Eroni Leilua from Samoa in action at Sail Sydney – Beau Outteridge photo

Sail Sydney is held each year for all Olympic classes. It has an invited classes event following the Olympic classes which includes ILCA 4 and Open ILCA 6. This year Sail Sydney (9-15 December) was selected as the Oceania Olympic Qualification event. There were two Olympic country qualification places awarded in each of the ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 for Oceania sailors at Sail Sydney.

There were 26 ILCA 7s from 7 countries in the event won convincingly by Sam King TAS from Isaac Schotte QLD and Campbell Patton BER and NSW.

Australia and New Zealand had already qualified for the Olympics in the World Championships earlier this year in the Hague, Netherlands. The two Oceania ILCA 7 places were won by Eroni Leilua from Samoa who qualified his country with a 6th and Viliame Ratulu from Fiji.

In the ILCA 6 there were 14 in the Olympic event and 22 in the Open. The Olympic podium was all Australian which had already qualified for the Olympics at the Worlds in The Hague. Regatta winner was Elyse Ainsworth, second was Casey Imeneo and third Zoe Thompson. Greta Pilkington New Zealand and Sophia Morgan Fiji who finished 6th and 8th respectively qualified their countries for Paris/Marseilles 2024.

Full results of the event are Here.

The full list of Olympic sailing qualification events and countries qualified in the various classes is detailed in a Wiki Here.

Brooke Wilson AUS Greta Pilkington NZL and Sophia Morgan FIJ at Sail Sydney – Beau Outteridge photo

Beginning with our Oceania & Australian open and Youth Championships 1-8 January Adelaide Sailing Club ASC will be hosting three major championships across January and February 2024. The Oceania event will be followed by the ILCA 7 Men’s and ILCA 7 and ILCA 6 Masters World Championships. These will be the culmination of three years of work and planning by ASC working with ILCA International, Oceania, Australia and ILCA South Australia to deliver three international-level regattas.

All up there will be more than 600 boats competing which will be the largest sailing event in South Australia’s history.

The ILCA 7 Men’s World Championship will be an Olympic Qualifying event results which will offer seven Olympic places for Paris 2024 (sailed in Marseilles).

ASC Commodore Peter Royle said “We are estimating in the region of 18,000 people to pass through the club during the six-week period of the three events. Our visitor numbers to SA and expected times indicate a $16M boost to the local economy.” He explained “Each event will have opening and closing ceremonies which will be open to the public and ticketed. We also expect to have some spectator craft available for closer on-water viewing too.”

Web sites to watch to follow the events are.

Oceania & Australian Open & Youth 
ILCA 7 Men’s Worlds 
ILCA 7 & ILCA 6 World Masters

Final entry for ILCA 2024 World Masters at Adelaide Sailing Club 2-10 February closes on 27 December 2023.

You can apply for entry until then Here for ILCA 6 and Here for ILCA 7.

NoR and other information is on the event web site Here.

There are currently 228 sailors entered so far in the event.

The podium in ILCA 6 at Pacific Games Sophia Morgan FIJ, Evie Saunders AUS and Vaimooia Ripley SAM

Evie Saunders won gold in the ILCA 6 at the Pacific Games held in Honiara, Solomon Islands in November. She and team mate Ellen Sampson also took gold in the teams event.

Evie entered the medal race with a slender lead over Fijian Olympic representative Sophia Morgan – knowing she needed to finish within one position of the Fijian to win gold which see did.

Isaac Schotte won bronze in the ILCA 7 men’s competition and he and fellow Australian team member Tom Farley also won team silver behind New Caledonia.

The very experienced ILCA 7 sailors Etienne Le Pen from New Caledonia and Eroni Leilua from Samoa were clearly the best sailors in the fleet and took gold and silver respectively. Etienne with team mate Vincent Trinquet won the ILCA 7 team gold for New Caledonia. New Caledonia also topped the medal tally from the 27 sports at the games. Pretty good for a country with less than 300,000 population.

