ICLA6 (Laser Radial) World Youth Championships 2023 - Dziwnow, Poland
(Report by Pat Cummin - DBYC and Australian Sailor)
Recently, I competed in the ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in Poland. I am very grateful to have received the opportunity to go back to this event, and it was a great trip. This year threw some logistical challenges in the form of the venue being seven hours away from the airport. We made the 24-hour trek on the plane to Hamburg, Germany, before getting into a hire car and starting our road trip. The venue was in a small holiday town called Dziwnów, which was a strange place.
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The Australians felt comfortable in the upper wind range, and we enjoyed the send of coming in and out of the canal into the Baltic Sea. I don't think I can say often that I had to channel my inner Kelly Slater to just safely make it in and out of the channel entrance, but these are the things you find out and why we arrive early. Once you survived the barrels, you then had to snake your way through the chaos of over 350 lasers to get to a single-file boat ramp. Safe to say this was one of the most entertaining things to witness, watching everyone scramble to get a position on the ramp.
Regatta OpeningFor the opening ceremony, we are standing at the entry of the marina, about to march through the town’s
main street with a band and dances. It was surreal walking through this random town in Poland with the Australian flag above our heads and looking behind and seeing the sea of flags and colours following behind us. 
Race Days |
The morning of Day 1 was looking windy, with waves rolling through from the west. When the gun went off, it was great to stretch the legs and swing up the course to the top mark. The day was solid but felt as if I didn't maximize the scorecard, and I also had a few starting issues that I would need to sort out.
Day 2 brought offshore wind and a completely different racetrack, which meant I had to sail the boat differently from what I did on Day 1. The flat and shifty weather also meant it changed my tactics and strategy, which made the starts super important (which they always are) because if you couldn’t pop out in the initial 2 minutes, you would either be ping-ponged up the middle or be sitting in gas all the way to the corner. Something that played out throughout the whole regatta is that the top 5 would come from both corners. So the pre-start strategy would involve looking up the course and fully committing to one side. If you wanted right, then you would start at the boat, tack off, and spend 5 mins on port until the lay line.
Day 2 brought offshore wind and a completely different racetrack, which meant I had to sail the boat differently from what I did on Day 1. The flat and shifty weather also meant it changed my tactics and strategy, which made the starts super important (which they always are) because if you couldn’t pop out in the initial 2 minutes, you would either be ping-ponged up the middle or be sitting in gas all the way to the corner. Something that played out throughout the whole regatta is that the top 5 would come from both corners. So the pre-start strategy would involve looking up the course and fully committing to one side. If you wanted right, then you would start at the boat, tack off, and spend 5 mins on port until the lay line.
Day 3 was the last day of qualifying and my last opportunity to get my scorecard back down after a rocky day 2. Race 1 was splendid with the breeze sitting around 13 knots, with a nice swell. Fully stretched out. I followed that basic strategy, the strategy that Opti coaches tell you never to do and headed/banged for the corner. By this point, I had collected enough data to know that this was a safe option. A good start was desired but again I fell back because of bumper car strategies other sailors were using. I tacked out but knew I had to make it left. So then I slotted myself in and used the speed, I knew I had to roll the two boats next to me, giving me a sweet lane all the way to the corner.
After a surprisingly short 6 minutes of flat hiking, I found myself fighting the leaders, which included the twice world champion from last year. As we approached the top quarter of the beat, I had slotted myself into a very nice defensive position and held this to the top mark, getting there in the lead. A good slap of the hull, and I turned downwind to carve up and try to keep the gains I had made. My downwind speed was something to be desired on that day, and over the course of the regatta, I found it was up and down. I kept a solid position that was decent enough and tried to rinse and repeat for the 2nd race. This time I committed to the right-hand side, tacked off, and led the guys who got spat out. I saw the compass numbers start to tick and took the lift back up to the top mark. I don't know if I could believe that I was able to tie two of these races together, but also, I knew I could do it. I got to the top mark in the top 3 pack and again tried to defend the wall of boats behind. This was the most fun day of the regatta, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make Gold Fleet finals, which was disappointing.
At this stage, I had to clear the goals and take a new action plan for the remaining races in the regatta to learn as much as I could. Especially since I knew I wanted to dip my toes into the ILCA7 world when I got home, and that their starts are much harder.
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