UKLA Chair blog #37

Last call masters and Improving your ILCA sailing

Last call for the Masters in Parkstone - entry closes on 19th April. There is already a decent entry with moderate wind forecast and warmish. All are welcome. 

Last week's blog was about the correlation between improvement in skills and quality practice or time on the water. So where would I start? By making a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses in the core areas needed to improve. For me these are:

• Boat preparation

• Boat handling

• Boat speed

• Fitness

• Mental training

• Strategy

• Tactics

• Starts

Putting aside boat preparation (here is Tim Hulse’s online training on that topic), boat speed and handling are fundamental. There will be no shortage of areas to improve considering the range of wind and water conditions we sail in. Once a weakness is identified, it is about deliberately and systematically building it into training, whether that is practicing on your own, in small groups, formal coaching sessions or in racing itself.

UKLA provides many opportunities for coaching but it is often taking the time to learn from the coaching that is important. I asked James Hadden, one of our top UKLA coaches, about this.

Practicing is the most important part for anyone looking to improve their ILCA sailing (or any skill for that matter). We are aiming to be able to do all the various skills very well without having to think about them. The less we have to consciously think about techniques when we are racing the more ‘brain space’ you have to look around and make decisions. To practice efficiently we need to focus on specific things and set little goals for each session, gradually we build up the pressure on the skill until it breaks down which allows us to reduce the pressure again and work on the specific part of the skill which broke down and the process continues.

Getting some coaching can be really beneficial - having an expert coach help teach new techniques or spot the specific areas which is holding you back can save you a lot of time. The most efficient method for getting better is a balance between self reflection, getting some coaching and practicing. Depending on the skill, I normally work on the basis that one coaching day equates to 6-10 sessions of specific practice to effectively learn/develop a particular skill. Ideally you would get one or two coaching sessions a month and spend the rest of the month practicing what you have learnt so that you can work on something new or different with the coach the next time rather than being told the same thing over and over.

Only sailing in coached sessions and never practicing usually results in mixed messages, confusion and this always ends in a lack of improvement. Solo and small group practice at your club can be really powerful when coupled with testing those skills at open meetings and then reflecting afterwards to work out where the skills has improved and where it still needs work.

Self reflection is key to develop awareness of where you need to improve- this might be where you lost places in a regatta or where you didn’t feel very confident. Only relying on what the coach says and not using your own reflections too halves the potential for improvement.

Younger sailors today are lucky they have access to quality coaches while I learnt how to sail a Laser decades ago from other sailors “hey Mark this is how you do it”. As James says, there is a happy balance between coaching and practicing and I wonder whether we need to emphasize the latter a bit more.

Snippet:

• 2023 Skills Week entries will open next week - Monday 24th April

• 2023 Open & National Championships entries in two weeks time - Monday 1st May

UKLA Chair blog #36

I always think the season is getting into full flow when evening racing starts and we had our first one at Queen Mary last Wednesday. It is handicap racing but the ILCAs get a separate start so we get two races in one. I really enjoy it maybe because it is a short race and then supper in the club afterwards!

I was at the RYA Youth Nationals at WPNSA this morning where there are several hundred youth sailors across multiple classes including ILCAs. It made me think of the benefits of sailing for these younger sailors. They certainly experience independence on the water and the ups and downs of competitive sport, helping to build resilience. They are making friends and hopefully having fun. And of course, they are dealing with winning and losing. It also shows how hard work pays off in improved skills and performance – one assumes a broader life skill.

But is it hard work rather than talent and is it essential to start at an early age to excel? This has been an important research area for many years and has been made topical through the “10,000 hour rule” in recent years but actually comes from a paper in 1973 where Simon and Chase referred to the “10 year rule” of acquiring knowledge and understanding through storing memories of experiences and situations, eventually leading to the attainment of an expert level. It was taken further by Ericsson who discusses “deliberate practice” (specific tasks usually on the cusp of the individual’s expertise and practiced over and over until expertise is achieved) and linking accumulated hours of practice with achieving expert performance. This in turn encourages earlier and earlier participation, often through talent identification and development programmes.

Of course, high profiles athletes like Tiger Woods are well known for their early start in sport and prodigious talent. He certainly started accumulating many hours of practice very early to the extent it is hard to separate this practice from the talent. One of his core “talents” was how quickly he picked up the skills and his ability to sustain so many hours of practice through to the adulthood. That’s what makes him an exception.

