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Author: kevinphillips

Oceania Laser Masters Darwin

Close racing in 2022 Oceania Masters in Darwin

The 2022 Oceania Laser Masters is being hosted by Darwin Sailing Club with 37 competitors from Australia & New Zealand competing in the week-long event (20-26 August). Competitors have travelled from near & far with some driving their boats north whilst others decided charter boats were a better option.

Racing has been taking place on the fabulous waters of Fannie Bay. The water is a bright aqua colour, weather is warm as many sailors hit the water in shorts. The weather and conditions couldn’t be more glorious. Racing has been in the afternoons leaving the mornings to relax although this has come at a cost with quite shifty conditions on the racecourse leading to some mixed results.

After race BBQ and drinks in the Rotunda has been a daily occurrence and the most popular addition to the regatta. It has created a fantastic way to chat about the days racing, get to know the other sailors whilst watching the famous Darwin sunsets.

Racing at the top of the fleet has been close in both ILCA 6 and 7. Results for the event are Here . Photos of the sailors enjoying the racing are on the DSC Facebook Page Here.

The Darwin Sailing Club, their staff & volunteers have done an amazing job with the regatta going very smoothly. Gary Martin, local laser legend, was the brainchild being the event being held in Darwin and the results have been beyond successful.

France Wins ILCA 7 Worlds in Mexico

Finn Alexander in Action in Mexico Worlds – Photo John Pounder

The ILCA 7 Worlds have just concluded in Vallarta, Mexico. 126 boats competed.

Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (France) by finishing 7th in the last race secured the position he held for most of the regatta to become the new ILCA 7 World Champion. This is the first time that France has won the ILCA 7 Men’s World Championship. Cypriot Pavlos Kontides took Silver and Filip Jurišic from Croatia Bronze. 2021 World Champion, New Zealander Tom Saunders finished two points off the podium in 4th place.

Matt Wearn had to withdraw at the outset of the competition and is now recovering from an illness contracted last month.

Finn Alexander was the best-placed Australian in 13th equalling his best-ever World Championship result.

Finn commented to Mysailing, “It was a good regatta but I lacked a bit of consistency throughout the week and especially in qualifying. I had lots of good races and lots of positives to take away but there were a lot of points wasted, it’s a little bit frustrating but still not a bad overall result.”

Finn has had consistent places in the circuit events so far with a 15th in Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma, Spain, 12th at the French Olympic Regatta in Hyeres, France and now 13th in the Worlds.

Other Australian team places were, 29th – Luke Elliott, 41st – Ethan McAullay, 46th – Sam King and 72nd – Zac Littlewood

Iain Brambell Australian Sailing Team’s new High Performance Director said, “The 2022 ILCA 7 World Championships was an ever-challenging test for the young Australian team’s fighting spirit. The Australian ILCA 7 squad will depart Mexico with lessons they will continue to build from in their pursuit of next year’s World Championship in The Hague and the first opportunity for 2024 Olympic Qualification.”

Most of the squad will now head home for a break, before returning for a training block on the Paris 2024 racetrack in July.

Full results of the event are Here. News from the Worlds is on the event web site Here.

The ILCA 7 World Masters is underway at the same Vallarta venue (30 May-7 June) followed by the ILCA 6 Masters (9-17 June). There are seven Australians competing in the ILCA 7 Worlds and six in the ILCA 6. The respective event web sites are ILCA7 Worlds, ILCA 6 Worlds

Coaching Opportunity in Fiji

Fiji Yachting are looking for a National Coaching Director to manage and implement their national sailing coaching program. The Statement of Duties is Here.

Fiji qualified for the ILCA 6 event in Tokyo is is looking to lift the standard of its elite level sailors while introducing new sailors to the sport.

The activities in Fiji would be for 8 months each year, nominally from 10 April to 10 December each calendar year. Salary and conditions would be negotiated and would be relevant to the level of the duties and experience of the coach.



If you have an interest in this position please contact.

ILCA 7 Worlds Mexico Underway

Swifto Elliot winning in Race 1

The ILCA 7 World Championships are underway at Vallarta, Mexico. The opening day under the hot Mexican sun on the Banderas Bay, saw 126 sailors began their hard road for the gold. Racing is due to take place every day until 28 May 2022. The fleet is split into the two fleets, where 63 sailors in each fleet will sail the first 3 days the Qualification series, followed by the Final series where the best half of the fleet will compete in Gold fleet and other part in Silver fleet.

As usual for this time of the year on Banderas Bay, the best wind comes around noon so the races are scheduled to start at 1300 every day. Nice and stable breeze today with 12 knots of wind allowing the fleets to start their first race without any recalls and delays.

Matt Wearn had to return back ashore before the first start as he did not feel well. With only one drop allowed from the qualifying series the current Olympic champion has put himself in a difficult position. Luke Elliott took the first win in the regatta in front of Jonatan Vadnai from Hungary and George Gautrey from New Zealand in Yellow fleet.

