Closing dates are approaching for the big ILCA and ILCA Oceania & Australian events.

• The Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships 1-8 January normal entries Here close on 30 November. Entries may be accepted after this date however a late fee of $75 will be added to the entry price. The NoR for the event is linked on the event web site Here. Around 200 sailors are expected to compete.
• The ILCA 6 Women’s Worlds 3-10 January in Mar del Plata, Argentina .has a few places unfilled. Six Australian sailors are entered. Late entry Here is closing on 12 December.
• There are also a few places available in the ILCA 7 Men’s Worlds 24-31 January in Adelaide where a record 26 Australian are entered. The late entry closing date is 27 December. Application can be placed Here.
• The ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 World Masters 2-10 February in Adelaide has 134 Australians entered and 220 total. Late entry closing date is 27 December. Application can be placed Here.

 
Sail Melbourne & Sail Sydney
 

Australian Sailing’s Sail Melbourne event is on 30 November – 3 December at Royal Brighton YC. Links to results, notices and race documents are Here. 86 of the best Australian ILCA sailors and top ILCA 7s from New Zealand will be competing.
 

If too much sailing is never enough Sail Sydney for Olympic classes is on 9-15 December from Woollahra SC. This is the Oceania Olympic qualification event for Paris (Marseilles) 2024. Australia has already qualified for ILCA 7 and ILCA 6 Olympics based on results from the 2023 World Championships in the Hague, Netherlands.
 
There is an invited classes event immediately following the Olympic classes event 14-17 December. This event includes ILCA 6 and ILCA 4. Entry, documents and results for these events are linked Here.

A condition of entry For any ILCA district, national or world championship event is membership of an ILCA district.
 

Before competing in any of these events please check that you are a financial member of your ILCA District.
 

Our memberships generally run from the start of the season in September/October and you need to be financial at the date of the event.

There is an Advice to Coaches posted on 21 November which contains links to register coach boats for;

• 2024 Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships
• 2024 ILCA 7 World Championships
• 2024 ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 Masters World Championships

The document also contains information on South Australian power boat licence and safety equipment requirements.

ILCA Oceania has announced the sailors selected for the 2024 ILCA 4 Solidarity Program.
 

Following the successful running of this program in 2023 for girls from Australian Districts the 2024 program has been extended to ten ILCA 4 sailors.
 

• One from Solomon Islands
• One from Samoa
• One from New Zealand
• One from each Australian district excluding NT
 

The program will provide free entry for the event and functions, a supplied boat, merchandise and coach but more importantly entry to a team of like keen sailors for the 2024 Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships in Adelaide.
 

Congratulations to the selected sailors.
 

2023 Solidarity Program Sailors with Australian Sailing Squad at Georges River

Matt Wearn and Mara Stransky were announced as winners of respective Australian Sailing sailor of the year awards at the gala presentation in Sydney in November.
 

After Matt was held back in 2022 with long COVID he stormed into 2023 with a third in the European Championship and then won both the Olympic Test Event in Marseilles and the World Championship in The Hague. At the awards Matt said “to bounce back as the best sailor in Australia is fantastic. I’m now just really looking forward to the next 12 months.”
 

Mara along with the very competitive Australian team competed in all the big events and she put together 18 podium places and finished strongly to get into the medal race in the World Championships and thus qualify Australia for ILCA 6 for 2024 Olympics Marseilles.
 

Zoe Thompson and Casey Imeneo were also nominated as women sailor of the year finalists alongside Mara. On the night Mara said of Zoe, Casey and Elise Ainsworth “I’m proud to be doing what I love with people I love spending time with. It’s why I am enjoying sailing as much as I am”.

ILCA World Championship places are set and allocated as follows.
 

• Entry limits are set by ILCA for all World Championships
• Entry places are allocated by ILCA based on the number of financial members in each country
• ILCA offers allocated places to sailors who apply in order of their ranking
• Ranking is carried our by each country
• For Australia ranking is based on places achieved in the preceding Australian Championships Open, Youth or Masters
• Any extra places up to the event entry limit are allocated to countries based on their membership linked entry target
• Like allocated places extra places are offered by ILCA in the order of sailor’s country ranking

 
There is an explainer with more detail on how the system works Here. It has links to the ILCA web site FAQ’s on entry and place allocation.
 

The Australian ranking is based on places achieved in the Australian Championship (Open & Youth or Masters) preceding the ranking submission date. This ranking date is set by ILCA and is usually four months before the event start date. The venues, dates and ranking events for the 2024 and 2025 Worlds are as follows.
 

The rotation of Australian Championships is as follows.