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Australian Team Announced for 2027 Worlds

Paris Olympian Zoe Thomson (OLY)

The Australian Sailing Team has announced a the 12 sailors selected to compete at the 2027 World Sailing Championships in Fortaleza, Brazil, 15-23 January 2027. The championships run by World Sailing WS will include women and men in ILCA 6, ILCA 7, iQFoil, and Formula Kite classes.

This event presents the best opportunity for Australian sailors to secure 2028 LA Olympic qualification.16 country qualifications in the women’s and 16 in men’s ILCA events are to be awarded.

WS have limited entries with four women and four men to represent Australia in the ILCA events.

Double Olympian Matt Wearn leads the ILCA 7 team with 2025 World Championships bronze medallist Zac Littlewood, along with Australian Sailing National Squad members Ethan McAullay and Isaac Schotte.
In the ILCA 6, Paris Olympian Zoe Thomson and 2020 Olympian Mara Stransky will compete alongside Evie Saunders and Casey Imeneo.

We wish them all the best in the event and in their quest to qualify Australia for LA2028.

2032 Olympic Sailing Whitsundays and Townsville Venues


Airlie Beach With Whitsundays Sailing Club  Mid Photo

The Queensland Government has announced that the Whitsundays and Townsville will host the Sailing Competition for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, marking a significant accolade for the region known for its vast waterways. World Sailing has endorsed this decision. It is not announced but most likely the ILCAs and other boat events will be in the Whitsundays with kites and boards in Townsville There is a publicity release from Whitsunday Sailing Club on the venue selection Here.

In the mean time World Sailing is undertaking a thorough process of selection of half the 2032 Olympic classes (equipment in their parlance). The ILCA is not up for WS review for 2032 but the foiling classes and mixed 470 are. There is a detailed update on the selection criteria and candidate options so far in the WS (73 page) document Here.  We did say thorough so the two page un-official overview Here may be helpful. WS plans to make the equipment decisions at its AGM in Qingdao, China in November 2026.

2027 ILCA 4 Girls Solidarity Squad Announced

ILCA Oceania Solidarity Program Director John d’Helin has announced the sailors selected for the 2027 Solidarity Program to be run through the 2027 Performance Sailcraft ILCA Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships 1–8 January 2027 at Sandringham Yacht Club, Melbourne.

With support from PSA, Australian Sailing and the ILCA Class Development Fund the program will see one ILCA 4 female sailor (aged between 13 & 16 years) from each Australian state, plus in this round a sailors from New Zealand and Fiji. They all will receive event entry, a race ready ILCA 4, a dedicated coach, and team gear.

This is the fifth year of this program which since 2023 has seen 28 girls participate, fostering growth, friendships, and success, including international competition and positive community impact.

Congratulations to the selected sailors wishing you all great sailing and an enjoyable learning experience.

Name Club District Pathway to Ilca
Malia Sukanavanua Savusavu Yacht Club Fiji Optimist
Lily Zahab Royal Sydney YS NSW & ACT Optimist/Pacer
Georgia Barker Napier SC NZ Optimist/Starling
Josephine Rackley Humpybong Yacht Club QLD Optimist
Elise Edwards Brighton & Seacliff YC SA Optimist
Lexie Parker Royal Yacht Club Tasmania TAS ILCA 4
Abby Hosie Mordialloc Sailing Club Vic Open skiff/Windsurfer
Celina Trinh Royal Perth Yacht Club WA Optimist

Coach: Mel Hitchen-Haw, Mornington YC, Vic, provided by Australian Sailing

Charter boats: 8 x ILCA 4’s in race condition provided by Performance Sailcraft

Temporary Ranking Policy Change 2028 World Championships

ILCA Australia has made a one off exception to the long standing ILCA Australia ILCA World Championships Ranking Policy specifically for the 2028 ILCA World Championships in Takapuna, Auckland.

