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Dana Retboell writes, ‘The 2024 ILCA Australian and Oceania Championship Regatta was held in Adelaide from the 1st to the 8th of January at the Adelaide Sailing Club in West Beach.

The 8 day long regatta consisted of a wide variety of wind conditions which challenged us from day to day. I (4.7) was sharing a house with two other youth members from the Squadron; Isobel Payne and Massimo Henderson (Radials) which added some extra challenges because our start times were scheduled one after the other meaning that we never launched and came home at the same time.

The first and second day of the Regatta was mainly measurement which I found was quite a bit stricter than last year’s and was a bit nerve wracking as I had to shave off 2 millimetres from my top baton. In the end all went well and everyone passed which was good. In the afternoon of the second day at 2.30 we had a practise race scheduled and many of us found ourselves having to adjust to the size and frequency of the waves which we hadn’t encountered before.

For day 3, it was quite shifty with medium winds not reaching above 14 knots and quite a conflicted sea state which made for two very challenging races which required a lot of mental strength.

On day 4, the wind was shifty with an offshore breeze which led to us being held on shore for a few hours as we waited for it to pick up.

On day 5, it was a light 5-10 knot seabreeze that filled in slightly by the time the radials got on the water.

On day 6, the first day of finals, a thunderstorm was hanging just over Adelaide and resulting in many hours of waiting before an AP over A was released.

On day 7 it was a shifty first race for the radials but the breeze kicked in at 15-18 knots.

On the last day of the regatta an early start was scheduled for the ILCA 4s and the wind was 13-18 knots throughout the day, getting breezier as the afternoon went on.

We had several Squadron members participating in the regatta. In the ILCA 4s we had Harriet McLachlan in 32nd (Gold Fleet) and myself in 20th (Silver fleet). In the ILCA 6s we had Massimo Henderson at 3rd (Silver fleet), Isobel Payne in 30th (Silver fleet), Brooke Wilson in 1st (Gold fleet), Sara Bruce in 12th (Gold fleet) and Ali Braden in 31st (Gold fleet).

Despite the unusual wind and wave conditions at the regatta, everyone was able to keep persevering and showcase their skills in the different fleets.’

We are grateful to all the volunteers and the South Australia Yacht Club for helping and hosting this amazing event. I’d like to thank all our parents as well, who made it possible for us to participate.'

See the full results