ILCA UK Chair Blog #117

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 6 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 4 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 ILCA UK Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

ILCA Qualifier 6 WPNSA Day 2 October 2024 – no racing but loads of photos here and here

ILCA UK ILCA 6 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

ILCA UK ILCA 7 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

Women In Sailing Talk with British Sailing Team’s Daisy Collingridge

ILCA Women's Coaching Day at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Noble Marine & Rooster Qualifier WPNSA write ups: ILCA 7, ILCA 6, ILCA 4

Noble Marine ILCA 6 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

ILCA Midlands Grand Prix at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Northern ILCA Circuit Finale at Dovestone Sailing Club

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 12/9/24 Mark Lyttle 12/9/24

ILCA UK Chair blog #116

Tim Law …..

I am sure there was limited sailing this weekend, but we did manage a couple of races at Queen Mary on Sunday. Tough conditions greeted the 13 sailors with a cold northerly with big gusts of 25 to 30 knots and massive shifts. Best to describe the conditions as “survival” but exhilarating all the same. So what to make of the conditions? I wrote the following for our group, which may interest some of you.

Upwind stability is the key to keeping the boat moving quickly and up to 25 knots this usually means lots of mainsheet trimming (dumping it in the gusts) to keep the heel steady and the boat moving. When the gusts are 25 knots and over and swinging through 25 degrees, I think the emphasis shifts to steering - rapid push away of tiller before the boat heels in a lift and rapid pull of the tiller in a header – all with the aim of keeping the heel steady (easier said than done). Lots of kicker above 25 knots if fast if you can manage it but the boat is very susceptible to stalling, especially in a big, sudden, heading gust as the boat slows. So I often ease it a little to make it easier to steer. In any case, I can’t get under the boom with kicker fully on, so must ease it a bit for tacks. The trick is the push the tiller hard to get through the tack quickly and avoid stalling. It your kicker is still tight, ease the mainsheet right off after the tack to rebuild speed and avoid stalling. Running in these conditions is quite stable, if you go slightly by the lee with the mainsheet at 75 degrees (the leech will be at 90). In the big gusts coming up slightly on to a board reach is usually a disaster, as the boat is hard to control at speed.

The main part of the blog this week comes from Tim Law. He has been a Great Grand Master World Champion several times but was also British National Champion 50 years ago this summer:

I feel a little daunted writing this following on from our Chairman’s excellent previous missives. He has asked me to write this to offer my reflection on my very long and happy association with this special little dinghy we now call an ILCA.

Before the Laser/ ILCA came into my life I learned to sail and race when I was about seven in an International Cadet initially crewing my elder brother Chris sailing on the river Thames near Teddington. We were never taught or given lessons like is the norm now we just had fun learning by experience! The first year we raced we came literally last in every single race until one hot and light wind Saturday afternoon at the end of that summer when we managed somehow to drift across the finish line in first place. I was so excited I tapped my brother on his thigh probably too hard in order to congratulate him and he responded by punching me !

Chris was always very focused and probably as a consequence went on to be a member of four Olympic teams and I didn’t ! After I left school I didn’t sail for a some time as I went to work driving a delivery van around London to earn enough money to be able go travelling around the world. When I returned from that trip in May 1975 I looked out of the window of my Dad’s flat and noticed a little yellow racing dinghy sitting on the grass below. My Dad told me that it was a new type of singlehanded dinghy then called a Laser that he had bought and that I should have a go in it as he felt that he was too old at fifty five years old to handle it !

Taking up that opportunity but not owning a roof rack I loaded the boat onto a mattress and then onto my old minivan and drove it up to Queen Mary Sailing Club where there happened to be an Open meeting that weekend I entered that event and had my first wonderful Laser sailing experience which has had me hooked ever since.

I liked everything about the Laser and still feel the same about the modern ILCA today , nearly fifty years later, particularly because of the total one design concept that fully tests the sailors physical, mental and tactical strengths because everyone has the same kit. Those attributes lay the foundation for the ILCA for it to become the most popular racing dinghy in the world catering for men and women, young and old.

The phenomenal success of the ILCA and its popularity is due to Ian Bruce and Bruce Kirby’s excellent strict one design but I believe also due the constitution of a very effective International Class association backed up by strong National and regional Class associations, with the U.K. Class association always being a stand out. Having that strict one design concept involving minimal expensive fittings etc made the ILCA obviously more affordable to a wider audience. The strict licensing by the Class association of the worldwide builders has maintained this one design goal and means we can now travel anywhere around the U.K. and the world and borrow/ charter a boat that feels just like your own boat that you race at home.

But the class has also recognised the benefits of allowing gradual and careful development of the boat and its equipment such as more effective and practical control lines. My current ILCA 7 essentially offers me the same challenge as did my Laser in 1975 but over the subsequent years parts such as the original wooden grab rails, tiller, rudder blade and centreboard have been upgraded to modern materials and the new sail has been evolved significantly from the original very light cloth Dacron sail. And of course since those early days both the ILCA 6 and ILCA 4 have been introduced to compliment the original Standard ILCA 7 offering the more people the opportunity to join in on the fun.

After that wonderful first weekend Open meeting at QMSC I spent the next five years racing in most of the UK Laser events and qualified for the second ever Senior Worlds at Keil in 1976 and then the next two Worlds after that in Brazil and Australia which were and are still unforgettable events. I met and made many friends during those times racing Lasers who I am still racing now having rather belatedly joined with them competing in the fantastic ILCA Masters circuit. I have recently competed in events in lovely places such as Oman, New Zealand , Mexico and all over Europe.

Ian Bruce and Bruce Kirby thought they were just designing a boat and they did but by creating the ILCA the way they did they have also created a fraternity of people around the world who all share the same values and the same an appreciation of their little creation. And their ILCA has also helped develop a group of international sailors who are unsurpassed in their achievements at the Olympics and Americas Cup Such as Sir Russel Coutts and Sir Ben Ainslie. Early this year I watched from the water the best ILCA sailors race in the really windy Senior Worlds off Adelaide in Australia. It was the most impressive sailing I have ever experienced. These modern ILCA sailors are great athletes and have taken our sport to a level I could never have imagined back when I first raced the then Laser in 1975. They are also great people who are more than happy to support and help Class members and particularly Masters sailors. Our own rock star Micky Beckett has been fantastic, and doing just that coaching a group of us over the past couple of years.

Since 1975 I have always owned an ILCA and I plan to always own one. The ILCA and the class are an important part of my and my family’s lives. Next year will mark 50 years since I first won the National Championships at Paignton and it is my intention to enter for the 2025 Nationals at Pwllheli with my current aim of not finishing last !

Here’s to the next fifty years of ILCA fun.

ILCA UK Events

See our calendar for training and also our first Youth Series event at Datchet on 1st/2nd February.

Other news

ILCA UK - Dinghy Show Information, including Discount code!

RYA Wales new ILCAs

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 6 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 4 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 ILCA UK Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

ILCA Qualifier 6 WPNSA Day 2 October 2024 – no racing but loads of photos here and here

ILCA UK ILCA 6 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

ILCA UK ILCA 7 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

Women In Sailing Talk with British Sailing Team’s Daisy Collingridge

ILCA Women's Coaching Day at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Noble Marine & Rooster Qualifier WPNSA write ups: ILCA 7, ILCA 6, ILCA 4

Noble Marine ILCA 6 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

ILCA Midlands Grand Prix at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Northern ILCA Circuit Finale at Dovestone Sailing Club

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 12/2/24 Mark Lyttle 12/2/24

ILCA UK Chair Blog #115

what makes us strong and 2025

I have been following a discussion in another class about advantages and disadvantages of promoting itself as the "Pathway to Pro" while continuing to be inclusive of sailors of different ages and experience. Well, I think we have learnt some lessons about that in the ILCA class. As a young lad in my twenties, the Laser (as it was then) was considered the most competitive sailing class in the world but of course the pathway to the Olympics was blocked. You had a choice, put on 15kg and sail a Finn or move to keelboats like the Soling and Star, which were expensive and in many (not all) ways the antithesis of the Laser. As the Laser was being considered in 1992 for the Olympics, many predicted the death of the class, with reduced numbers and participation but it never happened. Why?

