The  ILCA  Handbook is updated each year. The Handbook has all you need to know about the boat and the class with a report from the President, class rules, World Championship winners, sailing tips and more.

The 2023 version of the Handbook is now available online Here.

With interstate travel well and truly re-established and winter weather starting to make it’s mark, Queensland Laser Association is keen to once again welcome sailors from interstate and overseas for it’s annual South Pacific Laser Masters Regatta.
 

Dates for the regatta are Friday 7 to Monday 10 July, with the SPLM Sailing Forum being held on the eve of the regatta – Thursday 6 July from 6pm.
 

The Notice of Race is available on the RQYS website Here. The NoR includes information on accommodation, charter boats and boat storage in addition to the usual details of the event.
 

The entry fee is $220 which is inclusive of the regatta dinner on the Sunday night. Entries can be placed Here.

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Colin Dods as our new Principal Race Officer.
 
Col is passionate about providing the best race and regatta experience for sailors. His philosophy is that the racing must not only be safe, fair and fun, but that it is run professionally and in friendly collaboration with athletes, association organising committees and host clubs.
 

Col’s first event as PRO will be the 2024 Australian Open & Youth Championship at Adelaide Sailing Club.
 

Col’s sailing biography is in the press release Here.

The 2024 Olympic Sailing will be held in the French port city of Marseilles between 28 July and 8 August 2024.
 

There will be 165 women and 165 men competing in the 10 events with 8 classes of equipment.
 

The numbers of competitors to be allocated at each of the qualifying events for each Olympic event is summarised below.

The full Olympic Sailing Qualifying process is outlined in the World Sailing document Here.
 

The full list of qualifying events, venues and dates is Here.
 

For ILCA the main qualifying events are the 2023 Sailing World Championships the Hague Men (16 places) & Women (16 places) 10-20 August 2023, the 2024 ILCA Women’s Worlds Mar del Plata ARG (7 places) 3-10 January and the 2024 Men ILCA Men’s Worlds Adelaide (7 places) 24-31 January 2024. The Oceania Qualifier event which will qualify two men and two women will be Sail Sydney 11-18 December 2023.
 

These and our ILCA events are tabulated on our Events page Here.

We are sad to announce the sudden and tragic death of Peter Merritt. Peter tragically passed away on the 16th May.
 

He has been a life-long supporter of the sailing fraternity. His loss will be felt by many.
 

Peter was the valued PRO of our National & Oceania events, Director of Events for ILCA Oceania, a Life Member of ILCA Victoria and founder of sailing club and events management systems company ClubOps.
 

We send our condolences to Peter’s wife Jenny, sons Simon and Tim and mother Byrl.

ClubOps the market leader in Australia in providing applications for sailing club administration and race management is seeking a buyer who has a strong interest in sailing and who wishes to keep the business operational and growing for the benefit of the sailing community.
 

There is more information on the business and contacts Here.
 

To express interest, parties are asked to provide a short resume of capabilities before 3rd June to Michael Johannessen at peter@clubops.com.au.

Australian Sailing Qualified Coach – Tasmanian, Rohan Langford has been selected to support the
Australian team at the 2023 ILCA4 Youth World Championship at Volos, Greece.
 

Pre-regatta preparation and competition dates in Volos are 19th July – 30th July 2023.
 

Rohan has been selected by the travelling team members from the AusILCA Coaching Pool.
 

The Australian ILCA 4 team is made up of three female and nine male under 18 sailors from around Australia who qualified in the 2023 AusILCA National Championship at Georges River Sailing Club in NSW.
 

Rohan is a passionate sailor who has competed at a high level within the sport in several classes and was National Laser 4.7 Australian Champion in 2008. He has enjoyed the experience and success in the coaching side of the sport over the last 10 years.
 
AusILCA is delighted to have Rohan join the Australian team and wishes him and the team all the best for the regatta.

The second of the 2023 Sailing World Cup events Semaine Olympique Française (French Olympic Week SOF) concluded in Hyères, France on 29 April.

There were 670 entries from 60 countries sailing in the 10 Olympic classes. The event web site is at https://sof.ffvoile.fr/

Casey Imeneo (McCYC & SSCBC) had a great series finishing third to Canada’s Sarah Douglas and Dane Anne Marie Rindom. Mara Stransky won the medal race and finished 5th so great results for our ILCA 6 sailors.

The ILCA 7s were dominated by GBR’s Elliott Hanson and Michael Beckett with Elliott grasping the gold with a win in the medal race. Matt Wearn was 4th behind Cypriot Pavlos Kontides.
 

The full results are Here.
 

