Singlehanded dinghy elite in Texas

The ILCA 6 World Championship is coming to the USA with racing October 11-16 on Galveston Bay in Kemah, Texas. With gender divisions, the women’s fleet has 85 entries from 39 countries which is representative of the best in this Olympic one person dinghy, while the men’s fleet is pretty thin with 15 entries from the USA along with one each from Canada and US Virgin Islands.

The Class organization has followed the World Sailing recommendations in reaction to the war in Ukraine. To help preserve the integrity and safety of the event, entries were open to competitors of all nationalities, but not to competitors holding only Russian or Belarussian nationality.

Defending women’s world champion Emma Plasschaert (BEL) hopes to defend her title but she must get past 3-time Olympic medalist Marit Bouwmeester (NED) who is returning to competition following the birth of her child.

Canadian Sarah Douglas, sixth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, will be among the favorites. “I’m looking forward to racing closer to home for the 2022 World Championships,” she said. “I didn’t compete in the 2021 edition because I was resting after the Tokyo Olympics, so I’m excited to get back to racing with the best sailors in the world. I’ve been training all summer for this event and I’m stoked to be competing in North America.”

Charlotte Rose leads a deep field from USA, with the Texan hoping to find similar success when she won the 2018 World Sailing Youth Championships in her home state. Fellow American Erika Reineke, who had until recently been campaigning in the Olympic Women’s Skiff, will be testing whether she makes a third Olympic campaign in a class where she was a 2-time ILCA 6 Youth World Champion.

Event details:
• Women: https://sailing.laserinternational.org/site/event-site/146
• Men: https://sailing.laserinternational.org/site/event-site/148