The first WASZP event of 2026 was a big one – the inaugural WASZP Asia Pacific Championship, hosted by the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in Brisbane from 6 to 10 January. 

Five days of intense competition put the competitors through their paces across the range of conditions that Waterloo Bay threw at them. Big shifts, challenging waves in the windy stuff, and even some dodgems with the dugongs, gave each day a fresh angle of excitement! 

The fleet, consisting of top sailors from Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada, got to work with two days of conventional windward-leeward racing, followed by a spectacular day of Sprint and Distance racing before rounding the week off with another block of up and downs. 

In the men’s division, Australia’s Louis Tilly dominated the field with 13 bullets from the 17 races. Reports from the racecourse suggested wins for Tilly were seldom easy, but nonetheless habitual for the All-Star! Tilly’s victory comes off the back of straight wins in the Australian summer so far – surely his sights are firmly set on the top spot in Pensacola. The Kiwi contingent occupied the remaining steps on the men’s podium, with Jasper Camenzind and Ash Cole in second and third respectively. The Kiwi pair were the only boats to take wins off Tilly across the week, showing particular strength in the Sprint discipline.

 In the women’s division, Pearl Lattanzi, who was recently announced as a finalist for the US Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year following her WASZP Games title in 2025, would undoubtedly cross the starting line as favourite. Fending challenges from rival All-Stars Bridget Conrad and Grace Poole, Lattanzi delivered the goods in style, taking the APACs women’s title. Conrad took second and Poole third, with all women rocking the new 7.5 sail. 

Among organising everything from racing, to town hall discussions, to the tantalising ‘sausage sizzle’ (self-explanatory), Jervis Tilly was hard at work on the water in the Super Master division. Although Tilly must have accepted he can’t get near his son on the racecourse any more, the Aussie class president might still have a thing or two to teach the young guns, throwing in a 3rd place on the scoresheet as he eased to a comfortable Super Master victory.

Commenting on his favourite part of the event, Tilly Snr. said “The Sprint and Distance day was out of this world. Coming in from that long distance race, every sailor was beaming from ear to ear. You could not wipe the smiles off their faces. My average speed across the race must have been eighteen and a half knots. We were just ripping”.

The Asia Pacific Champs sets the scene for a huge year for WASZP racing. The next milestone is the WASZP Games in Pensacola, precluded by the inaugural All-Stars invitational, where some of the top names from the APACs will go head-to-head with the rest of the world.

Stay tuned on WASZP socials, and check out the epic images and video from Brisbane below.