Well, the answer is probably complex and hard to prove, but I think we can partly see why looking at the fleet here in the UK. To my mind what you need is:

inclusive language - we welcome sailors of all ages and experiences with a choice of three rigs
zero tolerance to poor behaviour and language - of course this is never going to be perfect, but it needs to be called out where seen and supported by a robust policy
national events that are open - yes many may be youth sailors but not exclusively - the focus is on high quality racing for all
top Olympic sailors competing against club sailors - one of our autumn events had two medal race sailors from Paris 24 racing with almost 50 others in the ILCA7 for example
no teams or squads - we are lucky to usually have enough places at international events that everyone who wants to can go. Yes the RYA run squads for around 15 men / women but it is a small ratio our fleet
non-promotion of rankings - they just aren't central to our class
regional open training for everyone with national training available to those in the top half of the fleet
a national championship that is a "festival of sailing".

Of course, the ILCA remains strong in clubs around the country for other reasons too like a ready supply of quality second hand boats.

Continued success requires us to protect this culture.

Looking ahead to 2025, ILCA UK is delighted to announce your new Youth Series which we will see in our calendar. This consists of eight open meetings aiming to encourage youth participation in ILCA racing at regional level across the UK. The series is made up of a number of separate events across the country, held throughout the 2025 sailing season. We hope this will provide a next level for club sailors without the step to National events. The first of these events will be at Datchet Water Sailing Club on 1st/2nd February.

Our Qualifiers are being renamed National Opens to clearly signal to thousands of ILCA sailors across the country that these are open and provide high quality racing at a National level. There is no change in format nor in the qualification for international events. While some will be disappointed that the term Qualifier is no longer used, the vast majority of sailors attend these events for high quality racing with the need for qualification almost redundant.

Finally in terms of 2025 events, this spring we are only having two National Opens as a result of a particularly busy schedule. As you may know we can only start the season after the Dinghy Show in late February and have to schedule around the RYA Youth Nationals. In addition in 2025, the ILCA6 Youth Europeans start early in April and the Palma regatta will see many top ILCA6 and ILCA7 sailors away from the end of March. In addition, we have heard from many sailors, volunteers and parents that running three National events on consecutive weekends in March is just too much. I would also bring to your attention that that the schedule for our autumn events is subject to change (to be confirmed shortly).

ILCA UK Winter Training

For ILCA4s who missed the winter training program, we are creating 6 x ILCA 4 tickets for the 7/8 Dec WPNSA All-Regions Open Training, with a waiting list of 6 - on the basis that when that waiting list is full we can then convert it to a further group of 6.

See our calendar for more

National Training eligibility has been updated to top 50% in 2/4 of the events, with sailors who have transitioned to the ILCA 6 after the ILCA Nationals able to include their ILCA Nationals event in the ILCA 4 if they were top 50% male/female as appropriate. Note that 4/5 Jan 2025 National Training has been reschedule to 7/8 December 2024.

All other sailors welcome to come for open training the same weekend at WPNSA which will run in separate groups alongside and we are also increasing the number of ILCA 6 tickets from 12 to 24 for the 7/8 Dec WPNSA All-Regions Open Training.

Other news

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 6 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 4 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 ILCA UK Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

ILCA Qualifier 6 WPNSA Day 2 October 2024 – no racing but loads of photos here and here

ILCA UK ILCA 6 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

ILCA UK ILCA 7 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

Women In Sailing Talk with British Sailing Team’s Daisy Collingridge

ILCA Women's Coaching Day at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Noble Marine & Rooster Qualifier WPNSA write ups: ILCA 7, ILCA 6, ILCA 4

Noble Marine ILCA 6 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

ILCA Midlands Grand Prix at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Northern ILCA Circuit Finale at Dovestone Sailing Club

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 11/25/24 Mark Lyttle 11/25/24

ILCA UK Chair blog # 114

media and digitalisation…..

I thought a short blog this week on media and digitalisation in ILCA / dinghy racing might provoke some debate. While we have seen this to the fore in the America’s Cup, SailGP and big boat racing, it is much less obvious in dinghy sailing, although slowly coming into focus. I personally believe SailGP has done a brilliant job in promoting sailing and making it something that sailing fans want to watch. Live streaming on Youtube is brilliant and is still available to watch after the event. You can focus in on just the racing or the full show with interviews and background. Clearly the racing is fast and furious even in light winds with live action both on the boats and from helicopters, which makes it attractive to many sailors. On the other hand, how easy is it ever going to be to explain intricacies of tacking upwind and gybing downwind to a non-sailing audience, even with great commentators? And this is the challenge for the sport at Olympic level – how to attract a big audience, especially non-sailors, without different formats (like short races / racing on a reach / winner takes all races) that move away from the essence of the sailboat racing we know? The debate is at the centre of our sport today – of course you need the “eyeballs” but how much do you change to get them.

The challenge for dinghy racing is bringing in the media package of SailGP in a cost-effective manner. It is very expensive to provide the high qualify media coverage that we see there and beyond the economics of even many of our largest world championships, let alone national championships or open meetings. Live streaming (on Facebook from a RIB) of a dinghy race even with a high-quality camera is not going to promote our sport in the way we would like (although I believe it is a starter). For many years now we have seen GPS trackers supplied in some events, allowing to us to “watch” races live (or indeed rerun them). While the accuracy and reliability of these have improved over time, opinion is divided on how attractive this is for sailing fans, let alone non-sailors.

As the price of these trackers drop, recently there has been increased focus on using them to spot boats that are over the starting line. There are a number of different technologies / brands in the market and we have seen trails taking place in a number of classes. There is no doubt this technology could be a game-changer at big championships in particular, eliminating general recalls (and of course no boat gets away with being over the line! ). But is has to be implemented in a way that is fair – reliable and accurate in fleets of 70 to 100 boats, with protocols in place to manage. And there remain key questions - do we really want technology in an ILCA that gives you “distance / time to the line” rather than just spotting boats over early? Once these trackers are in use, it starts to have implications for event coaching – imagine having access to your race track around the course combined with an open source wind and tide feed, open to all sailors. And there is the opportunity for use on training too.

In ILCA racing, GPS cameras and watches are not allowed (like many dinghy classes) – is this really best for the sport? Think of what Strava has done for promoting participation in cycling, allowing publishing your latest cycle, developing social interactions and even giving you a ranking on a certain road segment – imagine the conversation at the club-house “well I didn’t win the race, but had the fastest speed or I won the reach”!

Of course, in ILCA UK we try to make the most of media to publicise our events – see the race reports below published on Yachts&Yachting.com but so much of the action is also taking place on social media and for us we must continue to invest in high quality short videos and photos for social media. This is the way younger sailors are consuming content on our sport. If you go on Instagram you will see loads of content on ILCAs and ILCA sailors that is being fed to them directly based on their interests.

