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Michael Heath passed away on 3rd July after a long battle with cancer. Survived by wife Pamela and children Dougal, Sophie and Olivia Michael loved sailing Lasers and did so for over 40+ years starting late in his 30’s. He was a great character in the class.

Michael purchased one of the original Lasers (sail number 1032) to arrive in Australia in the early seventies. He sailed as an Apprentice (one of two Australians entrants) in the first International Laser Masters Championship on Ile de Bendor (Bandol, France) in 1980 and in many subsequent National and International events.

Michael loved passing on his knowledge of all things Laser to younger sailors. In recognition of Michaels contribution to Laser sailing in Victoria and as a Master sailor representing the state and nation interstate and overseas the Michael Max Heath Perpetual Trophy for Standard Grand Master Australian Champion was commissioned and first awarded in 2016.

Michael Heath left along with Graham Oborn, Barry Waller, Rob Lowndes, Andrew White, Max Ryan, Lew Carter, Paul Millsom, Stumpy Keir and Colin Lovelady 30 years ago at 1995 Laser World Masters at Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Casey Imeneo in Action at Kiel Week – Photo by Saskia Johannsen

Six women and eight men competed in the just completed high profile Kiel Week Regatta in Germany.

In the 88 boat ILCA 6 event Casey Imeneo came back from a terrible day one to finish 6th ahead of Elyse Ainsworth 9th and Mara Stransky 10th and Zoe Thomson 11th. Sylvie Stannage was 15th so a great result for the Australian team. Anna Munch DEN had the event won before the medal race from Maria Erdi HUN and Emma Plasschaert BEL.

In the 148 boat ILCA 7 event Michael Compton and Ethan McAullay both made the medal race and finished 9th and 10th. Zac Littlewood recovered from a BFD early in the event to finish 16th one place ahead of early series leader Lawson McAullay. Italy dominated at the top of the table with Lorenzo Chiavarni and Dimitri Peroni finishing way ahead in that order.

Full results are Here.

The 2027 ILCA Under 21 World Championships will be held 10-17 January 2027 at Sandringham Yacht Club, Victoria.

The event is for ILCA 6 women and ILCA 7 men at least 17 but not yet 21 years old in calendar 2027.

For all World Championships there are limited places available for Australian sailors and applications are ranked based on the results of the previous Australian Championships. For the 2027 ILCA Under 21 Worlds at Sandringham the ranking event is the 2026 Oceania & Australian Championships 1-8 January in Hobart.

How Worlds ranking works for Australian sailors is covered on our Worlds Ranking page  https://ilca.au/worlds-qualification/.

If sailors don’t compete in the ranking event they can still apply for Worlds entry but will be ranked after all the sailors who do compete in the ranking event.

Production underway in new Morisset factory & new ILCAs ready to ship to a NZ customer

Performance Sailcraft Australia (PSA now a division of global Performance Marine Group) is back in production in their new purpose built factory at Morisset. They have ramped production including for a single order of 10 new boats for a New Zealand customer.

Under new ownership PSA has already provided charter boats for Oceania sailors selected for our Solidarity Program at 2025 Championships in Brisbane. New PSA owner Nick Ogden has agreed to ongoing support for this initiative.

Nick proudly showed his new facility to ICLA Australia & Oceania Chair and ILCA World Council member Ken Hurling at a visit in May.

On the visit Ken said he “We are very pleased to have PSA back in production in this world class facility. This is due to Nick and Jo Ogden’s vision, resources and persistence to overcome a number of hurdles in the transfer of ownership and continuation as an ILCA builder.”

Ken added “ILCA Australia & ILCA Oceania look forward to continued co-operation with PSA to advance the sailing of ILCAs in our region with a world class local builder.”

Shopfront at new PSA facility with some sample products on display

Zoe Thomson showing how it’s done in strong winds on Day 6 in Qingdao

19 of Australia’s top sailors (8 ILCA 6 and 11 ILCA 7) competed in the 2025 ILCA Open World Championships at the 2008 Olympic venue Qingdao, China. There are 99 women and 139 men sailing in the event which ran from 10 to 17 May.

No races were completed on any of the first four days. Reasonable winds were  forecast but no really sailable winds arrived until Day 5. The event finished will bang on Day 6 with 25 knot plus winds sweeping across the two course areas.