No one reaches elite level in a skills-based sport without accumulating many hours of practice - this makes sense and the empirical evidence backs this up. There are no exceptions and no-one bypasses this no matter how talented they are. Does starting early give an athlete a head start in accumulating those hours? There is a short-term advantage but that seems to be it. This is seen by examining the training profile of a professional ILCA sailor, training full-time versus a part-time teenager still in school. Any head-start is quickly closed by the significant extra hours of a professional. It is one of the reasons later starters shouldn’t be put off when there is so much time to catch up especially when the prime age of elite athletes is now much older than it was.  

Another argument is that the skills needed in a sport need to be acquired when young before the athlete fully develops - gymnastics is often quoted. But it is hard to make those arguments in sailing. It seems obvious that boat handling skills can be acquired at any age. Feel for the boat or the wind is less obvious but is there anything in those skills that indicates they need to be acquired at a young age rather than accumulated later on? I don’t think so.

So where does that leave us? There are many benefits in sailing for younger sailors but the more hours of deliberate practice put in, the better the skills (and performances) will be – the infamous (quality) time on the water.  This rather than talent will be the driver but although the context and opportunity for each younger sailor will be different, there’s always the opportunity to catch-up.

UKLA Chair blog #35

I loved this video from the ILCA6 sailors on the British Sailing Team about achieving gender equality for Olympic participants and medals in Sailing at Paris 2024. It’s been a long time coming. I was lucky enough to coach my sister Denise in the single-hander Europe class at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. It certainly felt like progress then since Cathy Foster had sailed in the 470 class in Los Angeles in 1984 as the only female sailor. In Barcelona there were three female classes but with the Soling, Star and Flying Dutchman among the “missed” classes it was hardly surprising that female sailors were less than 20% of the total.

Regular readers of this blog will know a little of the history of the ILCA6 in the Olympics (blog #26) and the launch of our female participation survey, about which I want to give you a summary. We had 108 responses and have spent March reviewing the findings and starting to develop an action plan.

Many of the responders said they were attracted to the ILCA by the single-handed sailing but also the active racing scene (from club to National level), easy access to used boats and of course a community of like-minded sailors and friends. A sizable number, although a minority, reported direct unfavourable gender-based discrimination (through words or actions) with plenty of examples reported. This has no place in our class or sport. As a community, we must call out this behaviour when we see it and provide education to our sailors (from younger ILCA4 sailors to older ILCA7 master sailors) so that we all understand what it is inappropriate.

A smaller percentage, but again still a sizable number, experienced or observed direct unfavourable gender-based discrimination through structural barriers. The themes included the need to have more female role models, not just the top sailors, but also coaches, race officers and key volunteers including on the UKLA Committee (it is 25% female). Youth female ILCA4 sailors want to be encouraged to stay in the ILCA4 if it suits them and Master sailors want the opportunity to sail an ILCA4 at UKLA events (note that ILCA4 is an open class in the UK, not age restricted). Respondents also want UKLA to help foster an empowering attitude for female sailors and a higher-level engagement on the challenges encountered by female sailors.

There is very clear support for a separate set of male and female results (in addition to overall results) at UKLA events and support (although less emphatic) for a female mentor/buddy scheme to match an ILCA 4 sailor with an ILCA 6 sailor.

In answer to the questions on separate racing for male and female sailors, female only training sessions and female only regattas, the results reflect differing perspectives. A small majority would support separate racing and regattas “sometimes”, with comments stressing the value of females racing together from time to time. But a large minority have the strongly held view that they “never” want to race in a female only fleet (at UKLA events) and want the challenge of getting to the top of that fleet. Close to 75% would like to “sometimes” have female only training. It seems there is an opportunity to balance both perspectives better given our current position of providing no separate female racing, regattas or training.

We are currently planning a virtual feedback session on April 19th at 7pm for those who said in the survey they were interested in staying involved. If you are interested in joining them (especially as a younger female sailor), we will have a limited number of extra spaces, just let me know.

As part of the journey towards Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, it is important that we know the diversity that we already have within UKLA. We will shortly be sending our members and ILCA sailors a form which we would appreciate you filled in.