The long standing policy ranks sailors according to their performance in the pervious ILCA Australian Open & Youth Championships. All sailors who do not compete in the ranking event and apply to enter an ILCA Worlds are ranked in order of their application after all the sailors who did.

The temporary policy change is necessary due to a clash of dates between the 2028 Worlds ranking event the 2027 Australian Open & Youth Championships in Sandringham and the 2027 World Championships in Brazil. Under the current policy, missing the Sandringham event means these elite sailors would lose their ranking, potentially blocking them from entering the 2028 ILCA World Championships in Takapuna, Auckland—just six months before the LA Olympics.

Complete details of the background & rationale for the change and its wording are in the document Here.

2026 ILCA 6 Women’s Worlds Concludes in Ireland

Charlotte Rose USA has been crowned winner of 2026 ILCA 6 Women’s World Championship in Dun Laoghaire on Dublin Bay, Ireland. Charlotte lead for most of the series and with points halved going into the two race finals she had 5 point lead over second placed Emma Plasschaert BEL and 10 points over third Anna Munch DEN. Charlotte sealed the title with a 2-6 in the 12–17 knot windy and wavy Final Series.

With the win Charlotte becomes only the third American sailor to win the title, and its first non-European winner in 20 years – since Lijia Xu CHN won the title in 2006.

There is a great video of the two ten boat finals series races Here . There was a bit of a delay to the start so if you want to get straight into the action scrub to 45 minutes into the clip.

Australia had a strong team of eight sailors six of who were placed in the gold fleet. Best placed was Mara Stransky QLD who started strongly with 4-3-4-1 in the breezier races and was in third place at that point. She dropped back from there to finish 17th, Zoe Thomson WA was 24th with the other top Aussies keeping close company on the scoreboard from 26th to 29th places. Full results of the event are Here.

The event web site is Here.

The next big test for the top women and men sailors will be the World Sailing run 2027 ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 World Championships  at Fortaleza, Brazil, from January 15–23. This event will see the awarding of 2X16 out of the total 2X43 2028 Olympic country qualification places.

Incredibly Close ILCA 7 Worlds Finals – Dún Laoghaire Ireland

2026 World Champion Jonatán Vadnai HUN executing a celebratory back one and a half tuck dive

In a very exciting last finals race on 30 August Jonatán Vadnai won Hungary’s first ever ILCA World Championship medal and it was gold. In the 2026 series sailed at Dún Laoghaire Ireland a new scoring system was used in which race scores are halved for the top 10 who go into a two race with no drop finals series. Going into the second of the two finals races any one of the top ten could have won the event. With just the last finals race to go Jonatán was sitting 8th and Matt Wearn 7th with Michael Beckett GBR in 4th. These three finished in that order on the podium at the end of that last race.

Going into the finals Matt Wearn was 9th and performed a fabulous recovery posting a first and a second in the finals to secure the silver medal. Using the Vakaros System Matt was over the line under the P flag start of the final race so last at the start. He worked his way back to second.  Next best Australians in the series were WA sailors Ethan Mcaullay 21st and Zac Littlewood 23rd. The full results of the finals (top 10) series are Here  and the Qualification Series Here.

There is a great stream of the two finals races by the ILCA on YouTube Here. The races are quite short and with commentary by 2016 silver medalist and native Dubliner Annalise Murphy is well worth watching.

The Women’s ILCA 6 Worlds will be at the same venue 5-12 September. Event web site is Here.

Men’s ILCA 7 Worlds Ireland

Matt in Action in Dun Photo by ILCA Laoghaire Ireland – Photo by ILCA

The ILCA 7 Men’s Worlds are underway 23-30 September in Dún Laoghaire Ireland. Nine Australians are represented in the 141-boat fleet.

The Qualifying Series concluded on day two with local Finn Lynch holding the overall lead on 9 points, with Michael Beckett GBR the standout performer of the day. With steady performances Matt Wearn is sitting in 10th and Zac Littlewood in 15th. Lots of racing to come yet.

