ILCA Australian Championships

The 2025 Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships will be held at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly Queensland  between 1-8 January 2025.

Racing will start on Thursday 2nd  January with the practice race. From Friday 3rd until Wednesday 8th January two races back to back are scheduled 12 races in all. The ILCA 4 (91 entries) and the ILCA 6 (87 entries) will both be sailed with split fleets. The ILCA 7s (44 entries) will sail as a single fleet.

The Regatta Competitor Page with links to all information is Here

You can joint the Whatsapp Group Here to receive notification on your mobile when a notice is posted

Competitor List is Here

Sailing Instructions are Here

Notice of Race is Here

RQYS Video will be posted Here

RQYS Weather and rigging area webcam are Here

BoM MetEye (Peel Island) 7 day 3 hourly forecasts are Here

AusILCA AGM will be held at 0900 on 5 January at RQYS Agenda is Here

Entries are now open Here for the 2025 Oceania & Australian Masters Championships 21–24 February at Westernport Yacht Club Balnarring Beach, Victoria.

To encourage growth in the ILCA4 division, a special entry fee of AUD120 is provided.

This is the Australian ranking event for the 2025 ILCA World Masters 19-28 September Formia, Italy.

The Notice of Race is Here.

The 2025 Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships will be held at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly Queensland  between 1-8 January 2025.

The Notice of Race for this event is Here.

Entries prior to 14 December $450 can be placed Here. After this date entries may be lodged with a $100 late fee.

The Regatta Competitor Page with links to race documents, entry, venue information and WhatsApp Chat Group for notifications of new information is Here.

Charters are available from NB Sailsports Performance Sailcraft Australia and Devoti Sailing.

This event is the qualifying event for Australian sailors applying for entry to any 2025 ILCA World Open and Youth Championships.

ILCA Oceania is delighted to announce the following sailors have been selected by their district as the Solidarity representative for 2025 program run during the 2025 Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships at RQYS 1-8 January.

This program encourages young female sailors (ages 13-16) to participate in a world-class sailing championship and aims to foster a lasting love for sailing among young girls and support their development within the sport.

This is the third year of the program and already some participants have transitioned to the ILCA 6 and participated in subsequent State & National events.

This year local builder PSA have come on board and very generously will provide charter boats and merchandise for all the sailors. Australian Sailing are also providing much appreciated support for the program.

Thanks to the ILCA districts for their support, and for managing the selection process.

The full ILCA Oceania Press Release is Here.

The 2024 O & A Masters was held at RQYS Manly Queensland 12-15 April.

Great Queensland weather and hospitality was enjoyed by all competitors.

Host district QILCA, RO Louise Davis and RQYS did a great job in organising and running the event in which 7 of the 8 scheduled races were completed.

Rob Sykes provided the following comments on the event.

An eclectic fleet of some 71 boats, including past Olympians, current plus past World Champions and cube holders was met by winds ranging from about 15kn on Friday to a glass out on Monday morning. As some people began to de rig on Monday, the wind came through at about 6kn resulting in us non-believers frantically re rigging to get on the water.

Thanks must go to the RO for the postponement during the first start sequence that allowed us get to the start in time. There were also short postponements on the third race of the middle two days to allow the 6’s to clear the lee gate before the 7’s started their last race of those days. These delays and the communication between the RO and sailors were most welcome.

The regatta management was outstanding, helped by the thoughtful start sequence of 7’s first, followed by 4’s and then the 6’s (who tended to be opponents of rule 30 and enjoyed “nudging” the pin boat at the gun).

I have to be a bit careful pointing the bone at the 6’s, as the winds during the regatta often brought marginal planing or surfing conditions when wave and gust met nicely, resulting in those with the biggest sails pushing the boundary of rule 42 in interesting and creative ways.

I suspect the 4’s were the best behaved of all the fleets. It was really nice to see them on the water and would like to welcome them to future events.

Overall, the racing was very tight with all positions swapped during any race. The regatta winners seemed to find a way to be in the front when it mattered most, while the rest of us gained and lost places with alarming regularity when the winning shift turned from hero to zero in the space of a few minutes.

The pressure on every mark was huge, with a small error on one side or other capable of losing or gaining 5 or 6 places. The finish was similar, with multiple boats finishing within fractions of a boat length of each other. Congratulations must go to the finish boat and volunteer crew who managed to record this mayhem.

Sunday evening brought the regatta dinner after the second day of 3 light weather races. The increasing laughter levels as the evening progressed bear testament to the camaraderie enjoyed by all.

The presentation was preceded by the mandatory sausage sizzle where the category winners and runner ups were presented cubes, ILCA equipment and wine donated by our sponsors, Sail27 and PSA. The important people who make up the bulk of the fleet were also acknowledged with randomly drawn skippers receiving a bottle of wine.

There are more individual perspectives on the event from sailors in the five age divisions and the three classes on the QILCA web site Here.

Full results are Here.

Videos  with thanks to Spikey Mikey (mike@rqtv.com.au) are Here.

“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.

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

The championship which started with light and difficult conditions finished up today with a bang. 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 Cumminwas 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 next Oceania & Australian Championships will be held at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly QLD 1-8 January 2025.

Frances Beebe Leads Going Into Final Day in closely contested ILCA 6s

The 2024 Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships move into their final day tomorrow with fleet positions in ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 very close. With 16 to 18 knots SSW predicted there could be some turnover of places and close racing.

You can see Jack Fletcher’s daily briefs on Down Under Sail at the links below.

Qualifying Day 1

Qualifying Day 2

Qualifying Day 3

Day 4 – No Racing

Finals Day 1

Final Day

All Classes Results

Facebook posts and interviews

The forest of ILCA sails – ready to launch Day 2 of 2024 Championships

Follow the 2024 Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championship action in Adelaide

Facebook 

Race Results

Regatta Online Management System (ROMS)