Snippet:

You can now buy ILCA class flags for your club through our garment shop

UKLA Chair blog #34

courtesy Lotte Johnson

A blog of two halves this week.  My take on how much luck there is in sailboat racing and then the story of how we raced in 30knots at the Ovington Qualifer 3 at WPNSA this weekend (from Brett Lewis)

 Unfair or unlucky?

We all know the quote from Gary Player “ the more I play the luckier I get”. In one of his books Paul Elvstrom (for younger readers – 4 times Olympic Gold medallist) says the advice he would give to young keen sailors is that, however hard it is to accept, the winner almost never wins through luck. His argument is that you are only lucky if you do something you can’t foresee and that some of what happens on the racecourse is predictable at some level. A shifty offshore wind ? It is manageable at a holistic level. With more experience and skill one sailor’s luck is another sailor’s insight. On this basis it is hard to say something is unfair.

Of course, without those skills you can be in the right place or wrong place at the right time or wrong time,and it is a matter of learning as much from this as you can.  I can give countless examples over decades of racing but will restrict myself to two. Leading in the last race of a J24 National Championship and so heading for series victory, we chose to tack under a starboard tacker because it was the right shift heading in the right direction – obviously right? Only it wasn’t and we should have sacrificed doing what might have been the “right” thing for a pragmatic approach of covering of our nearest competitor, however unlikely it would be needed. A series lost but a lesson learnt – conditions change on the racecourse suddenly (and maybe only unpredictably for the unskilled) and it never pays to be overconfident in your ability to predict it.

Even this weekend, in the 1st race on Sunday at the Qualifier in WPNSA in 8 knots, I fluffed my start and cleared right and on a decent header and puff, tacked and started crossing most the fleet. Looking upwind you could see much more pressure coming down the course but would it go left or right? Had I checked the forecast, I would have known it was due to go right. But then again there were some big clouds lurking and it was an offshore breeze. I guessed it was going to go left and was unlucky but someone else may have been better prepared or had better insight and made the right the decision.

So luck comes into it, after all you have a 25% chance of picking the correct side of the first beat twice in a row. But it is too easy to say other sailors were just lucky rather than more skilled. But what about fairness? Strictly it is the same for everyone so unless the racing is run in way that unfairly prejudices you (through an improper act or omission – see rule 62), it is hard to have a case.  Rather than blaming someone else or putting it down to luck, better to take responsibility, use it as motivation to work harder and acquire the skills needed to get luckier.

How we raced in 30knots at WPNSA

 Brett Lewis, UKLA Safety Officer says the UKLA Qualifier 3 on Saturday March 25th was a successful day for UKLA on many levels as we sent 151 sailors to race in high winds. At 12pm we raced the ILCA7s in 24knots, gusting 32knots, at 1.30pm when we sent out the ILCA6s the wind picked up to 26knots gusting 33knots. For the ILCA4s the wind strength abated as expected to a benign 10knots. The planning for this began four days earlier when Race and Safety team met to discuss what we called Plan B, which in this instance was a windward leeward course and one fleet at a time to minimise safety concerns.

Why was this such a success for UKLA? It was a success because of the 40 plus volunteers, both ashore and on the water that made it happen. Ashore we had the tally, beach and bridge team, while afloat we had 12 safety ribs, along with the Race team and Jury giving us sufficient resources to manage two fleets at a time.  This enabled us to swap over fleets while racing continued in the harbour. Without the volunteer support and resources, we would have not run any racing in those wind bands in March.

Let’s remember that these are World and European Qualifiers for our sailors heading to Cadiz, Volos, Dziwnow, Gdynia, Stavanger and others. At these venues they could race in these conditions and why they need to race in the UK when those conditions prevail. This is why our class is so strong, we go the extra mile to make these events take place.  Thank you again for those volunteers who made it happen.

And of course thanks to our class sponsors and in partciular this weekend Ovington

Snippet:

UKLA National training for April will open on Wednesday.

UKLA Chair blog #33

Courtesy Giles Smith

In our first virtual training session this winter, Tim Hulse does a great job explaining how to rig your ILCA, mainly focussed on the control lines. For many of you, upgrading these to the latest best practice used by the British Sailing Team and the top ILCA sailors in the world is easy and relatively inexpensive. But what about other aspects of ILCA equipment – what are the myths and what makes a difference?

