Zoe Thomson has been selected by Australian Sailing to represent in the ILCA 6 in Paris Olympics with sailing between 28 July and 8 August in Marseilles. Matt Wearn was announced as the Australian representative in the ILCA 7 in February.

Zoe’s selection followed her great 2nd place in the Princesa Sofia World Cup Series Regatta in Palma Mallorca. Mara Stransky was leading early on in the Mallorca event and finished 9th after a UFD and 34 in the final two fleet races. It must have been a tough decision for AS to make however great that we have such great strength in the ILCA Australian Sailing Teams.

In Olympics speak the ILCA 6 and ILCA 7s are the “equipment” for the events termed respectively Women & Men’s Dinghy.

The Australian Olympic sailing representatives  now total 12.

Australian Olympic Team manager “Chef de Mission” Anna Meares congratulated the athletes on their selection. ‘‘ Their passion, commitment and talent have got them to this point,’’ Meares said. ‘‘ I have no doubt they will make Australia proud.’’

The 2024 O & A Masters was held at RQYS Manly Queensland 12-15 April.

Great Queensland weather and hospitality was enjoyed by all competitors.

Host district QILCA, RO Louise Davis and RQYS did a great job in organising and running the event in which 7 of the 8 scheduled races were completed.

Rob Sykes provided the following comments on the event.

An eclectic fleet of some 71 boats, including past Olympians, current plus past World Champions and cube holders was met by winds ranging from about 15kn on Friday to a glass out on Monday morning. As some people began to de rig on Monday, the wind came through at about 6kn resulting in us non-believers frantically re rigging to get on the water.

Thanks must go to the RO for the postponement during the first start sequence that allowed us get to the start in time. There were also short postponements on the third race of the middle two days to allow the 6’s to clear the lee gate before the 7’s started their last race of those days. These delays and the communication between the RO and sailors were most welcome.

The regatta management was outstanding, helped by the thoughtful start sequence of 7’s first, followed by 4’s and then the 6’s (who tended to be opponents of rule 30 and enjoyed “nudging” the pin boat at the gun).

I have to be a bit careful pointing the bone at the 6’s, as the winds during the regatta often brought marginal planing or surfing conditions when wave and gust met nicely, resulting in those with the biggest sails pushing the boundary of rule 42 in interesting and creative ways.

I suspect the 4’s were the best behaved of all the fleets. It was really nice to see them on the water and would like to welcome them to future events.

Overall, the racing was very tight with all positions swapped during any race. The regatta winners seemed to find a way to be in the front when it mattered most, while the rest of us gained and lost places with alarming regularity when the winning shift turned from hero to zero in the space of a few minutes.

The pressure on every mark was huge, with a small error on one side or other capable of losing or gaining 5 or 6 places. The finish was similar, with multiple boats finishing within fractions of a boat length of each other. Congratulations must go to the finish boat and volunteer crew who managed to record this mayhem.

Sunday evening brought the regatta dinner after the second day of 3 light weather races. The increasing laughter levels as the evening progressed bear testament to the camaraderie enjoyed by all.

The presentation was preceded by the mandatory sausage sizzle where the category winners and runner ups were presented cubes, ILCA equipment and wine donated by our sponsors, Sail27 and PSA. The important people who make up the bulk of the fleet were also acknowledged with randomly drawn skippers receiving a bottle of wine.

There are more individual perspectives on the event from sailors in the five age divisions and the three classes on the QILCA web site Here.

Full results are Here.

Videos  with thanks to Spikey Mikey (mike@rqtv.com.au) are Here.

Zoe Thompson finished second to Hungary’s Maria Erdi in the ILCA 6s in the just completed 53rd Princesa Sofia World Cup Series Regatta in Palma Mallorca. From the 116 ILCA 6 competitors including all the top sailors in the world Elyse Ainsworth was fourth and Mara Stransky after leading early in the event finished 9th – so three Australians competed in the medal race.

The 193 boat ILCA 7s event was won convincingly by UK sailor Micky Beckett. Matt Wearn was 5th and Ethan McAullay  7th in what was a high scoring series for everyone except Micky Beckett.

This regatta is huge with 1,100 sailors competing from 76 countries  in all Olympic classes.

There is more information on the ILCA fleets on the ILCA web site Here and full results for the event are Here.

This is an update to a 7 Nov 2023 post due to a few changed and added ILCA World Championship venues and dates.

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 ILCA Ranking Policy is on the Worlds Ranking Page Here.

The venues, dates and ranking events for the 2024 – 2025 Worlds and 2026 World Masters are as follows.

The rotation of Australian Championships is as follows.