Snippets

ILCA UK Winter Training

See our calendar for more

Other news

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 6 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 4 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 ILCA UK Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

ILCA Qualifier 6 WPNSA Day 2 October 2024 – no racing but loads of photos here and here

ILCA UK ILCA 6 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

ILCA UK ILCA 7 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

Women In Sailing Talk with British Sailing Team’s Daisy Collingridge

ILCA Women's Coaching Day at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Tri360 Challenge Fundraising – with Andrew Simpson

Noble Marine & Rooster Qualifier WPNSA write ups: ILCA 7, ILCA 6, ILCA 4

Noble Marine ILCA 6 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

ILCA Midlands Grand Prix at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Northern ILCA Circuit Finale at Dovestone Sailing Club

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 11/18/24 Mark Lyttle 11/18/24

ILCA UK Chair Blog #113

Just a short blog this week. Last week I mentioned we have set-up a Youth Regional Co-ordination Group with Mike Powell to help share information across the regions. Part of this is to encourage clubs in a region to work together to provide racing and training. I have included the poster with QR codes for the regions in the blog email (sadly we can’t publish the QR codes on a public website).

Below you will see the write-ups for the Inlands including the ILCA 6 class where the women and men fleets were split. 19 girls competed in their own fleet. To quote : This is a bit controversial but I believe it's a good thing every now and then, as it's a great welcoming opportunity to the girls moving up from an ILCA 4 and masters in the class.

Over the next week or two we will do updates on the schedule for 2025.

Snippets

ILCA UK Winter Training

See our calendar for more

Other news

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 6 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA UK ILCA 4 Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 ILCA UK Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

ILCA Qualifier 6 WPNSA Day 2 October 2024 – no racing but loads of photos here and here

ILCA UK ILCA 6 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

ILCA UK ILCA 7 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

Women In Sailing Talk with British Sailing Team’s Daisy Collingridge

ILCA Women's Coaching Day at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Tri360 Challenge Fundraising – with Andrew Simpson

Noble Marine & Rooster Qualifier WPNSA write ups: ILCA 7, ILCA 6, ILCA 4

Noble Marine ILCA 6 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

ILCA Midlands Grand Prix at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Northern ILCA Circuit Finale at Dovestone Sailing Club

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 11/11/24 Mark Lyttle 11/11/24

ILCA UK Chair blog #112

ILCA UK events….

As the season winds down and we start to look forward to winter club racing and training, I wanted to reflect on the ILCA UK events and also how the class can support you in your club efforts.

Some facts on our events - we ran 13 events – the Nationals, Master Nationals, six “qualifiers” and the Inlands (nine in total) and two Masters events ,one in July at WPNSA and the Master Inlands in October. In addition, we ran the Welsh Championships and a Youth Event at Queen Mary. Looking at the first nine events, we had 1,336 entries which is an amazing number. It was marginally lower than 2023 despite the Master Nationals being in Sept (with lower numbers) and one qualifier being in Pwllheli, where we would expect lower numbers (still over 100 entries). The average entry across nine events is about 150. It was 9% lower than the 2022 total, which was the first full year after Covid and a spike in competition numbers in general. The ILCA4 average entry across eight events was close to 50, on a par with 2023 but with numbers looking a bit higher in the second half of the year. With an average entry over 70, the ILCA6 remains our biggest and arguable most competitive class with continued robust numbers. After a slower start to 2024, ILCA7 numbers are at their best for many years with an average of close to 45 in last six events. I think it indicates that the class is in robust health.

This autumn the weather has been particularly difficult with both very strong and very light winds and this appears to be a growing trend. As a result, in the last few events we have started to modify our approach somewhat, firstly around the schedule and secondly around communications. With forecasts more accurate than they were, we can predict when it is likely the best time of day to race, meaning holding ashore, starting early or late or abandoning / cancelling promptly and I think we are going to see more of this. Related to that is the need to communicate our sailing plans as early as possible so everyone is prepared. This has always happened to some extent but we will see greater emphaise going forward.

Part of our success is our inclusive approach, and we need to continue to make sure our events are welcoming to all ages and a range of competency levels. An example has been an improvement in behaviour on the water through encouragement to do penalty turns and tone down language. Of course, that’s never going to be perfect, but we must continue to respect each other given the self-policing nature of the sport.

The location of our events continues to be a challenge. WPNSA has the resources to cope with our numbers with a mixture of in harbour and Weymouth Bay sailing, but we also visited Brightlingsea in March and Pwllheli for the first time in many years in September. Finding hosts to cater for 150 boats at the right time of year remains difficult. I know some of you feel we should split the fleets, but there is strong support for all three rigs racing together. As I said recently, we continue to try and make our events as cheap as we can – that’s why we run them at a deficit!

Finally, I wanted to mention the volunteers that make these events happen. Firstly, we have the many committee and sub-committee members planning and organising – we use Basecamp to help with this and there are currently 55 people listed! At the events themselves, we have a great team helping out. Brett has provided me with the numbers for Qualifiers 5 and 6 and the Inlands - the race management team afloat including mark layers and finish, numbers 18 to 20 per event. Over those three events we had 45 RIBS each resourced with volunteers. We also have volunteers helping with tally, bridge, registration, results and prize-giving. While many of these volunteers are parents, some are not. Overall it is a great community effort and my thanks to every one of you.

The class is of course involves many of you who do not go to these events and we want to continue to support club and local sailing. This year we tried to put more focus around Grand Prix events with John Ling and the Regional reps and we will be reviewing this over the next month or so. We also have set-up a Youth Regional Co-ordination Group with Mike Powell to help share information across the regions. Part of this is to encourage clubs in a region to work together to provide racing and training. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago where Queen Mary had 24 women doing a coaching / training weekend ILCA Women's Coaching Day at Queen Mary Sailing Club. While this was not an ILCA UK event we are happy to put these events in our calendar (where they are open) and provide publicity through our channels. So if you want to organise an event at your club and attract others, we can point you to coaches, use any poster you have and add to the ILCA UK calendar.

Mark Lyttle 11/4/24 Mark Lyttle 11/4/24

ILCA UK Chair blog # 111

Hannah’s blog…..

Hannah’s words of wisdom (debatable)

Hold on tight everybody. Mark has taken his life into his own hands and passed over the baton of the next blog to me. What could possibly go wrong?

The first place I would like to start is to say thank you, actually. I owe an awful lot to the ILCA class, and the wonderful people who are involved in it. It has been a friendly and supportive environment to learn, train and race in ever since I first stepped into an ILCA 4 a Very Long Time Ago, through to when Ken Falcon – then UKLA President – had to sail my ILCA 6 back to shore at a qualifier in Plymouth because it was too windy and wavy to do it myself, through to being the first female to win the ILCA 6 Nationals, through to being selected – at least a decade later than originally planned and hoped for – to go to my first Olympics. It's been a long road, and I’m very grateful that that road has been in the ILCA class.

“What could possibly go wrong?” – a mantra that I’ve had to use quite a lot in my fairly lengthy sailing career to date. There are many routes to the same destination, and it is absolutely a-okay to take one of the more scenic ones. The view can sometimes be better that way.

My entire career actually started as a skive out of P.E. at school that has got really out of hand. I was completely terrible at pretty much all school sports, and my reports used to read something along the lines of: “Attainment C, Effort 1. Tries hard but has made only limited progress. Future lies elsewhere.” (I love a bit of irony.) When it came up as an option that I could get out of all the activities I was so bad at, and use my £2 weekly pocket money to go sailing on Wednesday afternoons instead, it seemed like a bit of a no-brainer.

I wasn’t initially a particularly naturally talented sailor, and I didn’t take the conventional route through youth sailing. I was often left out of squads at first time of trying, and it was only really when I took a gap year after school and went self-funded around the European circuit that spring and summer that I started to have some results that showed any real promise.

