2024 Oceania & Australian ILCA Open & Youth Championships
1 – 8 Jan 2024, Adelaide Sailing Club
In early January 2024, four BYS youth sailors made the trek across to Adelaide Sailing Club to compete in the 2024 Oceania and Australian ILCA (formerly Laser) Open and Youth Championships. Lucas James and Gus McIntyre competed in the ILCA 6 (formerly Laser Radial) fleet consisting of 87 boats and Abby Young and Will James in the ILCA 4 (formerly Laser 4.7) fleet consisting of 69 boats.
Over five days of racing (10 races) the sailors experienced highly variable conditions, including one day of no racing due to lack of wind. Despite these challenges, all four sailors demonstrated their ability to adapt and perform at their best.
Will and Abby only recently transitioned from their Minnows (sailed last season) into the ILCA 4 class. With less than one year’s experience, both sailors should be proud of their achievements at a national level. Will qualified for Gold Fleet, finishing 20th overall (Gold Fleet) with his best result a 6th place in race four (qualifying). Abby qualified for Silver Fleet, finishing 9th overall (Silver Fleet) with her best result a 7th place in race two (finals). Full results can be found via this link https://www.sailwave.com/results/adelaidesc/ILCA%204%202024.htm
Lucas and Gus were able to apply their learnings after competing during July in the 2023 ILCA 6 Youth & Men’s World Championships held in Dziwnow, Poland. Gus missed day one of racing due to a regatta timing overlap – a worthwhile decision coming away with the title of 2023 National Sabre Champion! Both sailors qualified for Gold Fleet, which saw a mixed bag of highs and lows, including some BFDs and unfortunately for Lucas, an injury saw him miss the final day of racing. Gus finished 20th overall and Lucas 42nd. Full results can be found via this link https://www.sailwave.com/results/adelaidesc/ILCA%206%202024.htm
Adelaide Sailing Club is also hosting the ILCA 7 Men’s and ILCA 7 and ILCA 6 Masters World Championships over January and February 2024. All up there will be more than 600 boats competing across the three events, 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 which will offer seven Olympic places for Paris 2024 (sailed in Marseilles).
We wish Gaz James all the best as he takes on the world’s best during the ILCA 6 Masters World Championship commencing on 2 February 2024.
The class continues to demonstrate its commitment to fostering an inclusive and strong pathway for youth sailors, transitioning out of junior classes. Demonstrative of this is Abby’s selection by ILCA Victoria as their representative in the 2024 Australian ILCA Solidarity Programme. The programme supports female sailors of a similar age from each Australian State and Territory, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Through this programme, Abby was provided with an ILCA 4 boat at the Nationals, coaching and a team uniform. Of most significance, are the strong connections Abby was able to form with her sailing peers. Congratulations Abby!
The 2025 Oceania and Australian Open and Youth Championships will be held at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Manly, Queensland 1-8 January 2025. It will be great to Team BYS represented again at this level, and as always they look forward to welcoming new BYS sailors to join them on their ILCA journey.
