2024 ILCA 6 Youth European Championships – Bangor

ILCA 6 European Youth U17 Podium – Winner Healy Ryan

The 2024 ILCA 6 Youth European Championships & Open European Trophy have concluded in the waters off Bangor, Northern Ireland. The event ran from 27 July – 3 August 2024 in some excellent Irish summer weather, with sunlight from 4:30am to 10:30pm and maximum temperatures around 15-18 each day there was nothing missing,  every season made an appearance every day!

12 races were scheduled but 10 or 11 were held depending on the final fleet.

There were 7 Sailors representing from across the country: Ellen SAMPSON (SA), Edward ALEXANDER (ACT), Xavier BATES (WA), Riley CANTWELL (VIC), Luke CARRICK (WA), Hugo RALPH (QLD), Healy RYAN (NSW).

With the ILCA 6 worlds for female and male having been held in January (Argentina) the European championships was expected to be the youth event of the European summer and it delivered. The current ISAF Youth Worlds Champions (male and female), crowned just weeks earlier (Australia does not attend) and January’s ILCA 6 world champion Antonio Pascali was in attendance as was ILCA 4 world championship Carlos Charbati.

With 247 male sailors and 112 females from 28 countries it was a great competition to see how our sailors would fair alongside a world class fleet.

The Australian sailors all put in strong performances with moments of class along with some heartache through which they learned and grew as sailors. The wide variety of pressure and direction created some tricky conditions and all had moments when they picked great options and nailed a leg.

In the Male category Jacek Kalinowski from Poland had a fabulous last day for a come from behind overall victory while 15 year old Australian Healy Ryan won the U17 for the European Trophy and finished 2nd overall.

Australian results summary:

Ellen Sampson – 13th in Silver

Healy Ryan – 2nd (1st U17) in Gold

Riley Cantwell 53rd (17th U17) in Gold

Edward Alexander – 50th in Silver

Xavier Bates, 8th in Bronze

Hugo Ralph – 26th in Bronze

Luke Carrick – 55th in Bronze

Thanks to all the parents for getting the team to the event and working together to keep the sailors smiling and, for the most part, organised. Also a big thank you to the Ballyholme Yacht Club for putting on a fantastic regatta and the super friendly volunteers who were always up for a chat and met you with a smile.

Final results and links to news and photos can be found here.

Australian Team ILCA 6 Youth Europeans – Bangor Northern Ireland