Following that year, I was asked to train alongside the British Sailing Team, which I just about managed to balance with studying at Cambridge. It wasn’t all ‘plain sailing’ (is there any such thing?!) from there onwards though. I made the decision to sail full time after university, but was dropped from the team 15 months later, and retired (badly, because here we are) after blowing all my savings trying to keep going.

I made it back into the team four years later, after crowdfunding and working my way through the 2018 season, which culminated in finishing 4th at the World Cup in Japan. Despite its many challenges, I’m incredibly grateful for that period of time in my life and the perspective, adventures, and experiences it gave me. Everything from trapping a stranger into a revolving door compartment with me when I tried to take a rolled sail through it and got stuck, to getting Ben Elvin’s van impounded in Barcelona… those are the things that make you smile and tell stories about when you get old... well, as old as me.

One of the first questions that people ask when I say I am a sailor is: “Oh, do your parents sail?” and when I tell them that they don’t, they always look incredibly puzzled and ask how on earth I got into it. It still bothers me that there is a perception that you can’t make it in sailing without a family history in the sport. My parents are tree surgeons, but are wonderfully supportive of my sailing and have learned their port from starboard now, although I do still have to ask for a picture rather than a description when I’m away sailing and Duncan sends a Sailingfast parcel to their house instead of mine. Otherwise I get: “well there’s some yellow string, and some red string, and a few metal bits.”

As Micky said in his blog, one of the most frequent questions that you get asked when the Games is over is: “so, what’s next?” – and just like Micky, I also still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

I do know that there’s a lot of aspects to sailing that I personally feel could be improved through some small positive changes – be that female participation, grassroots inclusion, or financial barriers to progression up the high-performance pathway – and I would love to be a part of helping to bring some of those changes about.

It’s been amazing to watch the women’s America’s Cup and the increasing opportunities for females in sailing, but there is a long way still to go. We have a real gender imbalance in top level coaches, it was a shame to see so few women in the youth America’s Cup boats, and it seemed like a missed opportunity to have just one race for the women’s AC final, when there was such an eager audience.

I’m really aware that I was incredibly privileged to grow up by the coast in Lymington so I was exposed to the sport at a young age, and I was an only child, so my parents were able to traipse around the country at weekends taking me to sailing events. That being said, I have definitely done the majority of my career on a shoestring, and that had moments of being very difficult. I also understand how hard it is to be on the wrong side of selection decisions, which is why I’m now sitting on the Youth Selection Committee. I really believe that difficult decisions can be made well, and delivered well, to keep as many talented and enthusiastic people in the sport as possible.

If anyone reading this has any great ideas about how to change the world, please do get in touch! I’d love to hear from you. Sailors do love to talk about sailing, after all.

I will leave you by disclosing the best piece of top-secret coaching advice I have received to date (there is always still time) – and that was from my Mum at the Optimist Nationals, when I was 10-years-old. Lots of other parents were talking about the tide, and which side of the beat to go up, but she nailed the ‘applies-to-every-situation’ tip with: “make sure you eat your sandwiches and mind your head.”

Happy sailing everyone – and see you on the water.

Hannah

Snippets

ILCA UK Winter Training

Spaces are available for Regional training on 16/17Th Nov See our calendar for more

We are also increasing the number of ILCA 6 tickets from 12 to 24 for the 7/8 Dec WPNSA All-Regions Open Training

Other news

ILCA UK ILCA 6 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

ILCA UK ILCA 7 Masters Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

Women In Sailing Talk with British Sailing Team’s Daisy Collingridge

ILCA Women's Coaching Day at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Tri360 Challenge Fundraising – with Andrew Simpson

Noble Marine & Rooster Qualifier WPNSA write ups: ILCA 7, ILCA 6, ILCA 4

Noble Marine ILCA 6 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

ILCA Midlands Grand Prix at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Northern ILCA Circuit Finale at Dovestone Sailing Club

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 10/28/24 Mark Lyttle 10/28/24

ILCA UK Chair Blog #110

ILCAs everywhere

Making the ILCA attractive to a wide and diverse group of sailors helps participation at all levels and allows us the “buck the trend” with consistently strong numbers sailing our class at all levels.

This weekend showed that in operation. While hundreds of ILCA sailors were club racing in lots of clubs around the country (even if the wind was a bit light), at Weymouth we had 175 sailors across all three rigs in our final “qualifier” of the year, the second weekend in a row with over 170 sailors. In the ILCA6 we had Hannah Snellgrove, fresh from Paris 24, heading a 83 strong fleet of British Sailing Team and other top sailors, together with many experienced and some first-time youth sailors. The ILCA7 was even more stacked with two medal race sailors from Paris (Micky Beckett and Lorenzo) and Tokyo Olympic rep Elliot Hanson. It was of course disappointing we didn’t get to race despite best efforts from the race officer.

As an aside, we are considering changing the name of these events from “qualifier” as there is a feeling this gives sailors the wrong impression. These are National open meetings with high quality race management and a fleet of sailors wanting high level competition or club sailors aspiring to improve their sailing to the next level. While they serve as qualification for international events, if only rarely needed, for most sailors this comes well down the list of reasons they are sailing.

Meanwhile in Rutland, over 70 Masters were competing at the Masters Inland Championships, with the usual age span - some Apprentices through to some Legends (over 75!!). It says something that we have over 240 sailors competing in October in two ILCA UK events at the same time.

At Queen Mary we had 24 women doing a coaching / training weekend. By all accounts it was well received with plans for another early event in 2025. Well done to Jonathan Stirling for organising.

I also wanted to provide some feedback from the survey on the 2024 Nationals, which has been included in RYA Event of Year. I have not yet heard whether we were finalists but below is part of our submission. Overall the feedback from the survey was very positive with a number of comments on things to improve, although there was no consistent overall trend around these. Of course many thanks to our great volunteers who continue to make our class special.

Why do you believe this event should be RYA Event of the Year?

Over the last couple of years ILCA UK have focussed on turning our National Championship into a “festival of sailing”, attracting sailors of all levels,ages and regions to the event with high quality racing combined with lots of onshore activities and social events. This formula has worked with over 250 entries coming to WPNSA from 12th to 17th August this year across our three rigs of ILCA4, ILCA6 and ILCA7.

We provided world class racing at 2012 Olympic venue on two separaterace courses, with most days out in Weymouth Bay. This involved mobilising two safety teams of 16 RIBs with 216 days of volunteer time.

This effort allowed us to run racing on one day with winds gusting up to 30 knots by racing in the harbour and rotating during the day the starts/racing across the three rigs.

As well as daily briefings on local conditions, we had daily morning race clinics from top sailors from the British Sailing Team, ensuring every sailor felt welcome. They covered various topics from set up/rigging to boat speed down wind, from pre-race strategy to wave technique. It was a fantastic opportunity to listen to our best sailors, see what they do differently, and ask them those questions. This was combined with a mentor/mentee scheme which was a great success and a super way to meet fellow sailors and get some sailing tips and encouragement.

Each day we had an official photographer on the water and thousands of high-quality photos have been provided free to sailors as well as used in post-event reports.

Ashore, the class worked with WPNSA to provide a sailor’s hub with sponsor tents, a “grass area” and stage with chillout zone including table football and table tennis. The class led efforts to share these resources with the Toppers and Waszp in their championships at WPNSA before and after ours.

We used this stage for daily briefings but also for our daily prize draw with the support of our sponsors where sailors and volunteers could win prizes. This culminated on the penultimate evening when Micky Beckett, ILCA7/Team GB representative at the Paris Olympics, came and talked to the sailors and drew the prize of a brand new ILCA, provided by Ovington, which went to a club to help stimulate sailing at grassroots level.