First, a disclaimer – I am not a boat tinkerer so please bear that in mind as you read on! For me, the number #1 priority is preventing gear failure as that is certainly a big block on performance. Over the years I have broken every spar including (once) a bottom section but happily this happens much less these days and is normally a result of corrosion around fittings on the spars. All control lines are subject to breaking through normal wear and tear. What else have I broken in recent years?  Clew shackle or hook, kicker pin and tiller extension joint (breaking the extension itself after missing the toe strap is quite common). Some reasonable preparation can help ensure your race is not ruined.

What about cleaning and polishing your boat? It is great to take pride in your ILCA and preparing the hull surface might well some you some extra confidence on the racecourse, but I am sorry to say it is not going to affect your boat speed.

What about the choice of hull? Well one of the great attractions of the ILCA / Laser is that hulls can remain pretty competitive for several decades. Certainly for most racing in the UK, your technique, fitness, starting and strategy are much more likely to affect the outcome of your race than the age of your hull. As you get towards the top half of a National fleet, a hull that is no older than 10 years may make a marginal difference when it is blowing more than 15 knots and in waves. Of course, the top sailors at international events, where a couple of boat lengths over a mile long beat may be critical, will have hulls that are only a few years old at most.

As many of you will know, there are now around 8 ILCA builders across the world and you may tempted to ask whether there are performance differences between boats. Having raced ILCAs/Lasers for over four decades, I am firmly believe this isn’t the case. As new builders have come on board, the technical team at ILCA (the international class association) has been working even harder to ensure the quality and compliance of new ILCAs. Their overall objective is to ensure ILCAs are produced off the shelf as one design boats of equal performance. Even if there were differences, they are likely to be so minor as to affect no one but the top few sailors in the world. At international events,  there is good representation of most builders with no correlation between builder and results. Of course, these sailors may have a preference, but this is understandable given the supreme need to be confident. I got one of the first Ovingtons, with which I am very happy especially given my role as UKLA Chair and the fact that they are a UKLA sponsor but your decisions on builder should be down to quality of build, customer service and price and certainly not performance.

Finally, perhaps the most important piece of equipment is your sail. Certainly there are performance differences between a well-used 5-year-old sail and a new one but this must be balanced with your assessment of the other factors (already mentioned) that might affect your performance and the standard of fleet you are competing in. I bought a new ILCA7 sail before the Masters Worlds in Mexico last May, but have used that sail in all sailing since then and although it looks well-used, it remains competitive. I could certainly improve my performance the most by being a bit fitter!

 In a nutshell, once you have made sure nothing is about to break and that your sail is in reasonable shape, the rest is down to skill and fitness, both of which come from getting out on the water.

The great advantage of ILCA racing is the easy access to competitive boats and equipment compared to many other classes. I hope that gives you an idea but remember these are just my thoughts. Others are valid as well.

 Snippets:

Check out your local Grand Prix on our calendar - everyone welcome!

Calling all masters – the first Masters event of the year will be at Parkstone on 21st/22nd April - it is a great venue both ashore and afloat with entries open and includes 2 course evening meal for £45! You will need to be a member of UKLA but that’s what allows us to provide such good value. Come and give it a go - remember Masters sailing is open and accessible to all competent club sailors over the age of 30.

Has your club bid for free UKLA training? Deadline is end of March

Final entries for Qualifier 3 next weekend at WPNSA close tonight - no late entries I am afraid. There are also a couple of places in the UKLA Regional training the follwing weekend

Finally a note of thanks for all the volunteers at WPNSA this last weekend. We were able to sail in Weymouth Bay on Sunday when conditions allowed - yes that’s 156 ILCAs in the middle of the bay! Thanks to the Safety team and the Race Committee and of course all those that helped ashore. Your support at these events makes all the difference.

UKLA Chair blog #32

When I started sailing Lasers (a long time ago) there was only the full rig so for lighter sailors like me (back then), windy races were hard work and there were consequences. I sailed my first Irish Nationals at 16 and in the light air event, I finished in the top 10. The following year, it blew “old boots” and I raced the second half of the regatta in the silver fleet. I still remember it felt my sailing was going backwards, which is often what progress looks like. In those days we wore weight jackets (whoever thought that was a good idea?), initially 4kg ones but by the time the Laser was in 1996 Olympics, they were only 2.2 kg – still tough work though. Another consequence was the need to learn good technique for windy races especially in choppy or wavy conditions, technique that remains important today – keeping the boat at a stable angle of heel reducing the dissipation of power from the rig.

