ILCA NSW & ACT

The Metropolitan Championship is on the 8-9th March at Lane Cove 12 Foot Sailing Skiff Club.

Notice of Race and Sailing Intructions  are available online. You can enter online here or at the Lane Cove 12 Footers Club between 9.30 and 11.30am on Saturday.

The racing will be out in the open area between Hunters Hill Greenwich and Balmain. Our RO Col Chidgey identifies it as Mocooboolah which is the aboriginal name for the area around Hunters Hill and means “meeting of the waters”.

There is plenty of room for good Laser racing. Fleets of up to 50 and 60 yachts from Drummonyne, Greenwich Flying Squadron and Balmain regularly race here. There have been 12 footer’s Interdominion and 16 footer’s Nations on the same stretch of water. There is fantastic spectator viewing over the race track from Clarkes Point Hunters Hill.

Rigging will be at Lane Cove and if you like lots of space at Hunters Hill Sailing Club. Registration and beach entry will be at Lane Cove 12 footers Club as will the presentation ASAP after racing on Sunday. There will be a sign on and off sheets at Hunters Hill Sailing Club on Saturday and Sunday.

Don’t forget to come to Lane Cove 12 Footers for the presentation and sausage sizzle after racing on Sunday.

As an extra encouragement for sailors to rig at and enjoy the hospitality of the Lane Cove 12′SSC the club is running a dash for cash starting at 12.45pm on Saturday at the Lane Cove Club and finishing near the Metros start line. There will be prizes for this and of course the main event. Metro prizes will be awarded for Open, Youth, Women and Masters categories.

Come along and enjoy the racing and support the Laser sailors at Lane Cove. These folk are some of the keenest Laserers around attending Masters State National and Worlds in numbers.

The Laser Open National Championship next season is at Mandurah, Western Australia 72km South of Perth, The Venue is the Mandurah Offshore Fishing and Sailing Club (MOFSC) and racing will be held on the Indian Ocean a 10 minute reach to the start line from MOFSC. The Preliminary dates are the 27th Dec 2014 to the 4th January 2015.

Performance Sailcraft Australia are arranging a limited number of Laser charters for this event as well as the Youth Nationals at Freemantle and Sail Melbourne at Sandringham.
Prices for the charters these events are:

• Sail Melbourne ( Sandringham Yacht Club, Vic ) – $1300 AUD
• Australian Laser Nationals / Masters Nationals ( Mandurah, WA ) – $1800 AUD
• Australian Laser Youth Nationals ( Fremantle, WA ) – $1500 AUD
• Sail Melbourne + Aus Nationals – $2600 AUD
• Aus Nationals + Aus Youths – $2500 AUD
• Sail Melbourne + Aus Nationals + Aus Youths – $3400 AUD

For the Nationals and Youth Nationals expressions of interest must be received by PSA by 31st May 2014 to allow for planning and logistics. You can see more information here  and submit an expression of interest via the PSA on line contact form here.

It is understood that NB Sailsports will also be offering charters and possibly boat transport for the WA events. As soon as we have confirmation and details we will post these on this site.

The States where held at Georges River Sailing Club on 1st and 2nd February. The series saw a high class fleet of 70 boats (17 4.7′s 33 Radials and 20 Standard) competing.

Saturday saw a fading southerly going to the east at around 8 to 12 knots. Sunday presented a nice 18 knot NNE breeze and sizable waves. The tide was mostly strong run out causing sailors to think a lot to avoid over (or under) laying the marks.

RO Col Chidgey set the course off Ramsgate a little (but not much) out of the Georges River tide. On the Sunday with a NNE breeze and a strong tide running from the opposite direction there were numerous general recalls. The black flag start following the first general usually tamed the fleet.

Blake Shelley from Double Bay SC and WoollahraSC won the 4.7′s in a close contest from Peter Charlton South Lake Macquarie and Jordan Makin Gosford SC.