Much of this was made possible by our great sponsors (Noble Marine, Ovington, Rooster, Sailingfast, Tideway Wealth, Southeast Sailboats and Fernhurst Books) with the class working closely with them to ensure we promoted and encouraged club sailors at our event by providing recognition and support throughout the fleet through spot prizes. We also sold official event merchandise but every sailor also got a free championship T-shirt.

After sailing each day, there was a snack and we also provided a welcome Pizza night the first evening and BBQ night in the entry fee. This was combined with entertainment every evening including a DJ on BBQ night.

Describe your main successes around inclusion, inspiration, engagement, connections, influence, and sustainability.

Our festival of sailing aims to be inclusive. Our youngest competitor was 13, our oldest was 72. We had many club sailors at their first championships competing alongside British Sailing Team sailors. All rigs and age categories had top three prizes for both men and women with the first overall in the ILCA6 won by Matilda Nicholls of the British Sailing Team. Driving higher women participation in the class is a big priority and why we ran a ILCA Women’s regatta this year at Rutland. We want all three rigs, ILCA4, ILCA6 and ILCA7 at our events so younger sailors interact with older sailors and also allow family groups to compete in the same championship. Building an ILCA community is important to us and we feel we are uniquely positioned to bring Olympic level sailing together with club and youth sailing, inspiring all sailors and boosting participation.

In our post-event survey, over 94% of respondents thought the event organisation was excellent or very good. We also work hard to promote our championship with a dedicated website and a special logo for the event which was used in our championship mug.

At each of our daily prize draws sailors had the opportunity to question the day's winners. With our Mentor/Mentee Scheme sailors were be able to meet their mentor before the start of the event and there were prizes awarded for most improved Mentee/Mentor pairing. The overall purpose was to enable those new to class/fleet/event or less confident sailors enjoy our events and grow in confidence as well as to empower more experienced sailors to mentor effectively, a transferable skill.

We ran events for non-sailors to make them feel included. An example was the Weymouth Chaser. Once sailors launched, we had a 5k handicap race. Promoted as Why just sit on shore? Go for a run or volunteer or both!

Our volunteer base is something to be proud of. As well as the safety team mentioned above, we had another 42 days of volunteer time on tally, registration, beach and bridge.

Snippets

Last major racing event of the year - Inlands at Grafham on 2nd/3rd Nov with 143 entries so far. The ILCA6 fleet will have separate men and women starts. BOOK or VOLUNTEER

ILCA UK Winter Training

ILCA UK are offering many opportunities for winter training 2024/2025 - See our calendar for more

Other news

Noble Marine & Rooster Qualifier WPNSA write ups: ILCA 7, ILCA 6, ILCA 4

Noble Marine ILCA 6 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

ILCA Midlands Grand Prix at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Northern ILCA Circuit Finale at Dovestone Sailing Club

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 10/21/24 Mark Lyttle 10/21/24

ILCA UK Chair Blog #109

Tactics, finances….

It is a very busy time of year for many ILCA sailors. While the number of open meetings starts to reduce and winter club series start, the class has six National events in the autumn, including two for Masters, at the same time as planning and starting our winter training program. All this activity would not be possible without the hard work of Ellie and Leo and the many volunteers who make it happen. Thank you everyone and please bear with us if responses are a bit slower at this time of year.

I don’t often talk about tactics in this blog but feel compelled to do so this week having watched the America’s Cup, especially race seven and eight (you can seem them in full on Youtube). Both races were held in shifty offshore winds and were won by NZL. What fascinated me was the importance of getting the first shift right in those races and I think there are important observations of all of us in that. Firstly, some disclaimers: I am not claiming to be any expert on AC 75 racing, nor do I have any access to loads of data which the tacticians and weather people in both campaigns have. Looking from a distance, it did seem to me that NZL had a slight speed advantage upwind in those conditions and we all know that some marginal extra boat can make you look like a tactical genius!

I watched the start of Race 7 with GBR nearer the pin and ahead and to leeward. Off the line the first shift was to the right which meant when the boats got to the boundary (which comes in less than a minute), NZL was able to front right in front of GBR, who then had to tack back left, as the wind started to head left. By the time they crossed again, NZL were well ahead and in total control. That is in no way a criticism, it may have been luck, but it is what happened. Now it is important to say that the boundaries mean the boats reach what we would normally think of as a “layline” very quickly – there is no time to wait for the header to come. Afterwards I watched Mozzy Sails on Youtube and this validated, based on the real wind data, what I thought I was seeing. As an aside NZL seemed to get on the wrong side of a shift later on that first beat and again on the second beat, but they were far enough ahead it didn’t matter.

Race 8 was the opposite with NZL nearer the pin and ahead and to leeward. GBR tacked early and as soon as they do, you can see NZL get lifted and GBR are sailing to the right on a header. By the time, NZL reach the left boundary the wind goes left so they have sailed two lifts and are well ahead at the first crossing.

Now these races are unlike normal ILCA races where it takes much longer to reach the layline and also the wind shifts were coming very quickly (very short phases) in this offshore breeze but the principles are the same. Given your boat speed relative to the rest of the fleet, the length of the course, the size of the fleet and many other factors, you have to start to take advantage of the first shift. If you are expecting a right shift off the start, a pin-end start may not look too good as most the fleet lifts inside you. Of course it depends how longer it takes to go back left, but you are in trouble if you are already on the layline before that happens. Of course, a pin-end start with the first shift being to the left, looks great as you tack to cross the fleet!

Now of course this is all a bit simplistic as there are many other factors involved including the line bias, tide/current, impact of land features etc. An example from the light air race the the Grand Master fleet at the recent Masters Europeans in Vilamoura. At the start the wind is 5 knots, so most boats are going the same speed but it is a short course, only 0.6 of a mile, with a fleet of over 70. With the line bias was fairly even and the wind was clocking right so what to do? I considered a committee boat start and a quick tack to the right but so did most of the fleet making it hard to execute that start and strategy. I decided on a clean lane off the middle of the line, sailing fast and looking for the first opportunity to cross most of the boats in dirty air at the crowded boat end. Well I got most of the way to the layline before I could tack clear across, ended up about 20th at the mark. It comes down to assessing the trade-offs and making a judgement. And of course it is not always easy to predict where the first shift is coming from.

But fundamentally, here you start determines you ability to respond to the first shift.

Switching away to ILCA UK matters for a second. I heard recently a couple of comments about the financial surpluses ILCA UK are making. Well regular readers of this blog will know that just isn’t true. In the first nine months of 2024, all ILCA UK regattas and training ran at a loss of just over £15,000. There was an even greater deficit in 2022, although the deficit in 2023 was a little smaller. Our strategy in this area is to competitively price our events for sailors so that events make a small loss overall. I have previously mentioned this around the entry fee of the Nationals, where initial figures suggest we did run the event at a loss. Same with Skills Week. So while we may run very successful events like the Nationals and Skills Week with large numbers of sailors, we are not making a big profit as the entry fee is set so that we make a small loss.

It is true that the class built up some significant reserves during Covid but our strategy is to use those reserves by investing where we can to boost participation in ILCA sailing.

