Fifty four boats sailed in the 2022/2023 Victorian ILCA Laser Open and Youth Championships from Mordialloc Sailing Club on Port Phillip on the weekend of 3 and 4 December.
The five scheduled races were sailed in light to moderate winds and flat seas which was a change from the tough conditions in Melbourne on preceding weekends.
The largest fleet was the ILCA6 (Radial) fleet with 31 boats. Casey Imeneo from McCrae and Sorrento sailing clubs displayed good boat speed and tactics in recording two firsts and two seconds to be the clear ILCA6 winner.
Casey had returned to Australia just a week before the event from sailing in the gold fleet in the European ILCA Laser championships in Hyeres,France and an extensive 2022 program of Regattas and training overseas with the Australian women’s ILCA6 squad.
Second and third overall were two under 17 sailors who had sailed the World ILCA 6 Youth championships in Texas in mid 2022.
Hamish Gilsenan from Albert Sailing Club finished second overall on a countback of race results from Patrick Cummin from Davey’s Bay Yacht Club. Fourth and first Masters sailor was Owen McMahon from Royal Brighton.
There were three under 17 and two under 19 youth in the ILCA6 top ten which is a positive sign for the ILCA Laser class in Victoria.
The ILCA7 class was closely contested across the weekend. Jack Eickmeyer from Mornington Yacht Club, the Australian ILCA Laser representative in the 2022 World Youth sailing championships, won the last race to finished runnerup 1 point behind Matt Blakey.
Matt is the current Australian ILCA7 Masters champion and this was his fourth consecutive ILCA7 Victorian title. Third was Robert Wilson from Port Melbourne Yacht Club who finished two points clear of the fourth and fifth placegetters.
Source : Australin Sailing
