The 60 Australian Masters sailors competing in the just concluded World Masters in Pattaya, Thailand achieved some memorable results.
With 112 boats in the ILCA 6s and 86 in the ILCA 7s there was lots of good close racing over the two weeks of the two back to back series.
The conditions were mostly very good but but with periods of very light conditions. Strong tides confounded some sailors and resulted in a greater than usual (for a Masters) number of U and black flags. The organisation of the event by ILCA and the Royal Varuna Yacht Club was excellent.
In the ILCA 6 GGM 32 boat fleet Australians filled the first four places lead by Jeff Loosemore followed by Lyndall Patterson, Steve Gunther and Martin White. David Early was third in the 42 boat ILCA 6 GMs fleet.
In the ILCA 7s GMs Brett Beyer took out his 15th Laser/ILCA World Masters series winning 9 of the 12 races. Jan Scholten was second and Gavin Dagley 4th in the 38 boat fleet. Steve Gunther and Jeff Loosemore backed up to compete in the ILCA 7 GGMs with Steve finishing second and Jeff third to GBR’s Tim Law. Colin Dibb was 4th in the GGMs. Now sailing for Australia Gold Coast orthodontist Christoph Bottoni had a remarkably consistent series to finish second in the ILCA 7 Masters to the almost unbeatable Greek sailor Adonis Bougiouris who posted 10 wins from 12 starts.
The event web site with news, video and pictures is ILCA 6 Here & ILCA 7 Here. The results for ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 are as linked. There is ane-book collection of photos from the events Here.
The next ILCA World Masters will be from Adelaide Sailing Club 2-10th February 2024 so hopefully we will be able to achieve similar success there.