The event web site with links to results is Here.

The ILCA 6 Women’s Wolds will be held at the same venue 5-12 September where the top eight Australian Women will be represented in the 110 boat fleet. The web site for this event is Here.

ILCA Australia Sustainability Policy

Following on the recent leads and initiatives of World Sailing, ILCA and EurILCA ILCA Australia has prepared and issued an ILCA Australia Sustainability Policy. https://ilca.au/wp-content/uploads/ILCA_Sustainability_Policy_2026.pdf. This document is linked on our Governance Page.

In our policy we have chosen to focus on things (small and large) which can make a difference. By listing and communicating ideas on ways to reduce environmental impact hopefully we can raise environment awareness in our activities.

At the very least we should all ensure that every water, site and venue we are fortunate to utilise for our ILCA sailing and events is as clean, or cleaner, when we leave it as it was when we came.

Sailing in Commonwealth Youth Games 2027 Malta

The Commonwealth Youth Games organisers have included sailing with ILCA 4 (for 14-17 y.o.) and Opti (for 14-15 y.o.) in the 2027 Commonwealth Youth Games to be held in Malta.

Sailing events will be on Mellieha Bay 15 KM NE of Malta’s capital Valletta from  29 October to 4 November 2027.

Australian Sailing say that they expect  to nominate one female and one male for each class and that most likely for the ILCA4s the selection event will be 2027 ILCA Australian Youth Championships  1-8 January 2027 in Sandringham.

The best information to date is in the Australian Sailing post Here

Youth Commonwealth Games 2027 web site is https://www.malta2027.com/

 

ILCA 6 Youth Worlds Aahrus, Denmark

ILCA 6 World Youth Championships Parade in Aahrus

429 sailors competed in the 2026 ILCA 6 Youth Worlds 11-19 August in Aahrus, Denmark. There were eight Australians represented Caterina Meyer, Elouise Morgan, Ava Wilson, Wilbur Bright, Thomas Cooper, Hugh Healy, Joshua King and Jasper Stay.

The sailors experienced a variety of conditions on Aahrus Bay with strong winds early on but light and variable winds on the final days.

Among the 122 women, Hermionie Ghicas (GRE) followed on from fellow Greek sailor and winner of the ILCA 4 Youth Worlds Eleni Triantou with her own dominant win. Hermionie won 9 of the 11 races. First Australian was Caterina Meyer RQYS who after a strong start dropped back in the finals races and was 16th.

Almost as dominant in the 307 boat men’s event was Erik Scheidt (BRA). Erik, the son of ILCA legend Robert Scheidt won three races and finished in the top five for 10 of the 12 races. Clearly a chip off the (not so) old block Erik will very likely soon be figuring high in the senior ILCA ranks.

Final results, reports and media for the event are on the web site Here.

ILCA Class Rules Change

The ILCA Class Rules change ballot has been passed by the necessary two-thirds majority members vote. The new rules some into effect from 10th August 2026. The complete new rules are published Here  and are available in a single pdf Here.

Most of the changes are structural and the rules are now transposed into the World Sailing Standard Class Rules format. If you want to trace the changes in detail then there is a table showing old and new Here.

ILCA 4 World Youth Championships Aarhus, Denmark

Best Harry Hogan RQYS in the mix on Day 2 in Aarhus -,All featuring the new ILCA 4 sail

Greek sailor Eleni Triantou and Swiss Leo Gosling were dominant winners in the just concluded 2026 ILCA 4 World Youth Championships. Eleni is under 16 so a talent to watch for the future.

448 young sailors competed in a week of sunny conditions and strong winds on Aarhus Bay off the Kattegat Sea in Denmark.

Congratulations to all 11 Australian sailors who competed. They would all have gained heaps from the huge fleet experience. The top Australian sailor was Ruby Carter from RQYS who finished the regatta in 15th overall. A great result in a 150 boat girl’s event.