Finally to mention some upcoming events:

Masters inlands this weekend is still open until Wednesday evening with moderate winds forecast. Currently 63 entries. BOOK Here’s great video from Jon Emmet about Masters Nationals

The final qualifier is also on in Weymouth this weekend (open till this evening) with about 150 entries so far. BOOK or VOLUNTEER. Right after the qualifier, Brett Lewis has arranged some courses with Andrew Simpson. PB2 October 28th and 29th - A 20% discount has been applied for ILCA UK Members The booking link is here. ILCA Specific Safety Boat course Oct 30th. Please book through AS Center manager Nathan Bloss. Nathan will be happy to answer any questions - nathan@andrewsimpsoncentres.org

Finally the Inlands are in Grafham on 2nd/3rd Nov with 85 entries so far. The ILCA6 fleet will have separate men and women starts. BOOK or VOLUNTEER

Snippets

ILCA UK Winter Training

ILCA UK are offering many opportunities for winter training 2024/2025 - See our calendar for more

Other news

Noble Marine ILCA 6 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

ILCA Midlands Grand Prix at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Northern ILCA Circuit Finale at Dovestone Sailing Club

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 10/14/24 Mark Lyttle 10/14/24

ILCA UK Chair blog #108

ramblings

Just some ramblings this week after an eventful couple of weeks for my sailing. First there was the Masters Nationals at Hayling Island (see reports below) that suffered extremes at both ends of the wind spectrum, allowing only five of ten races to be completed. This was followed by even worse wind at the European Masters in Vilamoura, where we had only three races (and no discard) in the ILCA7 Grand Masters, from ten races scheduled. Overall frustrating but worth reflecting on.

There is no doubt that luck plays a part in our sport. I got lucky on the second beat of one of the light air races at Hayling. Mid-fleet at the bottom gate in less than 5 knots, I worked the right side of the course hard and managed to pull up to a respectable seventh. Peter Sherwin led for two laps in the same race and dropped to 20th on the last run (there was certainly some bad luck there) whereas James Baxter picked off the gusts of the last two downwinds to climb from 35th or so to 5th (probably with a little luck too). Then in the first race in Vilamoura, I was lying in 2nd for most of the race in very light conditions, only for the race to be abandoned due a race committee error (a moving robotic mark!). When we eventually did the first race, I was 23rd – a big difference in a three race, no discard regatta! But this sailing, a sport where we have no control over the outside elements. While maybe more prevalent in our sport, competition produces unpredictable results and we must accept this as a “rub of the green” (see blog #60 for more on this). If you have raced for a long time, you will have won some and lost some due to luck. “Two ifs and but and we would all be world champion…..” but I think disappointment can be used as a compelling motivation to move to the next level.

It is worth remembering that while sailing conditions can be very difficult, they are outside the control of the race management team too (and very frustrating for organisers who have spent so much time trying to make a prefect event). It is easy for sailors (or supporters back ashore) to criticise individual decisions of the race officer without understanding the full context. The race officer has many sources of input from very experienced sailors to those with local knowledge and has to make the best judgements they can based on all that information. And judgments are not always correct with hindsight but we all need to respect this.

When it comes to safety, it is the race officer decision on whether to race and certainly in continental European that legal responsibility appears to be more profound. On one of the windy days, the harbour authority actually closed the entrance to the harbour, due to strong winds and big waves. Even when the wind abated, it is a big decision to allow us to race when other ports in Portugal were closed and you are allowing several hundred sailors over 55 to go afloat! And we were reminded that day of the need to be vigilant as one sailor got hit by the boom and knocked unconscious into the water. While he was fine in the end, it was a reminder that we must look out for the safety of others while afloat – redress is given in a race if you stop to help a competitor in distress.

I wanted to mention that ILCA6 event at the Inlands will have separate racing for men and women. We are trialling this based on the results of our survey 18 months ago where we had 108 responses (with many detailed comments), mostly from sailors active at UKLA events. A small majority wanted to “sometimes” race on women only starts – we have never tried this in the ILCA6 (we did last year for the ILCA4). It is a subject with strong feelings on both sides of the argument, probably reflecting a broader debate in society. Many women want to race in bigger fleets against men to maximise the opportunity to improve although it is also pointed out that international events have women only starts. But many women also find men are too aggressive on the start line. I understand both sides of the argument and I am simply reflecting the messages we have received as a class. We remain committed to any initiatives that will help increase participation levels for women. Fiona, chair of ILCA UK WAGs (Women and Girls) sub-committee will be assessing the feedback.

Finally we have the upcoming Inlands and Masters Inlands. Both represent a great opportunity to sail inland on flatter water with (perhaps) more emphasis on shifts, why not come and join us?

Snippets

ILCA UK events

Q5 WPNSA 19-20th October - BOOK or VOLUNTEER -closes tonight

Q6 WPNSA 26-27th October - BOOK or VOLUNTEER

Masters Inlands Rutland SC 26-27th October - BOOK

Inlands Grafham Water SC 2-3rd November - BOOK or VOLUNTEER - This event has limited number of entries

Save the date - ILCA Open and National Championships Plas Heli 9-15th August 2025

ILCA UK Winter Training

ILCA UK are offering many opportunities for winter training 2024/2025 - See our calendar for more

Regional Open Training for ILCA 4,ILCA6 and ILCA 7

ILCA 4

ILCA 4 Regional Open Training is a six-week programme for sailors under the age of 18yrs. Sailors are expected to have experience of club sailing , be confident in sailing in strong winds and comfortable managing full days in inclement/cold weather. Sailors are required to sign up for the six weeks to ensure continuity and getting the best from the programme.

The training programme will take place across three different regions.

Twelve places are available for each region. The ILCA 4 programme is now open for sailors to sign upon the ILCA UK calendar; a great opportunity to develop skills and meet other sailors in your region.

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 Regional Open Training

Now open for sailors to sign up on the ILCA UK Calendar. The format will be 6 weekends running between October and March. Four of the weekends will be hosted in each region, with two joint camps when all of the regions will join together, one at WPNSA and one at Draycote SC

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 training will be open to all ages and entry will be on a per-weekend basis. An excellent opportunity to continue to develop sailing skills in your region.

National Training

National Training will be available following the October qualifiers in WPNSA. National Training is open to sailors who come in the top 50% male and top 50% female in at least three of the following events

ILCA UK Nationals
Plas Heli Qualifier
Qualifiers at WPNSA in October
Inlands at Grafham

The National Training is run by ILCA UK at WPNSA .

Don’t forget the Chair’s playlist of three virtual training sessions on Youtube

Other ILCA events

See our calendar for more

Other news

Noble Marine ILCA 6 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Noble Marine ILCA 7 Masters UK National Championships 2024 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

ILCA Midlands Grand Prix at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Northern ILCA Circuit Finale at Dovestone Sailing Club

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 10/7/24 Mark Lyttle 10/7/24

ILCA UK Chair Blog # 107

Micky's blog

In last week’s blog Micky Beckett argued eloquently for buying raffle tickets in aid of the Andrew Simpson Foundation and few would argue with the merits of that. But how far should this go? Should elite athletes and Olympians use their platform to advocate change?

Well UK Sport thinks so. They are the body that funds our elite athletes through the Exchequer and National Lottery. In partnership with The True Athlete Project, they launched a 6-month programme to help funded athletes use their platform to inspire, facilitate and enable positive change. Quoting - In a consultation, UK Sport found that 86% of athletes on world class programmes want to use their platform to make a difference to society whilst they are still competing. The Powered by Purpose programme is a new offering for athletes who have a keen interest in using the power and platform of sport to inspire positive change, aligning with UK Sport’s ten-year strategy, to create the greatest decade of extraordinary sporting moments; reaching, inspiring and uniting the nation. This pilot will see athletes take part in a series of tailored, highly personal, live online workshops while being individually supported in their progress, which will lead them to explore the power of sport and become agents for social change. The scheme is led by The True Athlete Project, a charity that works with athletes, coaches and leaders to harness the transformative power of sport as a force for good in the world. Over the last six years, they have developed innovative programmes that blend mindfulness, mental skills training and mentoring to unleash the power of sport, engaging participants across the world. The Powered by Purpose programme is designed to empower athletes to make a difference, be that locally in their communities or nationally, for a cause that is authentic and genuine to them.