The ILCA 6 Women completed 6 races and the ILCA 7 Men just 5. All races were sailed as qualifying races with the split fleets (3 for ILCA 7 and 2 for ILCA 6). There were no gold and silver finals fleet races.

In the ILCA 6 event the winner Louise Cervera FRA posted two wins in the light wind races and then consistent places when the oysters were blowing off the rocks on the final day. Agata Barwinska POL and Eve Mcmahon IRL were separated by a tie break in second and third. The Australian team performed very well with Elyse Ainsworth 7th, Zoe Thomson 12th and Sylvie Stannage 16th.

In the ILCA 7s it all came down to the last race in a semi gale as all the top ranked sailors were very close on points and already had a bad race to drop. In the end there were just three points separating the top 6 sailors. In the last race Willem Wiersema NED and Pavlos Kontides CYP won their respective fleet races and finished one point apart in that order. WA’s Zac Littlewood after a great and consistent series had a 6th in the final race and finished two points away from Willem in third. Fellow WA sailors Ethan Mcaullay was next best Australian in 16th.

Full results are Here.

There is some great commentary on YouTube by Jon Emmett and Lily Xu over the live stream of Day 5 and Day 6 races. Well worth watching for the Olympic sailor and coach insights on the tactics and techniques of the competitors.

The Regatta Online Management System with links to results and all information is Here.

See Frances Beebe’s  report on the event and her great performance Here.

The event web site is Here and photos are Here.

Lawson Mcaullay when there was some wind on day 1 of World Championships Qingdao

German sailor Nico Naujock with a 7/10 dive following a 10/10 capsize at the recent 2025 Princessa Sofia Regatta in Palma, Spain. You can see how Nico managed this on Instagram Here. 

Not that he would have been thinking about it at the time but Nico is still on starboard gybe and not (yet) capsized so is probably right of way boat in his current position.

Don’t try this at home either. A few ILCA thrill seekers tested their skills and their luck off Sydney Harbour’s South Head when 4-5 metres seas were running in April. Photo by Caddy Media

Zoe Thomson won the ILCA 6 gold medal ahead of 114 of the World’s top ILCA 6 Women sailors at the Princesa Sofía Regatta, held between 28 March and 5th April in Mallorca, Spain. Conditions were highly variable with big winds and waves on some days and light winds and flat water on others.

Zoe has had great success in this regatta having finished second in the last two years and was very pleased to go one better this year. She achieved this with consistent performance through the series and a second place in the Medal Race. Fellow Australian Sailing Team member Mara Stransky also had a good series finishing 10th while Casey Imeneo was 20th and Sylvie Stannage 29th.

The full AS ILCA 6 squad, have been training together through the Australian summer and will compete in the 2025 ILCA 6 Women’s World Championship 10-17 May in Qingdao, China.

In the ILCA 7s Australian Sailing Pathway Team sailors Zac Littlewood and Ethan McAullay both scored several top-three race finishes in the 174 boat event in Mallorca. Zac finished just one point out of the Medal Race in 11th place with Ethan 16th. They will compete in the 10 Australia sailor team in the 2025 Men’s ILCA 7 Worlds next month in China.

Olympic silver medalist and World Sailing number one ranked iQ Foilist Grae Morris also won gold in Mallorca with consistent performance in the variable conditions.

ILCA International has awarded the 2027 ILCA Under-21 World Championships to ILCA Victoria.

The 2027 Performance Sailcraft ILCA Under 21 World Championships for men in ILCA 7 and women in ILCA 6 will be run 10-17 January 2027 at the Sandringham Yacht Club. Up to 200 sailors are expected to compete with many aspiring to represent their countries at the 2028 and/or 2032 Olympics.

Sandringham will also host the Victorian State and the Australian & Oceania Championships in the weeks preceding the Under 21 Worlds. Together with Sail Melbourne, this provides sailors from around the world with a program of events across the southern hemisphere summer.

ILCA Field Operations Officer, Andrus Poksi said. “The event will bring together the world’s top Under-21 sailors to compete at
one of the premier sailing destinations in the Southern Hemisphere.

The full event Press Release is Here.

Under 21 Worlds Men’s ICA 7 Portugal 2024 Start