ILCA UK Chair Blog #119

Jan 6

Happy New Year to all of you, part of the ILCA UK community, new and old!

I have never been one of sailing in really cold conditions, but yesterday in the London area we had a positively topical 12 degrees and 15 knots which allowed me my first race of the year – sometimes you just must pick and choose when to sail at this time of year. But no doubt many of you are thinking ahead to the upcoming season. If you are not a regular member of ILCA UK, would you consider joining – it is just over £3 per month? By joining you become a signed-up member of the ILCA UK community, supporting our efforts to be an inclusive and welcoming class for everyone. Your membership supports the international class (30% of the fee goes to them) ensuring that ILCAs built are nearly identical over decades. That means whether you buy a new or second-hand boat, your investment is protected by maintaining a great market for boats - in some ways your membership pays for itself in lower depreciation! Of course your membership supports the activities of the class in the UK which is run for the most part by volunteers (and the super efforts of our class managers Ellie and Leo) – we have around 55 volunteers on our main committee and sub-committees – including 10 National events, our active training program, support for the Grand Prix circuit and club training, our new Youth Series, our Women’s’ regatta…

We are going to be working on bringing some membership offerings to members to boast the reasons for joining as in the long run, I believe that everyone who sails an ILCA should be member to help maintain the integrity and structure of our class and sport.

Looking ahead, our main National events are the calendar now. We have five National Opens (formerly Qualifiers) including a visit to East Lothian (have we been there before?) in September. We head to Pwllheli for our Nationals, a true festival of sailing. Having done many great events there in the past, I believe we can combine super sailing waters (lovely waves in a sou’wester) with a beach resort like venue! Master sailors should be preparing for lots this season. We have an event at Parkstone where we plan to try and sail in Bournemouth Bay – we don’t often get that opportunity and the last time I did it in an ILCA was the British Nationals in 1983 (one 2.5 hour race a day 😊). This is followed by the Masters Nationals and then the Europeans both in Hayling Island. Please note we have not finally confirmed the date of the Masters inlands in Nov.

Finally, we have our new regional Youth Series sponsored by Harken. The ILCA UK Youth Series aims to encourage youth participation in ILCA racing at regional level across the UK. The series is made up of a number of separate events held throughout the 2025 sailing season, the first of which is at Datchet on 1st/ 2nd February (entries open tomorrow 7th January). These events are for all levels of experience and we encourage club sailors to come and try some racing at the next level. To support that ILCA UK will be providing coaching on and off the water, especially to support those coming for the first time. Also we are trailing the use of trackers at this event – come and see what that’s all about.

ILCA UK Events

In the meantime, you can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

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

ILCA UK training - open training (see portal / website for locations) January 11/12 - ILCA4/6/7. Please note bookings close on Monday so please book before then if you would like to join in. Non RTG lite ILCA4 sailors - please note we need multiples of 5 or 6 sailors at each location in order to run this.

Other news

ILCA UK - Dinghy Show Information, including Discount code!

RYA Wales new ILCAs

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