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/

The 2022 South Pacific Laser Masters in on 29 April to 2 May at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly.

This is always a great event and sadly missed during COVID.

The event web site with links to enter, and for the Notice of Race is Here.

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

This brought to memory the feat on 9^th 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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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 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.

All you wanted to know about the class its rules and bylaws geography and news in one neat volume. The 2022 ILCA Handbook is now available online on the ILCA web site Here.

There are 10 years of Handbooks also available Here.

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 50^th 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.

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 7^th 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.

The ALCA AGM was held by Zoom as outlined Here.

The minutes and reports tabled are posted Here.

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.

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.

Australian Sailing has announced a National Youth Camp shortly after the completion of Youth Sail Victoria in April 2022. The Vic Youth Champs event 16-19 April 2022 will act as the selection event for the Australian Youth World’s team for 2022 and for the National Youth Camp sailors. The Youth Camp itself will run from 20 – 23 April 2022.

The four-day camp will comprise guest speakers, education sessions, class based technical coaching for two days and individual and team problem solving challenges. It will be based at Royal Yacht Club of Victoria for on water activities and around the camp accommodation within the city of Melbourne for off water activities.

For further information, please contact Lesley Fasala – Performance Pathway Coordinator Lesley.fasala@sailing.org.au or Ash Brunning – Performance Pathways Technical Manager Ashley.brunning@sailing.org.au

ALCA has changed the ranking arrangement for ILCA World Masters Championships to apply from World Masters 2023 which will be held in Pattaya, Thailand in February.

The new ranking policy Here is based on results from the previous Australian Laser Masters Championships.

This policy is much simpler than the previous ranking policy issued in July 2017 which factors results from six World National and State Masters events. The new ranking regime is facilitated by the change to Australian Masters from 2022 all being stand-alone Masters events held in rotation between the eastern states.

With its adoption the ranking of sailors for all ILCA World Championships (Open, Youth and Masters) will be consistent and based on performance at the respective Australian Championships.

In summary ranking for May 2022 World Masters in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico will be based on results of the previous two World, National and State Masters events as per the existing policy Here. For the February 2023 World Masters in Pattaya, Thailand ranking will be based on the results of the Australian Masters February 2022 Westernport YC as per the new policy Here.

ILCA will open applications for 2022 World Masters Championships for ILCA 7 on 1 December 2021 and for 2022 WMC for ILCA 6 on 11 December 2021.

The International Laser Class Association proposes changes to its Constitution and needs a 2/3rds majority vote to bring this about.

The Constitution needs to be brought into the 21st century, to reflect the new naming and class builder arrangements and to reform the representation and voting rights on the ILCA World Council and modernise its governance.

Information about the proposed changes and a link to the voting site are available for the next six months on the ILCA website Here:

This is a non controversial change and a yes vote is recommended.

ILCA has just announced that from 2022 the Apprentice Masters age range will be extended from 35-44 to 30-44.

ILCA says that it is excited about this change, which for the first time gives sailors under the age of 35 the opportunity to join the ILCA Masters World Championships and to enjoy the unique atmosphere of that fleet. All other Masters age categories will remain unchanged.

The new age range will apply for all ILCA District, Regional and World events including the upcoming 2022 Australian Masters at Westernport and the 2022 Masters World Championships in Mexico.

ILCA says that while it does not expect this change to dramatically increase the number of Apprentice entries in events it believes that by being more inclusive and “broadening the tent” to allow more adult sailors to enjoy Masters events it will attract more interest in the ILCA class from both grass roots and former competitive ILCA sailors looking to get back into our great sport.

Australian Sailing’s ran webinars in September featuring the 470 and Laser sailors.

If you missed the webinars you can see the recordings on YouTube on the following links;

• 470 Mat Belcher and Will Ryan 7pm Thursday 16 September
• Laser Matt Wearn Tuesday 21 September
• Laser Radial Mara Stransky Thursday 30 September