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ILCA 7 Worlds Concludes With Exciting Medal Race

Micky Beckett dealing with 25 knots and 2 metre waves on day 5

 

On the final day with just the double points medal race for the top 10 and a single finals race for the the other sailors scheduled any of the top three could take out the 2024 ILCA 7 Worlds in Adelaide.

 

As is turned out after attempts to run the finals race failed only the top 10 medals race was run so places 11 to 152 remained unchanged.

 

It was 25 plus knots for finals races 3 and 4 leading to Matt Wearn’s comment leading up to the medal race “I think in this sort of stuff where it’s getting up to 25-plus knots, you’ve just got to sail your own race, obviously you can keep an eye on the other guys but at the end of the day you’ve just got to execute and hike like hell”

 

Matt Wearn went into the medal race 8 points ahead of Norway’s Hermann Tomasgaard with Micky Beckett (GBR) a point further back. Matt lead for almost all of the medal race to take his second ILCA 7 World Championship. Hermann Tomasgaard retained his second place with a second in the medal race with Micky Beckett finished fifth keeping his third overall.

 

Full results for the event are Here.

 

Tracks of the medal race can be accessed HERE.

 

 

ILCA 7 Worlds Underway in Adelaide

2023 ILCA 7 World and Olympic Champion Matt Wearn in Action in Adelaide

 

The ILCA 7 Men’s World Championships got underway on Friday 26 January at Adelaide Sailing Club.

 

The first day turned on a terrific 10-20 knot breeze for the 152 sailors from 52 countries including 28 Australians.

 

The race committee is expecting to run two races per day, giving a 10-race series with three fleets concluding on 30 January and followed by the 10-boat medal race on 31 January to close out the series.

 

The event web site is Here.

 

Event Results are Here.

 

Social Media Links

Adelaide Sailing Club Facebook
ILCA 7 Worlds Facebook
Adelaide Sailing Club Instagram
ILCA 2024 Events Instagram

ILCA 6 Worlds Argentina

Charlotte Rose (USA), Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) and  Emma Plasschaert (BEL) podium in Mar del Plata

 

The 2024 Women’s world championship from Yacht Club Argentino in Mar del Plata, Argentina concluded on 10 January with three Australians finishing in the top 20 in the 100 boat event. Elyse Ainsworth, WA was best of the Australians at 13th, Mara Stransky, QLD, 17th; Casey Imeneo, VIC, 19th followed by Zoe Thompson, WA, 30th & Sylvie Stannage, NSW, 64th.

 

Anne-Marie Rindom was the star of the show with four wins from 11 races needing only to sail in the final medal race to win. Fast improving American sailor Charlotte Rose was second and Belgian Emma Plasschaert third. The event web site is Here and full results are Here.

 

There were seven Olympic places awarded based on this event. See the Wiki Here for full information on qualification for all 2024 Olympic sailing events.

 

Mara Stransky had already qualified Australia for an Olympic place with a 10th in the 2023 Worlds in the Hague. We now eagerly await the announcement by Australian Sailing, which of the top Australian women will be our representative in the Paris Olympics in Marseilles 1-6 August 2024.

Battens Trophy Heads to Queensland

 

The Battens Winning ILCA Queensland Sailors on Presentation Night

 

The ILCA nationals are done for another year. The event attracted 257 sailors with 64 overseas entries in the ILCA 7’s due to the World championship being held at the same venue from 24th January. The ILCA 7 Worlds will see a field of 153 sailors from 53 countries including most of the best ILCA 7 sailors in the world.

 

Another highlight of the nationals was a record 69 ILCA 4 entries of which 32 were female. This reflects the success of ILCA Australia’s focus on the ILCA 4 as the ideal transition boat & our drive to keep more girls in the class.

 

the Battens trophy is awarded to the best performed state across all ILCA classes in the nationals. Victoria won the trophy in 2023 from long time holders Western Australia however this year Queensland sent a strong team especially in ILCA 4’s and managed to foil Victoria’s effort to retain the prize.

2024 ILCA 4 Solidarity Program

 

Six girls from Australia, & one each from New Zealand, Solomon Islands & Samoa participated in the 2024 ILCA Oceania Solidarity Program.

