In late February 2022 Andrew English crossed Bass Strait over four days on a wing foiler.

This brought to memory the feat on 9^th March 2005 by triple Olympian and super Olympic Laser coach Michael Blackburn.

Michael sailed his Laser the 115 n.m. from Stanley in Tasmania to Tidal Beach on Wilson Promontory, Victoria in one go in 13 hours and 1 minute. He averaged 8.7 knots and hit a top speed of 19.7 knots down a breaking wave.

The story is recounted Here

There is more in the recently established archive of Laser News publications online on pages 21-22 Here and a YouTube video Here.

Michael Blackburn “Blackers” apart from this feat and representing Australia in three Olympics has now coached three back to back Olympic Laser Olympic gold medal winners.

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The 2023 Oceania & Australian Open and Youth Championships will be held at Georges River Sailing Club on Botany Bay 1-8 January 2023.

After the disappointments of cancellation of the event scheduled in Fremantle, WA in 2021 and 2022 it will be great to stage these championships in 2023.

Botany Bay is a great venue for big sailing events with lots of open water and clear winds. The club is near to the airport and the surrounding suburbs have lots of accommodation options.

There will be great lead up events with the NSW & ACT Laser State titles at Wangi A.S.C. on Lake Macquarie in November 2022 and Sail Sydney on Sydney Harbour from Woollahra S.C. 13-18 December 2022.

The Notice of Race for this event is Here.

Entries can be placed $350 until 30th November 2022 Here and may be accepted with an additional $80 late fee after that date.

Charters will be available from NB Sailsports and Performance Sailcraft Australia.

Matt Wearn current Australian & Olympic Laser Champion – photo by Jesus Renedo

Places are available for ILCA 4 (Vilamoura, Portugal) and ILCA 6 (Shoreacres, Texas USA) World Youth Championships. Due to COVID these Youth Worlds events were cancelled in 2020 and Australians were prevented from travelling to the 2021 events. For 2022 we will have sailors back on the starting line.

ALCA has worked with Australian Youth sailors to optimise the big fleet tactical regatta experience at ILCA World Championship events since 2009.

A big part of that has been assuring teams utilise Australian coaches who bring those World Championship experiences back to Australia. The experience gained at ILCA Youth Worlds is not only transformative for young adults, but also for the standard of sailing back home.

ALCA is delighted to advise that Annie Eastgate has been nominated by Australian Sailing as Australia’s ILCA4 Youth Worlds Championship coach travelling to Portugal in August, Brody Riley has been nominated ILCA6 Youth Worlds Championship coach travelling to Texas. While these positions are subject to respective team forming and fundraising ALCA is optimistic that both teams will be competing with coaching support.

Over the years ALCA has worked with hundreds of families, dozens of teams and sponsors to finance coaches. Work has begun for our 2022 Youth Worlds Teams:

• ILCA 4 Youth World Championship regatta 9-20 Aug 2022, Vilamoura Portugal. Pre-regatta and regatta coaching proposal dates are 19-30 July 2022. Australian Sailing and ALCA are discussing team coach support.
• ILCA 6 Youth World Championship regatta, Shoreacres Texas USA. Pre-regatta and regatta coaching proposal dates are 19-30 July 2022. Australian Sailing and ALCA are discussing team coach support.

Applications for these and all other ILCA World Championships can be placed on the ILCA web site at https://sailing.laserinternational.org/public/site/event-list.

All you wanted to know about the class its rules and bylaws geography and news in one neat volume. The 2022 ILCA Handbook is now available online on the ILCA web site Here.

There are 10 years of Handbooks also available Here.