But perhaps the most important was breaking mental barriers and building mental strength. I remember the race this happened as an 18 year old. I needed a good last race to qualify for the Worlds but the wind had increased to beyond the level I was normally competitive at. I hiked harder than I ever had and with a bit of luck, got the result I needed. Barrier was broken and with that the realisation that strong winds provide the opportunity for consistent results based on boat speed in a way that light air races don’t.

Physical fitness remains at the core of ILCA sailing. No matter what level you are sailing at. The top sailors are super fit athletes but even at Masters level I like to use upcoming events as a reason to do physical training – in fact I need that motivation to sustain fitness work, rather than fitness for its own sake, beneficial though it might be.

While technique, mental strength and fitness are all important, today of course we have a choice of rigs allowing sailors to be competitive across a range of weights. The ILCA4, while no one would say it is the most elegant of boats, provides great racing. UKLA has 7 Nationals events each year in the ILCA4 as an open class – that means we don’t have any age limit in the ILCA4 in the UK. I would personally encourage sailors who aren’t heavy enough for an ILCA6 to stay in the ILCA4 for the quality of racing. Those up to 18 can also go abroad and sail in the Europeans and Worlds. I know we don’t yet have an ILCA4 fleet at our Masters events and this is something I would like to address. I have said before that the ILCA6 is perhaps the most competitive dinghy class racing in the UK so why migrate from the ILCA6 to the ILCA7 if you aren’t heavy enough.

Snippets:

As the spring season gets well and truly underway, I would remind you we have two National open meetings at WPNSA in the following weekends  - the first of those closes tonight – there will be a meal afterwards with the rugby on and the first Masters event of the year in Parkstone in April. Here is the calendar

UKLA Chair blog #31

First UKLA event of the year and Calling all Masters

On Thursday morning, things didn’t look great for the first Qualifier of the year in Stokes Bay with a rather light but cold, northerly, offshore wind forecast. As it turned out, we had fine weekend with the Race Committee doing an excellent job getting most of the racing done in the shifty conditions and when the sun came out for a few minutes on Sunday, it was positively balmy (Ok a slight exaggeration but I, for one, expected it to be colder). The SBSC volunteers did a great job getting us in and out, so thanks to all of them.

It is worth emphasising once again that these events are high quality open meetings organised by UKLA. They are termed “qualifiers” as they are used for access to international events but most sailors are attending to get great racing, not to qualify. That is why we welcome a board range of sailing experience at these events.

And I was once again amazed at the range in our fleet and how well everyone gels. The ILCA7 fleet has continued attract some younger sailors moving up from the ILCA6 creating a new vibrancy, with the opportunity to sail against Sam Whaley (British Sailing Team and World #3) and Jake Farren-Price (British Sailing Squad). There were sailors competing in their first ILCA7 event and there was sprinkling of Masters with Michael Clark, Andy Le Grice and David Surkov all getting at least one top 10 finish. With the experienced Daisy Collingridge, Matilda Nicholls and Hannah Snellgrove of the British Sailing Team all away training, the ILCA6 fleet had an age range of over 50 years and the top ten had two U17s, two U19s and three Masters.

The light winds made some of the mark rounding quite competitive but behaviour seemed to be mostly fine (remember aggressive shouting is not allowed) and with lots of helping each other in launching and recovery.

Calling all masters – the first Masters event of the year will be at Parkstone on 21st/22nd April - it is a great venue both ashore and afloat with entries opening on 7th March. Come and give it a go - remember Masters sailing is open and accessible to all competent club sailors over the age of 30.

Snippets:

• This week’s podcast is Hannah Snellgrove

• Entries are the two WPNSA qualifiers are open

UKLA Chair blog #30

Lots to talk about this week…

• #1 in World

• #2 A snapshot on UKLA finances

• #3 Three volunteers wanted?

