Due to the COVID-19 situation Queensland Laser Association has decided to replace the South Pacific Laser Masters Regatta with a weekend open (all ages) regatta on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th July. This is similar to the situation last year. All entries for SPLM will be refunded.
A NOR for the replacement two day five race event has been issued Here. You can enter Here. Entry is $50.
Entries will be refunded if COVID restrictions do not allow the regatta to go ahead.
There is an opportunity for coaching on Friday 9th July before the event. Details of the coaching are in the NoR as is the email for expression of interest.
QLA says “Please go ahead and enter the event if you can, we would love to see you there! Last year we ended up with around 60 entries in similar circumstances.”
The Laser 50th Anniversary Event was held on Sydney Harbour on Sunday 20th June. The fleet of over 110 boats enjoyed the 10 -18 knots of breeze to complete the course from Farm Cove in front of the Opera House to Watsons Bay.
A number of interstate sailors who planned to participate were deterred by the mini COVID outbreak some others by the early start and the cold and rain. Those who did brave the conditions had a great time on the water and enjoyed the festivities, BBQ and prize draw back at Double Bay Sailing Club afterwards.
Pictured above is part of the fleet led by 13 times Laser World Masters Champion Brett Beyer sailing the prize 50 Anniversary gold boat donated by PSA. NB Sailsports also donated three ILCA sails for the draw.
Photos below are of Frant Bucek sailing his 1974 vintage Laser. The boat Frant insists is quite sound despite its years. The same could be said of many of the masters sailors on the day. The other is Peter (Pedro) Stephinson sailing with Michael Blackburn’s sail and a boat from the Sydney Olympics in 2000. These Olympics were sailed on much the same water as the 50th event. Photos are by Aero Media
There are lots of photos taken by Jon West which can be viewed and purchased from his web site Here.
Story carried by Sail World is Here. Jeff Loosemore’s video perspective is Here.
The 2021 ILCA 6 Men’s and Women’s World Championships is being relocated to Mussanah, OMAN. The event dates have been changed to 29 November to 06 December 2021.
The change is due to disruptions to global shipping which have made it impossible ship the charter boats from Japan (post Olympics) to USA in time for the event. Oman has offered to host this event, although at this later date.
The application deadline has been moved to 30 August 2021. All existing applications for this event remain valid, although some sailors may elect to cancel due to the date and venue change.
Welcome to the new CV world of flexible arrangements.
The dates and locations for the following 2022 World Championships have also just been set:
2022 ILCA 7 Masters World Championship – 30 May- 7 June 2022 at the Vallarta Yacht Club in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico
2022 ILCA 6 Masters World Championship – 09-17 June 2022 at the Vallarta Yacht Club in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico
2022 ILCA 4 Youth World Championships – 13-20 August 2022 at the Capable Planet Clube Nautico in Vilamoura, Portugal
2022 ILCA U21 World Championships – 21-28 August 2022 at the Capable Planet Clube Nautico in Vilamoura, Portugal
ILCA Have announced opening of applications for Men’s and Women’s Radial (Now ILCA 6) World Championships 10-17 October Shoreacres Texas USA.
Australians considering competing in these events should review the ILCA World Championships COVID-19 Notice information Here. In the light of the Australian Government’s ban on Australian citizens and permanent residents travelling overseas sailors wishing to participate in these events should review the information on the Department of Home Affairs’ web site Here
ILCA are moving ahead with entry offers for other 2021 World Championships. You can view the details for each of the seven World Championships on the ILCA web site Here.
The Laser 50th Anniversary Event was held on Sydney Harbour on Sunday 20th June. The fleet of over 110 boats enjoyed the 10 -18 knots of breeze to complete the course from Farm Cove in front of the Opera House to Watsons Bay.
A number of interstate sailors who planned to participate were deterred by the mini COVID outbreak some others by the early start and the cold and rain. Those who did brave the conditions had a great time on the water and enjoyed the festivities, BBQ and prize draw back at Double Bay Sailing Club afterwards.
Pictured above is part of the fleet led by 13 times Laser World Masters Champion Brett Beyer sailing the prize 50 Anniversary gold boat donated by PSA. NB Sailsports also donated three ILCA sails for the draw.
Photos below are of Frant Bucek sailing his 1974 vintage Laser. The boat Frant insists is quite sound despite its years. The same could be said of many of the masters sailors on the day. The other is Peter (Pedro) Stephinson sailing with Michael Blackburn’s sail and a boat from the Sydney Olympics in 2000. These Olympics were sailed on much the same water as the 50th event. Photos are by Aero Media
There are lots of photos taken by Jon West which can be viewed and purchased from his web site Here.
Story carried by Sail World is Here. Jeff Loosemore’s video perspective is Here.
ILCA Have announced opening of applications for Men’s and Women’s Radial (Now ILCA 6) World Championships 10-17 October Shoreacres Texas USA.
ILCA are moving ahead with entry offers for other 2021 World Championships. You can view the details for each of the seven World Championships on the ILCA web site Here.
Australians considering competing in these events should review the ILCA World Championships COVID-19 Notice information Here. In the light of the Australian Government’s ban on Australian citizens and permanent residents travelling overseas sailors wishing to participate in these events should review the information on the Department of Home Affairs’ web site Here.
The 2022 Australian Laser Open & Youth Championship will be held at Fremantle Sailing Club WA between 1 to 8 January 2022.
The Notice of Race for the event is Here. You can enter from 1 July Here.
A limited number of charter boats are available for the event from NB Sailsports. If you need a charter get in an reserve yours on the NB Sailsports web site Here
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 2022 Australian Laser Masters Championship will be held at Westernport Yacht Club in Victoria 25-28 February 2022. This event will be the first under the new rotation arrangement for the National Masters.