The Sailing World Cup events are;

April 3-8 – Trofeo Princesa Sofia – Mallorca, Spain
April 24-29 – Semaine Olympique Française – Hyères, France
May 31-June 4 – Allianz Regatta – Almere, Netherlands
June 17-25 – Kieler Woche – Kiel, Germany

Finn Alexander (13th) Was On a Roll in the Early Windy Races

 
Applications are now open Here for the U21 World Championships 15-22 October at the Royal Yacht Club de Tangier Morocco.

Accommodation information is Here.

Total entry for this event is limited to 100 sailors in the Men’s fleet and 60 in the Women’s fleet.

 
For more information, see the Official Event Page.

Zoe pleased with her second place in La Palma

The Princesa Sofía Olympic classes Regatta kicked on last week after a slow start on Bay of Palma Mallorca. This is the first Sailing World Cup of 2023’s four regattas along with the Allianz Regatta (The Netherlands), the Semaine Olympique Française (Hyères, France) and Kieler Woche (Kiel, Germany).

All the top level Olympic sailors were competing with 15 months to the big event in Marseilles.

At the top of the hot ILCA 6 fleet new mum Marit Bouwmeester NED who is looking for a fourth Olympic medal after gold in Rio 2016, silver in London 2012 and bronze in Tokyo 2021 showed the way with consistent performances to win before the medal race was sailed. WA’s Zoe Thompson had a great series and a second in the medal race for second overall from the number two Netherlands sailor Maxime Jonker.

The ILCA 7s proved to be a walk in the park or a cruise on the bay for Mick Beckett GBR who won with a race to spare after a very consistent series. While daylight was second it was all very close after that with New Zealand’s George Gautrey finished next a point ahead of  Croatian Tonci Stipanovic.   Tom Saunders NZL was 5th and the best Australian Matt Wearn who finished second in the event last year was 7th.

The event web site is Here.

Australian Sailing has launched the “NEXTLEVEL” coaching program for year 2, aimed at further empowering coaches to become advanced coaches and enhance the quality of coaching in the Olympic and pathway classes.

This is a great opportunity for coaches to develop their skills further and contribute to the development of high-quality coaching.

Coaches selected for the “NEXTLEVEL” program will be required to attend a face-to-face workshop in Brisbane from May 8-10, 2023, and the Advance Workshop from May 22-24 in Adelaide. AS will arrange for travel and accommodation for the selected coaches.

If coaches are interested in being considered for the program, they should register Here by close of business April 20.

Swifto Elliott in action Princesa Sophia Regatta 2023

We have updated the list on the Events Tab of this web site to show 2023-24 international, regional, national and significant district events.

We have posted links to the definitive web site for the event so this should be your first port of call for information, entry and results.

We run some big events on our side of the equator but nothing holds a candle to Youth Worlds held in Europe. The photo above is not sardines in a tin but ILCAs in the boat park at the ILCA 4 World Youth Championships 2022 in Vilamoura, Portugal. There were 440 ILCAs and 150 coach boats – feel free to count them.

This year for the ILCA 4 Youth Worlds in Volos, Greece the entry limit is 400 (260 male and 140 female) and it is already nearing full. The entry limit for the 2023 ILCA 6 Youth Worlds in Dziwnow, Poland is 360 (260 male and 100 female) it too is nearing full.

All the information on all ILCA World Championship events is on the ILCA web site Here. We have updated the Events tab on this web site to list all the world, regional, national and major district events for 2023-24. This list has links to the definitive web site for each event so go to the lined site for up to date information.

If you want to get an idea of the trials and tribulations of being a top level sailor and a coach travelling the world circuit have a look at Australian Sailing Squad member and Youth Coach Swifto Elliot’s blog Here.

QLA have a big State Championship event coming up 29-30 April at Humpybong YC.

They are expecting a big roll-up so why not join them and enjoy some beautiful Queensland autumn weather.
 
All entries will go into the draw for a new sail.
 
Entries are on the QLA web site Here.

The first round of entry offers are out for the ILCA 4 Youth World Championships to be held at
the Nautical Club of Volos in Volos, Greece.

If you haven’t applied for entry yet and would like to compete late applications are now open at the link Here.

The Senior European Championships 10-17 March just concluded at Circolo Nautico Andora, Italy.

In the ILCA 7 there were 180 sailors competing in three fleets. In tricky and difficult conditions variable from very light to very strong Croatians Tonci Stipanovic and Filip Jurisic finished closely ahead of Matt Wearn. There was even a strike by the sailors at a point over conditions and equipment but it all ended amicably.

The full ILCA 7 results are Here.

In the 110 boat two fleet ILCA 6s Marit BOUWMEESTER Marit NED had a convincing win despite the tricky conditions. Mara Stransky was the best of the four Australians finishing 7th with consistent results until the last day.

The full ILCA 6 results are Here.

The web site with video and details of the event is Here.