In the Radials Finn Alexander also from Double Bay won with three bullets in the last three races and discarding a 12th in race one – a race I am sure he would be happy to forget. Second was Nicholas Connor from RPAYC and MHASC and third was World Grand Masters Champion Vanessa Dudley.

Sean Atherton from MHASC in a commanding display won every race in the Standard Rig with Marcus Whitley from DBSC second and visitor Brent Morris from Port Melbourne SC third.

Thanks very much to all competitors for the spirit of the racing and skill exhibited and to Georges River Sailing Club volunteers and RO Col Chidgey and assitant Leanne Narborough for their running a great series.

The final fleet results for the event are here. The results for the Divisions which were scored separately are here.

The Australian Masters Championship is coming up 13th-17th February at Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club Paynesville Vic. Currently there are over 130 entries.

This is always a great event for Master Laser sailors of all rigs and ages.

Entries are open until February 10th with no late entry fee. To enter click here. Late entries at the regatta will  be taken up until am Thursday Feb 13th.

The notice of race is here and the mini web site for the event which includes accommodation information is here. The flyer for the event including the current budget and camping accommodation is here. Accommodation is still available. See the regatta web site here. If you need help with accommodation please contact James Frecheville at frecheboat@netspace.com.au or mobile 0412 979 824.

There is another flyer covering regatta dinners and shirts which you can view here. Regatta dinner bookings will remain open until Thursday Feb 13th. You can book at Try Booking here.  Pre regatta ordering of Regatta Polo shirts by Gill has closed however it will be possible to order shirts at the regatta for delivery by post.

Don’t try to use these in the State Championship but if you want to blast around on foils on your existing Laser then this may be of interest.

The picture is of MHASC Laser sailor Peter Stephinson who along with Dr Ian Ward designed and are now marketing the Laser foiler kit. The appendage over the stern is nothing to do with flying the Laser but is Peter’s ultimate selfie camera.

You can read all about the development on the Glidefree web site here.

The States are coming up on the weekend of 1st and 2nd February at Georges River Sailing Club.

This will be a top event at a great sailing venue. Entry is $60 and just $30 for sailors under 21.

The Notice of Race is here and you can enter online here.

Good luck to all the sailors participating in the Nationals at McCrae. There are 169 entries so far comprising 51 4.7′s 50 Radials and 68 Standards. You can follow the results here.

33 Australian Laser Masters (25 from NSW/ACT) travelled to Musannah Oman for the World Masters. Australia won 3 of the 8 Masters series. Congratulations to Vanessa Dudley, Mark Bethwaite from NSW and Greg Adams from Queensland for their respective convincing wins.

The series was run in mostly light winds – in the 5-9 knot range most days. While this did not suit all the Australian sailors Vanessa, Greg and Mark made short work of the opposition and each won without needing to sail on the final day.  The full results are here. There are some photos of the venue, the presentation and Oman  here and official photos here.

The Millenium Resort which was HQ for the Worlds was purpose built for boating and with major events like Laser Worlds in mind. It was, apart from the light winds, a perfect venue with all the competitors housed at the adjacent Millenium Resort. RO’s Hugh Leiicester on the Standard Rig course and Jeff Martin on the Radial course did a great job in the sometimes marginal strength and shifty breeze.  As well there was an army of officials and helpers to make sure everything ran smoothly.

The World Standard Rig Open Championship was held prior to the Masters from 14th to 23rd November 2013. This was won by 40 year old Robert Scheidt from Brazil who took the title in a close contest from London Olympic Silver Medalist Pavlos Kontides from Cyprus. The full results are here. The World Laser Radial Youth Championship were also run at Musannah from 27th December 2013.

Jeff Martin at Briefing Musannah Oman

At the Competitor Briefing in Musannah Oman in December ILCA President Tracy Usher gave an update on the Laser licensing issue.