• #4 Behaviour at our events

It has taken 30 blogs for me to mention individual performances and results, but I must make an exception this week. Micky Beckett is #1 in the single-handed (ILCA7) World rankings. What an achievement! And he is joined by Elliot Hanson and Sam Whaley in #2 and #3! It is super for UKLA members to have the opportunity to race against the best in the world on a regular basis on home waters. Of course, a couple of weeks ago, we had Daisy and Matilda, two of the top women sailors in the world, give their insights in our virtual training. We are lucky that all members of the British Sailing Team in the ILCA6 and ILCA7 give back so much to us.

With the UKLA 2022 finances almost finalised, I wanted to share a couple of comments with you. Across all our events and training, we had a deficit of almost £20,000. That means we took in £20,000 less income than costs for our regattas and training (with including support for club training and Super Grands Prix), ensuring we provided the best possible value to members. Our treasurer, Steve Taylor (many thanks), calls this an investment in our sport and I think he is right.

In addition to this, we had direct costs in running UKLA covered by income from member subscriptions, our sponsor Noble Marine and grant support from the RYA. Overall, that meant we had a deficit for the year of about £10,000. This was only possible due to the surplus we made during two years of Covid. In 2023 we plan to run a smaller deficit, but we will still run our events and training at a discount to full costs and we will be doing our best to contain costs in a difficult environment.

One of the reasons that we can provide excellent value to our members is the amount of time volunteers give to UKLA. We are now looking to fill three roles:

Team-racing co-ordinator - As part of series being organised by the European class, UKLA is considering running a one-day team racing event at Datchet in June. It would be 4 boat team racing in ILCA6s with a mixed 2 person team, probably restricted to 24 teams, bringing their own boats. To get this off the ground, we are looking for lead volunteer.

Virtual training administrator – following the success of virtual winter training, we would like to run several more sessions before the summer. We will provide the hosts but we need a volunteer to setup the Zoom meetings, prepare email communications with members and then upload the video. It is probably 3 hours work per session and you would need to be somewhat tech savvy.

Masters sub-committee – Alison Stevens is retiring for the committee in the summer after much tireless work (again many thanks). To make the role manageable, we hope to set-up a sub-committee where the role can be shared out. Let us know if you would like to be involved.

Contact-Chair — UKLA (ilca.uk) if interested.

Finally, you will remember we had a focus in the autumn on behaviour at our events, so at the start of the season we are publishing our Misconduct policy. Many thanks to those that have helped in preparing it, and I hope to cover in more detail when there is more space but here is the preamble.

UKLA members want our class to be a welcoming place for all involved with UKLA events, no matter their age or level of experience. We want to encourage a culture where we can all enjoy the sport and display sportsmanship on and off the water. We should show each other respect. Happily, misconduct at UKLA events is rare. But examples have arisen. UKLA hopes, by publicising the expected standards of behaviour and the applicable rules, to further improve standards of behaviour in relation to our events and in our sport more widely.

Snippets:

• 2023 UKLA coaching days across the country applications are open until 31st March. Read more

• Today is last day to enter for the Stokes Bay qualifier

• Featured podcast of week is top UKLA coach James Hadden

UKLA Chair blog #29

10 Great Things to do in your ILCA

The range of activities involving ILCAs is massive and today I would like to give you some ideas. Sorry but you won’t be able to do all of them

1. As spring approaches, sign up for club racing but firstly get some tips from our experts in our virtual winter education/training programme – Tim Hulse on Setting up your ILCA for performance and Daisy Collingridge and Matilda Nicholls (British Sailing Team) on ILCA technique for upwind / downwind in light air and heavy air

2. Hear from European ILCA7 Champion Micky Beckett in our final session on Wed 22nd February 7:30pm - Getting your racing tactics right Register and join here

3. Sixteen GBR sailors are heading to the ILCA4 Youth Europeans in Cadiz in April which will be a great experience. During the summer there are also the ILCA4 Youth Worlds and ILCA6 Youth European and Worlds, all in Europe. Remember there are usually more than enough GBR places available for these events

4. There were 20 Legends (over 75s) sailing in the ILCA6 Masters in Thailand including four GBR sailors – time launch your campaign?