The event web site with links to full results is Here.

The 2026 ILCA 6 World Youth Championships are running at the same venue 11-19 August.

New Starting Technology Trialed at Sailing Grand Slam

ILCA 6 Start at OCR Grand Slam Event San Pedro, LA

The Vakaros RaceSense starting system was trailed at the Sailing Grand Slam 19-24 July San Pedro Olympic Classes Regatta in LA. There on the 2028 Olympic courses top ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 sailors had the opportunity to see this technology tested at scale and consider what it could mean for how ILCA racing is started in the future.

The system works by linking every part of the starting sequence together: two fixed units mark either end of the line, each boat carries its own onboard unit, and the Race Officer’s tablet ties it all together with a real-time view of where every boat sits relative to the line.

When the start signal fires and the line goes “open,” the system flags any boats that are over early — individually. Rather than calling a general recall and resetting the whole fleet, only the sailors who jumped the gun are notified. They can dip back, clear the line, and re-join the race while everyone else keeps sailing.

For ILCA, the appeal is straightforward: fewer stoppages, faster racing, and starts that reward clean execution instead of penalizing the whole fleet for a few early boats. It also gives race officials a much stronger evidentiary basis for starting decisions.

San Pedro was an important proving ground, and Vakaros RaceSense will make its debut at an ILCA World Championship at the 2026 ILCA 7 Men’s World Championship in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, running August 23–30, followed by the 2026 ILCA 6 Women’s World Championship at the same venue from September 5–12.

See more on the experience with the system and opinion of top sailors to its use in the post on the ILCA web site Here.

This technology solves some OCS and re-start event management challenges and provides tracking and some interesting race data which will inform and enliven post-race discussion and review. It is however unlikely to see wide adoption below elite level ILCA events until much more affordable (than current $1,000) units are widely available.

ILCA Youth World Championships Aarhus Denmark 1-19 August

The 2026 ILCA 4 and ILCA 6 World Youth Championships will be taking place from 1 to 19 August from the Aarhus International Sailing Centre in Denmark. There will be 450 ILCA 4 and 430 ILCA 6 girls and boys from 56 nations competing in these events.

ILCA says “These two World Championships are one of the highlights of the sailing calendar: two weeks where the next generation of ILCA sailors race against the best of their peers from around the world, many with sights set on senior competition and the Olympic Games”

There are 19 Australian sailors competing in Aarhus and we wish them all good luck and good sailing for what will likely be the sailing experience of their young lives.

The web sites with links to race documents, media and results are ILCA 4 1-9 August  ILCA 6 11-19 August

Matt Wearn Wins Olympic Classes Regatta San Pedro LA

ILCA 7 Podium in San Pedro – Colin Grey Photo

The San Pedro OCR wound up on 24 July after a six days of tight racing with 63 of the World’s top Olympic ILCA 7 and 63 ILCA 6 sailors at what will be the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic course at San Pedro. A new Final Series format, featuring two short high-intensity races for each class, produced tightly contested battles on the waters outside the Port of Los Angeles.

Matt Wearn finished at the top of the podium in ILCA 7. Matt had a tussle with second placed Cypriot  Pavlos Kontides throughout while early leader Micky Beckett GBR who had a mid series fade and then a strong finish to lift into third. WA’s Ethan McAullay also made the cut into the top 10 shootout finishing 10th overall. Fellow WA sailor Zac Littlewood was 12th.

In ILCA 6 in the hard-fought medal race sprint, Ireland’s Eve McMahon moved from fourth to third while American Charlotte Rose also climbed a place to take silver while GBR sailor Hannah Snellgrove held onto the overall lead to take gold. There was just 4 points between the three podium placed sailors. First Australian in 20th place was up and coming young Manly YC sailor Evie Saunders.

Full results are on the San Pedro OCR web site Here.