be found but it may be a long walk away. Be warned the local parking police are quite vigilant so observation of the parking restriction signs is recommended.

Trailers can be parked on the grassed area near the club. Access for this trailer parking will be via Ocean Avenue where it meets the bay, and not Bay Street. Google map is HERE.

DBSC Commodore Luke Parker has the following message for Laser sailors:

On behalf of all at DBSC, I’d encourage Laser sailors from far and wide to join us at the 2017 NSW Laser Metropolitan Championships. DBSC hosted the Regatta in 2015 and it was a great success.  We’re determined to repeat that performance next weekend.

We’ll be racing on Sydney Harbour, not far from the Bridge, the City, the Harbour Islands and Fort Denison. It’s a spectacular and challenging place to race. Of course, we won’t have the harbour to ourselves, but we’ll be positioning courses to make the most of the prevailing winds with consideration of other traffic.

Our change rooms have ample hot water, you’ll get a DBSC engraved mug (guaranteed to become a collector’s item) and the canteen will be stocked. We have a $2 sausage sizzle after racing on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday.   What more could you want?

We look forward to racing with you on 18 and 19 March.

Applications for entry will open Thursday, 16 March 2017 at 00:01 Central US time for the following ILCA World Championship regattas:

•      2017 ILCA Laser Radial Youth World Championships
•      2017 ILCA Laser Radial Women’s World Championship
•      2017 ILCA Laser Radial Men’s World Championship

For all events, The deadline for receiving paid applications for initial allocation of places is 25 April 2017 at 23:59 Central US Time.

Note: Central US Time is 16 hours behind Australian Eastern Standard Time and 17 hours behind Australian Eastern Daylight Time.

You are encouraged to complete an entry application as soon as possible after it becomes available. Please be aware that if you do not apply by 25 April 2017, you may have little chance of receiving an entry offer.

The links below will take you to the event information sites with access to applications and additional information about each championship, including the Notice of Race and the district entry allocations.

2017 ILCA Laser Radial Youth World Championships

• Dates: Friday, 11 August – Friday, 18 August 2017
• Venue: Medemblik, Netherlands
• Click HERE for Laser Radial Youth World Championship Information & Application

2017 ILCA Laser Radial Women’s World Championship

• Dates: Saturday, 19 August – Saturday, 26 August 2017
• Venue: Medemblik, Netherlands
•  Click HERE for Laser Radial Women’s World Championship Information & Application

2017 ILCA Laser Radial Men’s World Championship

• Dates: Saturday, 19 August – Saturday, 26 August 2017
• Venue: Medemblik, Netherlands
• Click HERE for Laser Radial Men’s World Championship Information & Application

We dress funny and endure pain but we love it!

A great roll up of 114 Masters Lasers sailors enjoyed and endured, in equal measure, the State Masters at Great Lakes Sailing Club on Wallis Lake Forster over the weekend.

Three fronts swept over the venue over the weekend – fortunately none of them during the racing. As it was conditions were pretty challenging on Saturday with an around 20 knot NE and then after the three races a 2 mile work back home into a freshening 20 to 25 knot breeze. None of this dulled the enjoyment of the roast dinner and ales provided from the Great Lakes Sailing Club in the evening.

On Sunday, after a powerful overnight storm, the wind was SW and 5 to 15 knots. The conditions were tricky and the weed kept sailors busy with the centreboard lift and rudder sweep routine.

The competition was pretty intense as expected with four Laser Masters World Champions in attendance. There was none the less the usual good spirit with all rules issues sorted out on the water.

The final results are HERE. The fleet results are HERE.

John Basden took some nice photos on Day 1 which you can see HERE.

Thanks to the Great Lakes Sailing Club and RO Andrew McLachlan and his team for their fabulous organisation of the event.

The next Laser Masters extravaganza is the State Masters which this season will be at Great Lakes Sailing Club located in the Booti Booti National Park at 4859 The Lakes Way Forster. The Google map location is HERE.

This is always a popular venue with great open water on Wallis Lake and no Manly Ferries or sundry stink boats to distract us from the sailing.

There is camping at the Club and ample accommodation nearby and at Forster/Tuncurry. (Booking.com Trivago AirB&B Wotif).

The event will be run to the usual six race, two day format on the weekend of 18-19th February. The Notice of Race is HERE . The Sailing Instructions are HERE.

You can enter online HERE or up until 11.30am on Saturday 18th February at the Club.

You can see who has entered to date HERE.

The State Masters will be precede by the usual Masters Golf Tournament on Friday 17th February.

At Wallis Lake we have played the Tuncurry course in the past but due to popular demand this year’s event will be  played at the Forster course in Strand Street.  First tee time 1:00pm, cost $33 and cheaper if we get more players.  $40 for a cart,  and you can book one at 02 6554 6167.

Please SMS Rob Lowndes at 0419 266 257 if you will be playing.

Remember, it is an Ambrose event so no worries if you are not a golfer of any repute!  Just come for the fun and get there by noon for a bite to eat before playing.

Masters sailors don’t miss it!

Applications for entry for two 2017 ILCA Laser World Championships will open Wednesday, 15 February:

• 2017 ILCA Laser 4.7 Youth World Championships
• 2017 ILCA Laser Under-21 World Championships

Information about the ILCA Laser World Championships can be found through the ILCA Events Page HERE.

If you don’t apply by the 28 March 2017 application deadline you may have little chance to receive an entry offer for these events.

World Sailing WS is the recently renamed world peak sailing administration body previously called ISAF. They do lots of really good stuff for sailing apart from producing the Racing Rules and updating them every four years. They have however recently come up with a proposal which we think would be very bad for Laser sailing.

WS have a proposal to get rid of Rule 42 for all WS Championships and the Olympics. Now most Olympic classes already allow pumping, ooching, skulling and repeated tacks and jibes to propel a boat which Rule 42 prevents. Lasers do not and we believe it should stay this way. It is our view that this proposed change as it inevitably trickles down from international to national, state, interclub and ultimately club events will be quite negative for Laser sailing generally. If you want to see what sailing without Rule 42 looks like have a look at the short video clip from the Rio Olympics HERE.

The main motivation for this change by World Sailing WS is said to be to “increase athleticism and competitiveness on downwind legs”. Others suggest that their focus is on making the sport more exciting for spectators and hence more marketable.

The Australian Laser Class Association and the International Laser Class Asociation are lobbying to have this proposition thrown out. It was recently very narrowly not adopted by the WS Council but it will most likely be submitted again for voting in November 2017.

If you are interested you can see our letter on the subject to Australian Sailing and their reply HERE.