ILCA UK Chair Blog #115

Dec 2

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

Inlands photos here

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 Women’s Regatta video (new)

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