ILCA 4 Worlds; Aarhus, Denmark, August 2026
I have recently completed my second ILCA 4 Worlds competition, which was held in Denmark in August. The fleets were split into boys and girls with 298 boats in the boys fleet, resulting in four flights of approx. 75 boats in each start line.
The venue was surrounded by land, with the wind sometimes very unpredictable which even my coach couldn’t explain. The 1st day was light winds, random shifts and bumpy waters. The very 1st race I got crashed into on the start line, which was difficult to recover from resulting in my worst score. The next race I did better and really gained in the downwinds, whereas my upwinds I was not able to get the speed I needed too – I have learned from this and know what I need to work on for these types of conditions. The 2nd day was windy with only one race taking place due to the wind conditions being too extreme. The 3rd day was spent in the boat park waiting for a weather window, however late in the afternoon the race committee conceded it was too windy to launch. I got my best result on the last day of qualifying, finishing 5th in the race, however it wasn’t enough to make it into Gold fleet, which I missed out on by 3 points – highlighting the need to fight for every place on every race!
In the final series, where I was in Silver fleet (there was also a Bronze and Emerald Fleet) I started off with a bang by winning my 1st race. The next race wasn’t quite as good, as I missed a shift, which pushed me back down towards the back of the fleet, but I was able to fight back and finish 19th.
On the last day, we only managed to get once race in, despite being on the water the whole day. The race committee had technical issues with their equipment and also the wind kept shifting, resulting in many restarts and delays.
Overall, it was a fun event and great to mix with sailors from around the world and also the other Australians who were present. I finished 82 out of 298 boats (top 28%) and although unhappy that I failed to get into the gold fleet, I have learned from this regatta and know what to work on in the lead up to my next major regatta.
Thank you for all the support from ILCAWA which hugely enables me to travel to these events.