Congratulations to Hugh Leicester who has been chosen by World Sailing among 59 from 33 nations Race Officials, Judges and Technical experts who will oversee the sailing events at the 2024 Paris Olympics staged in Marseilles between 28 July and 8 August. Hugh was the Laser RO for the 2021 Japan Olympics.

There were four Australians in the officials team. Australian Sailing President Alistair Murray AM said of them “On behalf of Australian Sailing I would like to congratulate David Brookes, Hugh Leicester, Rosemary Collins and David Tillet. Being appointed to an Olympic Games is the pinnacle achievement for international Race Officers, and to see so many Australians appointed for Paris is an extraordinary feat,”

Hugh Leicester eyeballing the line in a Black Flag start Race 9 in Tokyo Olympics

Brooke Wilson dealing with the testing conditions on Port Phillip – Photo by Beau Outteridge

Sail Melbourne wound up at Royal Brighton YC on Sunday with a day of sun and steady winds. This was appreciated after some character building conditions earlier in the series.

Matt Wearn continued his fine form to post a good win in the hot 32 boat ILCA 7 fleet. Matt won from Finn Alexanber who posted very consistent results and Ethan McAulay who scored two bullets in third. World Championship bronze medallist New Zealander George Gautrey also poste two wins and was close behind in 4th.

Matt Wearn was pleased with his performance and looking forward to the Oceania & Australian Championships and the ILCA 7 Worlds in Adelaide in January.

Matt said of the Brighton event “It’s been really good from a conditions point of view as this is the kind of stuff we expect in Adelaide,to get some hours in the legs hiking in big waves and big wind here has been good as it will help get us ready for that.”

Mara Stransky finished with six wins from eight races for a comfortable win in the 36 boat ILCA 6 fleet. Casey Imeneo appreciated the strong conditions on her home waters and posted consistent placings for second from WA’s Elyse Ainsworth. The top women sailors are preparing for the ILCA 6 World in Argentina from 5th January so will miss the big Oceania and Australian Championship event 1-8 January in Adelaide.

Mara said “We are having a little break now before heading over to Argentina to do some pre-training in the venue,”

RQYS sailors Chase Taylor and Caterina Myer dominated the ILCA 4 fleet with respective 1st and 2nd places in each race.

Full Results are Here.

Tom Slingsby has been named Rolex World Sailor of the Year for the third time, cementing his place as one of his sport’s all-time greats. This award comes after his induction into the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame last month.

Tom has won a plethora of awards, including an Olympic gold medal, America’s Cup win, multiple world titles in the Laser and Moth classes, and line honours in the Middle Sea Race and the Sydney to Hobart Race. More recently he has proven a pretty deft hand on the wheel in the fast foiling Sail GP and Americas Cup boats which are tad faster than the Lasers he grew up with.

None of this fame or success comes easy to anyone. Tom’s desire to achieve at the highest level grew as a teenager when he watched the boats compete on Sydney Harbour during the 2000 Olympic Games.

In an interview with Rolex following his award Tom said “When I decided I wanted to be a professional sailor, there was not really a career path”

“Only the top 1 per cent of sailors were able to make a career, so I knew then I had to be one of the very best in the world. Every single day, whether it was 35 knots* and pouring rain, or freezing cold, I would say to myself ‘no one else is training today but I will because this is the dedication and passion it takes to reach the top.”

We know there are young sailors in our class who can take inspiration from Tom’s success and ideals and who may one day match or even exceed his achievements.

Sailors should ensure that their sail presented for measurement at the 2024 Oceania & Australian Open and Youth Championships or the 2024 World Masters Championships meets the class rules and NoRs with respect to National Letters and for female sailors a red diamond. For both of these events there is no requirement to have a national flag on the sail.
For the 2024 ILCA 7 World Championships paragraph 2.2 of the NoR  requires the national flag in addition. Requirements for the national flag are detailed in paragraph 4(h) of the Class Rules.
 

There are two notices with information for guidance of coaches and support boat drivers covering the three major 2024 events at Adelaide Sailing Club.

South Australian power boat licensing and regulations.

Race area which will be restricted to only registered coach and support boats.