5. Come and have a go at UKLA Masters Nationals in Hayling Island on 30th June to 2nd July – all welcome!

6. Aim to do at least two Grands Prix in your region – they are now in our UKLA calendar

7. Mark in your calendar the 2023 UKLA Open and Nationals Championships in Hayling Island 20th to 25th August – it is a festival of ILCA sailing - great racing, great venue and great off-water activities!

8. Race your ILCA at Keil Week – a world class regatta at the iconic venue of the 1972 Olympics

9. Buy something ILCA related from one of our sponsors like a Wildwind holiday

10. Aspire to win an Olympic Gold medal in either the ILCA6 or ILCA7 or anything else along our pathway with lots of club racing, regional Grands Prix, UKLA training and events and many internationals events.  You choose your aspiration!

Finally some sad news about the passing of Brigid Hurn. This from Nigel Vick who was heavily involved in UKLA for many years. “Brigid was Laser newsletter editor during the 1980’s and regularly attended and dealt with administration at Laser Qualifiers. At that time she was “Mother Laser”.” UKLA, on behalf of our members, would like to pass on our condolences to her family and friends and acknowledge her great volunteer work for the Laser family.

UKLA Chair blog #28

Patience while we grow…..

The ILCA class in the UK is vibrant and growing at all levels from the British Sailing Team to club activities, from young teenagers to Legends (over 75s). UKLA have launched several new initiatives in recent months:

• UKLA virtual winter training – we have run two sessions so far with the first video having over 1,400 views. The second session last Wednesday had 250 registrations and the video has been viewed over 740 times in less than four days

• Our Female Participation Survey is underway (we will close it on Wednesday) with over 100 responses to date

• Our National Training started in Oct to complement Regional training and it has been very successful.

You will see our published strategy on the ilca.uk website. We are working hard to ensure you have the information you need - hopefully it is easier to find it on the website as well. Thank you to those who have been coming forward to volunteer. UKLA is now at a size where many roles are too big for one person and we are working through how to manage that.

But with the growth comes pain. Our policies are made with the best interests of the class as a whole but invariably not everyone is going to agree with everything – that just the way it is as we get bigger. We will always look for input on changing polices but that doesn’t mean we adopt all input.

UKLA is a member organisation that exists to support our members and is run by a volunteer committee and our class secretary Ellie who works part-time. Ellie and the rest of us are all working incredibly hard to support members, but at certain times of the year are very busy – in February and March we have eight continuous weekends of activity – three qualifiers, four weekends of UKLA training and the Dinghy Show. Hopefully we are getting most of it right, but we are going to make the odd mistake and responses time will be slower, so please be patient with us as we cope with all with extra demand.

Snippets:

• Session #2 Virtual winter education/training programme for ILCA club/master sailing with Daisy Collingridge and Matilda Nicholls (British Sailing Team) - ILCA technique for upwind / downwind in light air and heavy air

• Here is a reminder about the Female Participation survey

• Featured podcast of week is Tim Hulse, UKLA Training Officer

UKLA Chair blog #27

We are opening entry for the upcoming three Spring Qualifiers on Tuesday 7th Feb at 7pm. There is a message below from Brett Lewis, our Safety Officer and some comments from me on the entry fees. Please remember the term Qualifier is a bit of a hangover - they are high quality open meetings!

---

Brett says:

“If you have ever wanted to make a difference, now is the time to consider how you can support our amazing sailors and our amazing class. 

UKLA has a unique position, we are a class not a club, we do not have a club house or have or any tangible assets. But as a class we are bigger than most of the UK clubs. Our major events attract more sailors than even the biggest UK clubs and our training events successfully attract hundreds of sailors monthly.

None of this would happen without the amazing teamwork, skill, and determination of volunteers. Sailing, like many sports is a volunteer run, volunteer organised and volunteer governed sport. 

None of this would happen without volunteers.

For us to provide safe racing at each of our major events, every day we require a team of at least 60 volunteers. We require everything from the beach and tally team, the race management team, the safety team, the prize giving team and the event admin team. Very few other classes or clubs require this amount of event resource to safely run our racing events.

Our on-water safety team operates on a policy of 12:1, that is for every 12 sailors on the water, they require at least one crewed safety rib. For the Stokes bay Qualifier, we will need at least 10 ribs and crews, and for the WPNSA Qualifiers we will require 16 ribs and crews.

