{"id":674167,"date":"2026-05-16T06:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674167\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T06:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:20:18","slug":"australian-ilca-squad-ready-to-take-on-european-championship-in-croatia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674167\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian ILCA Squad Ready to take on European Championship in Croatia"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Australian ILCA Squad Ready to take on European Championship in Croatia
\n by Lisa Darmanin \/ Australian Sailing Team 15 May 21:54 PDT
\n 17-22 May 2026<\/p>\n


\n Mara Stransky \u00a9 Beau Outteridge \/ Australian Sailing Team<\/p>\n

\"Henri-Lloyd
<\/a>\"Switch
<\/a><\/p>\n


\nThe ILCA European Championship gets under way this week in Kastela, Croatia, with Australia’s top sailors primed for action on the Adriatic Sea following an intensive preparation period. \n<\/p>\n


\nThe Australian ILCA6 Squad has been making the most of the Australian Institute of Sport European Training Centre in Varese, Italy, following the first two Sailing Grand Slam events of the season. The team completed a comprehensive fitness block and mental reset before relocating to Croatia for final preparations. \n<\/p>\n


\nTokyo 2020 Olympian Mara Stransky enters the championships ready to put it all together, following an eighth place finish at the Trofeo Princesa Sofia. “My season so far has shown promise but has been a little messy on the execution front, so the goal for this week is to tidy up and allow the processes to do their thing,” Stransky said. \n<\/p>\n


\nThe Queenslander expects challenging and varied conditions throughout the regatta. “The conditions here truly could be anything from very light onshore with swell outside, to howling down off the mountains in flat water on the inshore racecourses so theoretically it will be a great test of a well rounded sailor.” \n<\/p>\n


\nStransky will be joined by a strong Australian ILCA 6 contingent as they take on a fleet of 123 sailors. \n<\/p>\n


\nWhile Olympic champion Matt Wearn will not be competing in the ILCA7 fleet, fellow Australian Sailing Team members Ethan McAullay and Zac Littlewood will spearhead the Australian challenge. McAullay brings strong recent form to Croatia, having placed 13th at the Trofeo Princesa Sofia and seventh at French Olympic Week. \n<\/p>\n


\nMcAullay is also targeting a breakthrough result as the season builds towards its major events. “I’m not too disappointed with how the season’s been panning out so far,” said McAullay. “But the goal is to try and podium sometime this season, so aiming to do it at a peak event like the Europeans this week or Worlds later this year.” \n<\/p>\n


\nHe is also bracing for anything conditions wise, “It’s really hard to know what to expect exactly. I think the forecast is for some seabreezes most days, but it’s a little bit undetermined of what race course we’re going to be racing on. \n<\/p>\n


\n“We’ve got the standard seabreeze course offshore in Split and then we’ve also got the course right in front of the club here in Ka\u0161tela, so we’ll see where we race, and that will determine a lot of what we expect for the week.” \n<\/p>\n


\nThe Championship will feature 12 races across six days of competition, running from May 17-22. \n<\/p>\n


\nFull list of entries can be found here<\/a>. \n<\/p>\n


\nAustralian Sailing Team (AST)<\/a>, Australian Sailing Squad (AS Squad)<\/a>, Australian Sailing Futures (ASF), State Sailing Performance Program (SSPP)<\/a> and other Australian (AUS) entries at the ILCA European Championship: \n<\/p>\n


\nILCA 6 (123 entries)

\nElyse Ainsworth (AST)

\nMara Stransky (AST)

\nZoe Thomson (AST)

\nEvie Saunders (AS Squad)

\nCasey Imeneo (ASF)

\nSylvie Stannage (AUS)

\nFrances Beebe (AUS) \n<\/p>\n


\nILCA 7 (179 entries)

\nEthan McAullay (AST)

\nZac Littlewood (AST)

\nMichael Compton (AS Squad)

\nLawson McAullay (AS Squad)

\nIsaac Schotte (AS Squad)

\nAlexander Bijkerk (SSPP)

\nPatrick Scally (AUS)
\n
\n
\n \n <\/p>\n

\"Marskeel
<\/a>\"Vaikobi
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian ILCA Squad Ready to take on European Championship in Croatia by Lisa Darmanin \/ Australian Sailing Team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,8272,33756,6459,44,33757,3778,822,232,6654,7931,33754,4719,33758,33755],"class_list":["post-674167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boat","tag-boating","tag-lake","tag-news","tag-photographs","tag-photos","tag-racing","tag-reports","tag-results","tag-sail","tag-sailing","tag-sea","tag-yacht","tag-yachting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}