The dispute between Laser Performance the UK based builder and Laser designer Bruce Kirby has been ongoing for quite a while. The story behind the dispute is here. The court case will be before the U.S. Federal Court District of Connecticut USA, through an action filed by Bruce Kirby. Tracy said that attempts by ILCA and ISAF to get a meeting of the parties and to potentially mediate the case have failed. Now the case will go through a four stage court process and may only see judgement some time in 2014. In the mean time ISAF plaques will continue to be affixed to new Lasers from all builders maintaing the supply of boats.

The long awaited improvements in the class with the new mast top section and the new longer life radial cut standard rig sail are all good to go but need the unanimous agreement of all the Laser builders. Tracy said that this approval had not been obtained and was unlikely to be until the current legal dispute is settled. His candid advice was not to hold your breath waiting for the improvements.

At the same meeting ILCA World Executive Secretary Jeff Martin explained the implications of some new initiatives by ISAF for World Championships.

These changes would see the ISAF limit World Championships to four per class and run a Sailing World Cup with four regattas plus the World Championship for each class limited to the top 25 sailors. The limit of four “Worlds” would rule out ILCA’s running World Masters or at least naming the event so.

The limitation of the Sailing World Cup to 25 might be fine for some classes with limited numbers of sailors but would rule out the majority of the very large number of up and coming Laser sailors from this peak level of competition.

These “one size fits all” changes by ISAF are counter to the interest of Laser sailing as is their other “initiative” to allow “kinetic actions” above certain wind strengths in Lasers.

On a more positive note Jeff explained that the GGM Standard Rig was a fixture for Laser Masters and that a new 75+ age bracket would be formalised for Radials.

The next World Masters (if it will be termed that) will be in  Hyeres France  3-11th October 2014 and is likely to be huge with 4.7 Rig returning and the fleet size likely limited by the number of boats that can be managed on the courses available. The NoR is expected to be issued for this event in January 2014. The ILCA web page for the event is here. Subsequent “World Masters” will be in July 2015 in Kingston Canada  and in 2016 either in South America or Malaysia.

Tom Burton continues to hold ISAF world number one Laser World ranking. Ashley Brunning holds 7th ranking. The skill and dedication required to achieve and hold these positions must be recognised and applauded. Tom Burton most recently convincingly won Sail Melbourne putting aside the disappointment of his 9th in the Worlds in Oman in November. Tom earlier this year won the National Laser Championship at Sandy Bay his third Nationals in a row.

This is the reminder that the early bird entries close for the 2014 Australian Laser Open championships on the 1st of December 2013.

The cost of entry is $300.00 ($50 per day). This included 6 days of racing, the opening and closing functions, after race snacks on the four days when racing is scheduled in the afternoon, regatta T shirts, a cap and some great daily prizes kindly donated by Gill.

For families with multiple entries the cost of the second and subsequent entries is $250 per boat which is a rebate being paid thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. The rebate can be collected at registration.

There is also five $400 cash prizes to the winners of the invitation race for the Men’s Standard, Men and Women’s Radial and Men and Women’s 4.7 which is guaranteed to make the invitation race a hard fought affair.  More details in the NOR.

Preparations by McCrae are well underway so we are looking forward to a fantastic regatta and hope to see you there.

Photo from Rob Drury

Always feel secure in the knowledge that under RRS Rule 12 the overtaking boat keeps clear!

Vanessa Dudley receiving one her two cubes from PSSAC’s VP Mike Lee

The State Masters run at Port Stephens Sailing and Aquatic Club saw conditions which tested sailors and officials alike. There were just over 100 entries (49 Radial 46 Standard and 7 4.7′s). The PSSAC did a great job in running the event both on and off the water. The only hitch was when a Radial sailor here after to be named Sparky dragged his dolly mounted Laser under the power line causing a power outage which left the Standard Rig sailors to shower in the dark with cold water – serves them right for having so many general recalls.