 

The girls Leisina Rasmussen (SAM), Renee Baragamu (SOL), Kate Ocean Rasmussen (NZL), Molli McIlwaine (QLD), Isabella Lozevski (NSW), Abby Young (VIC), Catherine Mansell (SA), Isla Molyneux (WA) along with coach Matilda O’Donoghue from Tasmania (standing on the right) posed for the photograph above on Day 1.

 

The girls all had a great time & learned heaps at their first major ILCA regatta. Four of the Solidarity girls from last year were in Adelaide & made friends with the 2024 group.

 

Thanks to Craig Sheers GM at PSA for his assistance in getting the boats setup for the event and to ILCA Victoria Chair John d’Helin who created and managed the program.

Sailors Eye View of ILCA 6 Championship in Adelaide

“It’s never like this here.”

I know this is a common saying at every event, but this held true at the 2024 Oceania & Australian ILCA Open & Youth Championships. With the four AST/ASS women away in Argentina to compete at the World Championships, becoming the National ILCA 6 Champion was up for grabs.

 

Up and coming RQYS sailors Frances Beebe (pictured above) has written a great sailors eye view of the ILCA 6 Championship in Adelaide which you can read Here.

2024 Championships Finish With a Bang in Adelaide

Brooke Wilson giving her all in the close final race – Photo Jack Fletcher Down Under Sail

 

The Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships which started with light and difficult conditions finished up today with a bang at Adelaide Sailing Club. A cracking 18-22 knot southerly with a big steep swell meant it was a physical day on the water.

 

In the ILCA 6 class Brooke Wilson (NSW) led the regatta for the first few days before Frances Beebe (QLD) really threw down the challenge, leading going into the final race.

 

Brooke was able to take the final race win, with Frances right on her heals. This gave Brooke the championship win by a single point. Frances was first Under 21. Victorian under 19 sailor Patrick Cummin was third. Healy Ryan (NSW) was first under 17 in 4th place.

 

Tom Saunders NZL close second in ILCA 7 – Photo Jack Fletcher

 

It also went down to the wire in the ILCA 7 with Tom Saunders (NZ) leading by two points from Matt Wearn with the second drop and the final race to go.

 

In the final race Matt finished with 8th to Tom’s 18th resulting in Matt’s two point win. Germany’s Philipp Buhl scored three bullets but having to count an 11 and 13 saw him six points off in third. Michael Beckett (GBR) and Swifto Elliott (WA) completed the cube podium.

 

Aiden Simmons all the way winner in the ILCA 4 – Photo Jack Fletcher

 

Aidan Simmons (VIC) lead throughout the ILCA 4 series with consistent places in all conditions. Aiden scored five wins and no place worse than 3rd.  Jasper Stay (VIC) scored three wins but was a little less consistent finishing four points behind Aiden.

 

Chase Taylor (QLD) was third. He was one of the very successful Queensland ILCA 4 squad which posted five of the top ten ILCA 4 places.

 

The event was voted a great success despite some ordinary conditions causing lost races and no sailing on Day 5. Like the sailors the Adelaide Sailing Club volunteers, PRO Col Dods, the race committee and jury did a terrific job in the sometimes testing conditions.

 

Full results are linked below.

 

ILCA 7

 

ILCA 6

 

ILCA 4

 

The event web site in Here and there are interviews and more information on Facebook page Here.

 

The next Oceania & Australian Championships will be held at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly QLD 1-8 January 2025.

Sail Sydney – Oceania Olympic Qualifying Event

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

Big ILCA Event Program at Adelaide Sailing Club

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

 

 

Australian Team Win Medals at Pacific Games

 

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 Hugh Leicester Olympic Official Appointment

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

Sail Melbourne Wraps Up in Brighton

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 World Sailor of the Year

 

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.

Display of National Letters Flags and Diamond

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.
 

2024 Event National Letters National Flag Female Diamond
Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Yes No Yes
ILCA 6 Masters Yes No Yes
ILCA 7 Masters Yes No Yes
ILCA 7 Worlds Yes Yes N/A