The Notice of Race for the event is Here. You can enter Here.
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.
In accordance with World Sailing’s Olympic Equipment Policy, which states that any interested and qualified manufacturer must have the opportunity to become a builder of Olympic equipment ILCA have now appointed six new builders worldwide joining PSA here and PSJ in Japan.
To comply with the WS policy the International Laser Class boats will be sold under the ILCA brand in order to allow builders to sell boats in any part of the world without trademark restrictions.
The new builders are;
Devoti Sailing s.r.o. (Poland)
Element 6 Evolution Co Ltd (Thailand)
Nautivela srl (Italy)
Ovington Boats Ltd (United Kingdom)
Qindao Zou Inter Marine Co., Ltd (China)
Rio tecna srl (Argentina)
All ILCA approved builders’ boats are manufactured from moulds made from ILCA master tooling and are built in strict compliance with the standards and specifications of the class Build Manual.
In Australia we have been fortunate to have the most experienced builder in PSA here so perhaps little change in supply arrangements. Some other Laser Regions had not been well served under the previous builder arrangements so are very pleased to have production closer to home – an advantage we have enjoyed for a long time.
Thanks to a VLA initiative and finance we now have a new mobile app which each Australian Laser district can use and which will provide notifications, information, documents, results etc. relevant to the district and regattas.
Many sailors will have seen how useful this information and notifications are for regattas when a similar app was used at the Victorian 2020 events earlier in the year.
The app is free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store – just search “Australian Lasers” and look for the distinctive app logo or click on one of the links below.
You will get notifications of any new information on one Australian Laser district and one Regatta which will be the last district and last regatta which you accessed. You can also see National Laser results, messages and documents by selecting the ALCA icon on the home screen.
If we can’t have an Australian Championship this year we can at least reflect on the great events of the past.
Greg Pratt has dusted off photos which he took at the 2010 Nationals at Adelaide Sailing Club. You can see these photos HERE. In this series Tom Slingsby won 10 of the 11 races which is about as dominant a win as you can get at this level.
You can see the results of the Standards HERE and thanks to the work of Rob Lowndes and others the results of the Nationals going back to last century are HERE. You may not recall how you went in the past but the internet never forgets.
2010 Nationals Tom Slingsby on his way to a very big win – Photo Greg Pratt
Australian Sailing has announced HERE that it has ceased running Australian Youth Championships. It will continue to run State Youth Championships once COVID-19 orders allow.
In their announcement AS say that clubs are at the centre of a sustainable future for youth sailing and that the development of a club based coaching program is a priority for them. They also say that resourcing will be dual focused;
Helping to develop sailors so that they stay engaged at their club and remain lifelong members of our sailing community
Provide opportunities for aspiring athletes to progress from club to national level
Following AS’s change ALCA will be placing additional emphasis on Youth at our Australian Championship events. The Laser Australian Championships already include Youth categories as cube events. These championships will become the selection event for the Laser sailors in the World Sailing run Youth Sailing World Championships and are and will remain the ranking events for applicants for all ILCA World Championships.
ALCA will rename the Australian Championships as Australian Laser Open and Youth Championships. Going forward these championships will always be run as separate events from the Masters while the Australian Laser Masters will be run as a separate annual event.
The Australian Open and Youth Championship 6 year rotation around the states will be unchanged though as previously advised the WA event at Fremantle SC due to COVID-19 will be postponed for one year.
The separate Australian Masters event will be held on a three year rotation around the east coast mainland states.
It is expected that with the greater focus on youth in the National Open and Youth Championships and with the increase in emphasis and numbers in the 4.7 at these events the Laser Nationals will continue to grow and prosper.
The separate National Masters events have always been popular and very well attended. ALCA considers that running more of these will increase Master’s participation and interest.
Following AS’s change ALCA will be placing additional emphasis on Youth at our Australian Championship events. The Laser Australian Championships already include Youth categories as cube events. These championships will become the selection event for the Laser sailors in the World Sailing run Youth Sailing World Championships and are and will remain the ranking events for applicants for all ILCA World Championships.
ALCA will rename the Australian Championships as Australian Laser Open and Youth Championships. Going forward these championships will always be run as separate events from the Masters while the Australian Laser Masters will be run as a separate annual event.
The Australian Open and Youth Championship 6 year rotation around the states will be unchanged though as previously advised the WA event at Fremantle SC due to COVID-19 will be postponed for one year.
The separate Australian Masters event will be held on a three year rotation around the east coast mainland states.
It is expected that with the greater focus on youth in the National Open and Youth Championships and with the increase in emphasis and numbers in the 4.7 at these events the Laser Nationals will continue to grow and prosper.
The separate National Masters events have always been popular and very well attended. ALCA considers that running more of these will increase Master’s participation and interest.
The rotation sequence for these events will be as follows:
Due to uncertainty about COVID-19 health orders and border restrictions, ALCA in consultation with event organisers WA Laser Association and Fremantle Sailing Club (FSC), has decided to postpone the 2021 Australian Laser Championships to 1-8 January 2022 at FSC.
The Australian Open Laser Championship rotation order is unchanged so the event after Fremantle will be the NSW & ACT hosted championship at Georges River Sailing Club 1-8 January 2023.
As you may be aware Australian Sailing has cancelled their Australian Youth Championships 2021 which were to be held at SoP YC WA. They had earlier conveyed their decision not to run National Youth Championships after 2021.
As there will be no 2021 Australian Championship event the ALCA AGM will be held online instead. The AGM will be held by Zoom on 15 December 2020. Details and arrangements will be conveyed closer to the meeting date.