There were good SE and SW breezes over the weekend and lots of dense rain clouds and – suprise suprize – quite a bit of rain. Saturday saw Race Officer Andrew McLachlan delay the starts and send the fleets back home to allow the wind to settle. This was a good call because after an hour or so the wind stabilised and gave good fair conditions until the final stages of last race of the day. With all the delays racing concluded at around 6.00pm.

After the long day on the water  90 sailors and friends joined a dinner at the Ibis Resort. At the dinner shirts were presented to those Masters who later this month will be travelling to Oman for the World Masters. There are 26 entered in the Worlds from NSW/ACT out of 33 Australian entries in this event.

On Sunday there was a useful breeze circa 10 to 18 knots and the 4.7′s and Radials were started right on schedule. From then on the schedule was shot with the need to change the course and line several times as the wind swung. The Standard Rig fleet caused several airings of the black flag. This became contageous and the Radials had a few general recalls again resulting in the black flag being hoisted. In the event all six races were completed in each fleet with the final Standard Rig race started not far inside the 15.30 time limit – so both days were long ones on the water.

The results are under the Results tab on the site and are linked in the list below. If you are interested the fleet results are here. Note that the event is not scored by fleet and naturally places within the age divisions can (for better or worse) be different in the fleet to the official results.

There were 14 cubes awarded unfortunately none in the Apprentice Masters in either Radial or Standard as there were not the required 5 entries in either. Cube winners were:

• Vanessa Dudley Women
• Martin Brady 4.7
• Rob Lowndes Radial GGM
• Kevin Phillips Radial GGM
• Adam French Radial GM
• Vanessa Dudley Radial GM
• Richard Longbottom Radial GM
• David Early Radial Master
• Roger Winton (from NZ) Radial Master
• Mark Bethwaite Standard GM
• Jeff Loosemore Standard GM
• Sean Atherton Standard Master
• Chris Dawson Standard Master
• Stuart Holdsworth Standard Master

Results Standard Rig

Results Radial Rig

Results 4.7 Rig

Results Women

At the conclusion of racing at the Coast Championship last Saturday Mitch Buckingham from NB SailSports took the opportunity to try out the Laser foils using what is proving to be the most desirable rig for foiling the 4.7.

As expected there is a learning curve both for the set-up of the foils and how best to get airborne in a Laser.

You can see in the photo that Mitch did manage the feat.

For more information on the foiler kit check the Glidefree site here.

Shane Conoly MHASC leads Nick Conner RPAYC as he did through the Radial Series.

The Coasts at South Lakes were blown out on the Sunday with the series being scored on the three races sailed on on Saturday 12th October with no drop.

Safe competitive racing was not possible on Sunday due to over 25 knot NW winds combined with very large and potentially boat breaking waves on the course.

Saturday on the other hand was picture perfect with a 15 knot ENE breeze for the three heats. There were 47 entries for the series. The on water SLMASC team and our PRO Col Chidgey set a very nice course which stayed the same for the three races.

The 4.7 series had six boats and was won by South Lakes local Scott Singleton-Turner with two bullets and a second to edge out fast improving Gosford sailor Jordan Makin (3,1,3) with Peter Charlton also from South Lakes third.
The Radials had 24 competitors and were headed by Shane Conoly from Middle Harbour Amateur Sailing Club. Shane finished with two bullets and a second. Second was Nick Connor from RPAYC (5,1,2) and third Stuart Penderleith also MHASC (2,3,6).
The Standards were won convincingly by Sean Atherton from MHASC with three straight heat wins. Chris Dawson from RPAYC was second (3,2,2) and Richard Howard from Belmont 16′s third (2,3,5).

Thanks go to the great team at South Lakes for their organisation both on and off the water. It is a great dingy sailing club in a fabulous location.

You can see the full results and photos on the Results and Photos tabs above or click the links below.

4.7 Final Results
Radial Final Results
Standard Final Results

Photos