But a commentary in The Times does not agree. Quoting again -British athletes at the Paris Olympics are being urged to use the Games as a platform to campaign for causes close to their heart. The idea is the brainchild of UK Sport, the government agency charged with supporting high-performing stars. Dozens of athletes have already completed its Powered by Purpose programme to help them become “agents for social change”. Dame Katherine Grainger, one of Britain’s most decorated Olympians and the chairwoman of UK Sport, is convinced of the merits. “Athletes have found their voice and found a platform that they want to talk about, and that’s something we should support. It can be sustainability, it can be accessibility, it can be gender rights,” she said. But what has this to do with winning medals at the Olympics? No one cares — nor should they — what athletes think is wrong with society. Grainger goes on to bracket Olympians with pop stars as “a category of people who are trusted”. She has her thinking cap on back to front: such trust, if it existed, would not last long once British Olympians started mouthing off on the podium.

One of the great attractions of sport is that there is nowhere to hide. Athletes compete based on a set of rules with some jeopardy – we just won’t know who is going to win. And we love that. Winners are not predefined no matter their background and beliefs (there is obviously an argument on how accessible elite sport is). There is a purity to it and that’s why there’s been a feeling that sports and politics should not mix.

But we can’t get away from the fact that sport exists in the context of society and politics which often transcend sport. This happened with Apartheid in South Africa and more recently with Russia following their invasion of Ukraine. It is the reality. In an era where there is so much information available, especially with social media, top athletes have thousands of social media followers. Cristiano Ronaldo has 1 billion total followers and is the most-followed person in the world. Many of these are “ambassadors” or influencers and the reality is that they have a powerful voice. So if Marcus Rashford wants to influence something to make society better, it is hard to argue against, whether you support or not. Hannah Mills has been a prominent environmental campaigner, and we are now starting to see sailors take centre stage. And I think we do care what our athletes think and the question is as much why wouldn’t they use their influence to improve society - even if some want to refer to this as “mouthing off on the podium”? So for me the answer is a resounding yes they should be using their platform to make the world a better place.

What do you think?

Snippets

ILCA UK events

Q5 WPNSA 19-20th October - BOOK or VOLUNTEER

Q6 WPNSA 26-27th October - BOOK or VOLUNTEER

Masters Inlands Rutland SC 26-27th October - BOOK

Inlands Grafham Water SC 2-3rd November - BOOK or VOLUNTEER - This event has limited number of entries

Save the date - ILCA Open and National Championships Plas Heli 9-15th August 2025

ILCA UK Winter Training

ILCA UK are offering many opportunities for winter training 2024/2025 - See our calendar for more

Regional Open Training for ILCA 4,ILCA6 and ILCA 7

ILCA 4

The training programme will take place across three different regions.

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 Regional Open Training

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 training will be open to all ages and entry will be on a per-weekend basis. An excellent opportunity to continue to develop sailing skills in your region.

National Training

ILCA UK Nationals
Plas Heli Qualifier
Qualifiers at WPNSA in October
Inlands at Grafham

The National Training is run by ILCA UK at WPNSA .

Don’t forget the Chair’s playlist of three virtual training sessions on Youtube

Other ILCA events

See our calendar for more

Other news

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 9/29/24 Mark Lyttle 9/29/24

ILCA UK Chair Blog # 106

Micky's blog

Mark has kindly offered to let me take the reins of the ILCA UK blog, please bear with me as I try and do it justice as a guest. As you may know, I’m running a raffle - the prize is the boat I used at the Olympics. At the time of writing, we have sold 1488 tickets, which has both greatly exceeded my expectations and at £10 per ticket has raised nearly double the value of the boat.

Whilst promoting the raffle I’ve regularly been asked why I’m doing this, to which I’ve simply said that it’s a fun way to raise money for a great charity, the Andrew Simpson Foundation, and gives someone the chance to win a unique and valuable prize.

There is however, a bit more to it.

I learnt to sail when I was very young. I’ve got a grainy photo of me as a 5-year-old, sailing a boat my dad built. I’ve said before that one day I’ll grow up and figure out what I really want to do, because right now I still do the same thing I did when I was a kid – racing dinghies.

I’ve been a member of ILCA UK for 15 years and the British Sailing Team for 11. In fact, it was almost 10 years-to-the-day from joining the team to getting ‘the’ call saying I was going to the Olympics. To say that the ILCA has been a large part of my formative years is a huge understatement.

Sailing has made my life quite an adventure. The first time I flew anywhere was to go to a Youth Europeans in Denmark when I was 17, since then it’s taken me all over the world. It’s given me so many memories which I hold dear, from getting barrelled in my (chartered) ILCA in some monstrous breaking waves in the Dominican Republic, to standing with Elliot and Lorenzo one freezing day in Poland, holding every podium spot at the senior Euros.

Being part of Team GB this summer has given me the opportunity to get to know athletes across the other Olympic sports. With a few exceptions, I was struck by how relatable my life as a sailor is to the life of any other athlete – tiring and rewarding in equal measure, illness and injury is always a problem and making ends meet can be tricky, but underneath that there is a huge love for our respective sports.

At the end of the Olympics, the thing most often discussed was ‘what now’? And that’s where I saw sailing contrast so well against other sports - the opportunities for employment across the sailing industry are vast in comparison. After a career in sport, what do rowers, swimmers, archers, or badminton players do? They can coach, but that’s probably about it.

I spent a few years working for SailGP as a part-time and fairly average producer. I would advise the production team on how each race might unfold, telling the helicopters and camera chase boats over the radio where they should be to get the best shots. I remember one race as the boats were heading to the windward gate, I told the whole production team that there was another lap to go, as that was part of my job – knowing the course. It turns out that I’d incorrectly counted to the number 2, they had in fact done 3 laps. As the F50s turned through the gate and burned down the reach towards the finish line and our entire camera team of boats and helicopters were all wildly out of position, all because I’d said there was another lap to go, it seemed like a safe assumption that that was my last day as a producer.

Whilst I digress, I didn’t actually get fired that day. That’s probably because people who understand sailing are valuable (and lady luck was looking over me). All the ‘ladder lines’ and 3D graphics you see in SailGP and the America’s Cup are developed and run primarily by sailors, and that’s because it’s easier to explain the software to sailors than it is to explain what a layline is to a software developer.

Although nearly all of my efforts for the last 10 years have been focussed on ILCA sailing, I have been struck by the number of opportunities that are out there, be they in professional yacht sailing, coaching or instruction, media and much more. I have a degree in Naval Architecture, which I really enjoyed studying, but it hasn’t opened anything like the number of doors that ILCA sailing has. If you’re 17 and thinking about university, my entirely unsolicited advice would be to do a degree if there’s a subject you’re enticed by. If there’s not, then think about going sailing. There will be a lot to figure out, like where to live and how to make ends meet, not least how to be good at racing. When distant relatives ask you what you’re going to study, they will look at you sideways when you talk about your sailing plans, but stick to your guns. I still have no idea what I want to do when I grow up either, but I stopped worrying about that a while ago.

Which brings me back to my raffle. Sailing, be it in an ILCA or another class, an Olympic campaign or gaining a dinghy instructors’ qualification, has so much to offer, particularly for those to whom academia doesn’t work. The Andrew Simpson Foundation are amazingly effective at getting people on the water who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance. As cliché as it is, they do change lives. Buying a ticket gives you a chance at a great prize, but it will also give someone else the chance to live the adventure which is learning to sail.

