It was great to have a 2022/23 season free of Covid disruptions and with many successful regattas completed. Standouts were an extremely successful nationals at Murrays Bay, the very well attended NI Freshwater champs at Taupo and of course George Lane as ILCA 6 Men’s World Championship win and George Gautrey’s podium finish at the ILCA 7 worlds. It was also good to see many other NZ ILCA sailors competing internationally, at Youth, Open and Masters levels.
 
Our Nationals at Murrays Bay were again a great success. We had excellent fleets in both the ILCA 6 and 7 at all levels. There was plenty of variety in conditions on the water, excellently run races and a fantastic host club. We again had a good response to our free entry initiative for any sailor who has not competed at an ILCA nationals for 10 years and have decided to continue this at Napier again this season. It is a significant financial commitment for the class, but we believe helps attract new sailors and lays a foundation for ongoing class success.
 
We will also be continuing with our always popular pre-Nationals free coaching sessions again this year, which have become a popular feature of the days before the nationals, again using paid coaches.
 
The NI Freshwater Championship, sailed for the first time last season in March at Taupo, was very successful and we will be repeating it again this season. Many sailors from around the NI took the opportunity to get together and enjoy some late season high quality racing at a central location, and LTYC were great and enthusiastic hosts for the event.
 
We are looking froward to this season Nationals in Napier and  have confirmed the Nationals for 2025 will be at Nelson Yacht Club, the venue of several previous very successful contests but one we have not visited for some time.
 
Financially we again had a satisfactory year, and the Association remains in good financial health.
 
We have progressed the move to embedding the name change of our Association to ILCA.nz as discussed last year and will be continuing to progressively transition the website etc to the new name.
 
Thanks to the committee, and especially Ken and Mike for all the work they do behind the scenes.
 
We are always keen to have anyone interested join the committee or propose or discuss any ILCA (Laser) issue. You are always welcome to contact me or any member of the committee via the NZLA website e mail contacts.
 
 
Nick Page
Chairman NZLA