The results of the series are Here. The event web site is Here

2022 ILCA 6 World Championships Texas USA

The ILCA 6 Women’s and Men’s World Championship were to be held in Qingdao, China on 10-17 October 2022. Due to the deepening COVID situation in China and its very strict quarantine regulations and restrictions, ILCA can’t run the event there.

ILCA have announced that the event will now be 9-16 October 2022 at the Texas Corinthian Yacht Club Kemah, Texas.

Entry Applications are now open at the following links:

Women

Men

The Event website for any further information is Here.

Matt Wearn – French Olympic Week – Hyères

Matt in action day 1 French Olympic Week Hyeres – Photo by Sail Media

Matt Wearn had had a great start in relatively strong conditions in the French Olympic Week Olympic classes regatta in Hyères. Matt was leading with 2,1,1,1 in the 130 boat competition after two days. He went on to sit on top of the leaderboard for the qualifying series, but then dropped to third on the first day of the final series before qualifying for the Medal Race in sixth. Mat was 3rd in the medal race to finish the up and down series in fifth place. Pavlos Kontides won the series. Finn Alexander was the next best in the Australian team finishing 12th.

Our Tokyo Olympic representative Mara Stransky finished strongly with a second place in the medal race for a ninth place overall in the high scoring series in the Women’s ILCA 6.

The full results of all classes are at https://sof.ffvoile.fr/results/

The event web site is at https://sof.ffvoile.fr/

A Blast from the Past

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

This brought to memory the feat on 9th 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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NoR and Entries for Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships

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

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 Available for ILCA 4 & 6 Youth Worlds

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.

Laser Newsletter History Collection

Rob Lowndes has put together a collection of Laser newsletters “Lasernews” starting with the first in September 1974 through to the last in 2007. This gives a superb account of the history of the class in Australia and especially in the NSW/ACT District.

As a Laser 50th anniversary project Rob has had the Lasernews scanned and now posted on the NSW & ACT Laser web site at http://laser.asn.au/?page_id=4946. There is some background Here.

Rob has included a handy headline guide for each edition so you can browse though Laser history by subject as well as timeline.

In compiling this collection and the guide I suspect that Rob has spent many hours combing the newsletters so, if he wasn’t before, he is by now the foremost source of factual Laser legend in the land.

Thanks to Rob for his work on this project and even greater applause for the authors and editors who compiled the newsletters over the years. Also thanks to Paul and Yoko Hargan who managed to collect and collate these pieces of history.

New Australian Olympic ILCA 6 and 7 Coaching Line Up

The Australian Sailing Team made changes to their coaching line up for the Paris 2024 campaign.

The team is under recently appointed High Performance Director Iain Brambell OLY.

Carolijn Brouwer and Ben Walkemeyer will join forces to coach the ILCA 6 squad.

Brouwer, the new National ILCA 6 coach, represented the Netherlands and Belgium at three Olympic Games in three different classes. Most recently she has been coaching the Australian Sailing Futures Program Nacra 17 squad.

Brouwer said “I feel really strongly about developing a strong squad culture that not only helps the girls advance their skills on the water, but also helps them grow as people off the water.”

WAIS coach Walkemeyer has been appointed as the Assistant National ILCA 6 coach. He was one of four sailing coaches included in the most recent AIS Elevate Athlete2Coach program, in-part for his work with the Australian Sailing Futures Program ILCA 6 squad.

Spaniard Rafa Trujillo who coached Jake Lilley to a 7th place finish in the Finn class at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is the new National ILCA 7 coach. The role was vacated after three-time Olympic gold medal winning coach Michael Blackburn was appointed as Australian Sailing Technical Director last year.

The full Olympic class coaching line up is Here.

Australian Laser Masters at Westernport

The Australian Masters is on at Westernport Yacht Club in Victoria 25-28 February 2022.


Entry links, documents, updates and results for the event will be on the Australian Laser app. Select 2022 Laser Masters Australian Champs in National & District Events.


The Australian Masters will be preceded by a two day coaching clinic 22-23 February. Information on the coaching clinic is Here. You can enter for the clinic ($150) Here.


Information on PSA charters for the Masters event ($1,000) is Here.

ALCA AGM 15 December 2021


The ALCA AGM will be held via Zoom on Wednesday 15th December 2021 at 11.00am AEDT (Vic, NSW, ACT, Tas) 10.30am ACDT (SA) 10.00am AEST (Qld), 9.30am ACST (NT) 8.00am AWST (WA)

Meeting ID 706 776 2418 PC or Mobile https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7067762418

By phone 08 7150 1149, 02 8015 6011 or 03 7018 2005

This meeting is normally held in person at the Australian Open & Youth Championships which unfortunately this year have had to be cancelled. All members are welcome to attend.

The agenda and reports are Here.