I can’t end this blog without doing two things. The first is to thank Ovington boats (who built the ILCA 7 boats used at the Olympics) and Tideway Wealth & Retirement. When I approached them with his this half-baked idea about a raffle, they both quickly agreed to support it, despite my disorganisation. Thanks to them, 100% of the money raised goes to ASF.

The second and final thing is to provide the link should you wish to buy a ticket. Entries close at 11.59pm this Monday. Thank you.

Micky

BUY RAFFLE TICKET

Snippets

ILCA UK Winter Training

ILCA UK are offering many opportunities for winter training 2024/2025 - See our calendar for more

Regional Open Training for ILCA 4,ILCA6 and ILCA 7

ILCA 4

The training programme will take place across three different regions.

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 Regional Open Training

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 training will be open to all ages and entry will be on a per-weekend basis. An excellent opportunity to continue to develop sailing skills in your region.

National Training

ILCA UK Nationals
Plas Heli Qualifier
Qualifiers at WPNSA in October
Inlands at Grafham

The National Training is run by ILCA UK at WPNSA .

Don’t forget the Chair’s playlist of three virtual training sessions on Youtube

ILCA UK events

Q5 & Q6 - entries open

Masters Inlands - entries open

Inlands - entries open tonight (30th September 8pm) - This event has limited number of entries

Save the date - ILCA Open and National Championships 9-15th August 2025

Other ILCA events

See our calendar for more

Other news

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 9/23/24 Mark Lyttle 9/23/24

ILCA UK Chair Blog #105

ILCA UK Chair Blog # 104

Fun in waves?

I was at the ILCA Open meeting / Qualifier in Pwllheli over the weekend (along with 109 other ILCAs) and I was reminded what a great location this is for waves in a south westerly wind. It blew about 20knots all weekend and with a long fetch across the Irish Sea and a shallow bay, we got some steep waves that made for exhilarating conditions. It is not often we get to sail in these conditions and for many these big waves were perhaps more test of survival than exhilaration. It was easy “to go down the mine” – in other words bury the bow into the wave ahead and fill the cockpit with water, making the boat unstable and prone to capsize. I managed to survive the whole weekend without a capsize until the last gate when my mainsheet caught around the boom on the gybe and in I went. Anyone can capsize especially when racing hard (I know one of the British Saling Team did !). Well done to everyone who made a go of it, especially those not used to the conditions or new to their rig.

It is amazing how varied our sport can. ILCA sailing in Pwllheli was mostly boat speed especially upwind (fitness and technique being key) with good boat handling downwind. This is obviously completely different to inland sailing in a light breeze and flat water. The best sailors are good in all conditions and need to be – think back to the ILCA races in Marseille and the varied conditions there.

But it is also the variety of wave conditions even in sea venues – Stokes Bay often produces tricky short waves when wind is against tide, Weymouth Bay at the Nationals had one day with a small chop but a rolling swell from the side. Pevensey in the Southwester has long waves beautiful for surfing. I once sailed in the ILCA Worlds in Cape Town in a southerly - you could not see the boat 30 lengths ahead of you the waves were so big !

I wrote a little about wave technique in Blog #65 if you are interested.

Just to mention winter training especially for Regional Open training for ILCA4s for which places are limited – a couple of the regions are almost full (more below)

Snippets

ILCA UK Winter Training

ILCA UK are offering many opportunities for winter training 2024/2025 - See our calendar for more

Regional Open Training for ILCA 4,ILCA6 and ILCA 7

ILCA 4

The training programme will take place across three different regions.

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 Regional Open Training

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 training will be open to all ages and entry will be on a per-weekend basis. An excellent opportunity to continue to develop sailing skills in your region.

National Training

ILCA UK Nationals
Plas Heli Qualifier
Qualifiers at WPNSA in October
Inlands at Grafham

The National Training is run by ILCA UK at WPNSA .

Don’t forget the Chair’s playlist of three virtual training sessions on Youtube

ILCA UK events

Masters Nationals enter here – almost 92 entries so far.

Other ILCA events

See our calendar for more

Other news

ILCA Thames Valley Travellers Series Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA

Sailingfast ILCA Welsh National Championships 2024 at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Mark Lyttle 9/9/24 Mark Lyttle 9/9/24

ILCA UK Chair blog #103

rules and winter training

Rules have been part of our sport for many years. Take this headline from 1934 America’s Cup BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES AND AMERICA WAIVES THE RULES. Here’s the news report from the time and a relevant quote Sopwith bore away to avoid an inevitable collision but again, the protest flag wasn’t flown as the custom under the Yacht Racing Association rules in England was to fly the flag at the end of the race. The NYYC reverted to its own rules on the matter and held firm, insisting that a flag must be flown immediately in order to give the protested yacht the chance to counter-protest should they see fit. As you can imagine this seemed to cause a lot of controversy at the time.

Of course, the America’s Cup has always had protests and still does today but what of ILCA racing? I think it is fair to say that in the cut and thrust of ILCA sailing, boats have always come together resulting in minor collisions, whether it is the touching of gunwales at the start and a boom hitting an outside boat at a leeward mark. While every collision should result in a penalty under the rules, many sailors will ignore these types of collisions when there is no obvious gain or loss. There are exceptions, for example a boat-to-boat situation at the end of a regatta when leaders are manoeuvring against each other. I remember before the start of the 1996 Olympics when the Laser made its appearance being told that every collision would be protested – well it wasn’t!

While every rule infringement does not get a penalty, many should and do. Misjudging a port tack approach inside three boat lengths requires a penalty or protest as does barging in a mark when no overlap was established in time. Or if a boat comes in aggressively from behind and to leeward and bangs gunwales with no opportunity for me as windward boat to keep clear, wrecking my start – they should take a penalty. Same with misjudging port and starboard or hitting a mark. I know some of you will say rules are rules and it is not up us to determine when they should apply but it is the de facto scenario when racing in a self-policing sport – we decide what warrants a penalty. When there is a blatant rule infringement, whether it is a national event or club racing, there should be a protest or penalty and we all know some sailors are consistently on the wrong side of this – there is only one answer - protest!

That being said, my own philosophy is to give others a bit of leeway as it creates goodwill next time you are in a tricky situation. So, someone doesn’t quite make it across on port, I am likely let it go and put the goodwill in the bank and hope it will be reciprocated. But sometimes other sailors don’t get that – live by the sword, die by the sword, I guess. Of course, if it is head-to-head at the sharp end of a regatta that’s different.

We want to see sailors winning fairly on the water and don’t want to see them lose for frivolous or seemingly unfair protests from other competitors. That said at times, organisers need to do these protests to ensure racing is run properly, safety and fairly, but this needs to be applied with some empathy. Let’s hope the result of the current America’s Cup doesn’t end up being tainted by protest.

ILCA UK Winter Training

ILCA UK are offering many opportunities for winter training 2024/2025 - See our calendar for more

Regional Open Training for ILCA 4,ILCA6 and ILCA 7

ILCA 4

The training programme will take place across three different regions.

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 Regional Open Training

ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 training will be open to all ages and entry will be on a per-weekend basis. An excellent opportunity to continue to develop sailing skills in your region.

National Training

ILCA UK Nationals
Plas Heli Qualifier
Qualifiers at WPNSA in October
Inlands at Grafham

The National Training is run by ILCA UK at WPNSA .

Snippets

Don’t forget the Chair’s playlist of three virtual training sessions on Youtube

ILCA UK events

Pwllheli open meeting / qualifier on 14th / 15th Sept closes tonight – just over 100 entries so far

Masters Nationals enter here – almost 70 entries so far.

Other ILCA events

See our calendar for more

Other news

2024 ILCA Master Europeans Sets New Participation Record - EurILCA