The on-water team that supports the racing is made up of the Race Committee, the Mark Layers, the Safety team and the Jury team. On the shoreside we have the Tally, Beach, Bridge, Results, Prize and Admin team. 

Below we are asking for the volunteer support for our three Spring Qualifiers series, so if you are new to the class or have considered how you can offer support and would like to talk to us, please get in touch with Brett for on water support or Keith for Race Committee. We are particularly keen to speak to members who feel they want to offer support but do think they may yet not have the necessary experience. 

If you're passionate about sailing and wish to contribute to the success of our UKLA sailors and want to give back to your community, then volunteering is the perfect opportunity for you. We can offer training, advice, mentoring and support for Mark Layers, the Safety team and the Race Committee.”

Contact Brett - Contact Keith - Volunteer

---

I wanted to add some comments on entry fees. In 2022 UKLA subsidised entry fees for the Qualifiers with those fees around 5% lower than the costs of running the events. UKLA was able to do this because of the support of our sponsors and good control over our operating costs. I believe this resulted in great value for our sailors.

Like most organisations we are seeing significant increases in our costs, particularly those charged by host venues and the costs of providing appropriate safety cover. In the past, the class relied on parents bringing RIBs without them being fully compensated for their costs, which we felt was unfair and unsustainable and could have resulted in us not having enough safety cover to run an event.

Although we will continue to subsidise entry fees (we plan to continue to set entry fees below the cost of running the events in 2023), these increases are too significant for us to absorb. We therefore agreed to increase our entry fees. We will be working to see if these increases can be reduced later in 2023. As a committee we fully understand the impact and also realise this is just one element of the cost of a weekend.

Snippets:

• Session #2 Virtual winter education/training programme for ILCA club/master sailors – register here

• Here is a reminder about the Female Participation survey

• Featured podcast of week are Daisy Collingridge and Matilda Nicholls

UKLA Chair blog #26

In my early years of ILCA/ Laser sailing in the eighties, there was only one rig – the standard or ILCA7 and that didn’t give much opportunity for female participation. Well, things have improved since then, but there is still a lot more to do done.

The ILCA6 has been the women’s single-handed boat in the Olympics for four cycles starting in Beijing 2008. As it happened with the ILCA7, the competition gets tougher each cycle, as many of the earlier campaigners stay involved in subsequent cycles as can be seen with some of the top female sailors now. The ILCA6 is (arguably) the most competitive dinghy class in the UK, being the popular single-handed boat for youths, mixing it with our top women sailors and experienced masters. But the numbers of women competing are just not enough.

Also, in the ILCA4 we have a highly competitive class with more girls competing and a smaller rig opening the opportunity to a wider group of sailors. With seven UKLA National weekend events during the season, the National Championship during the summer and the opportunity to compete abroad (there were 132 entries in the 2022 ILCA4 Youth Europeans in the girls fleet), surely we should be aspiring to having equal numbers of boys and girls in this fleet?

So today UKLA are launching a survey on female participation in the ILCA as part of our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity strategy. We are interested in understanding whether there is more that we can do to increase female participation in ILCA 4 and 6. This survey is mainly aimed at female sailors, but if you are a male and have a view on this subject, we welcome your input. Here is the survey

Snippets:

• Featured podcast of week is Ali Young

• Virtual winter education / training programme for ILCA club / master sailors - session #1 recording

• There are still places available at Open Training North Carsington SC 11-12th February 2023 (closing on 31st January)

• UKLA is seeking a sustainability volunteer to work with UKLA and Euricla. For more information or to express an interest, please contact Ellie.

All the best

Mark

Join UKLA here

Check our UKLA website and calendar of events

UKLA Chair blog #25

Are you a class act?

I am sure many of us see elite athletes and coaches and are in awe of their ability and achievements. But we don’t always consider them to be class acts. It is something I have often wondered about it. In our sport how important is it for a sailor or coach to be a class act?

First, what does it mean? Someone who is a class act displays principles, kindness, respect towards others and in sport towards their competitors and opposition. They seem to have a strong moral compass. While they may be super confident, they show humility and aren’t arrogant or disrespectful with their success. You can see why it is appealing.

But do elite competitors need to be a class act? That’s harder to answer but possibly not. Cristiano Ronaldo has clearly been one of the world’s top players but was demoted to the bench when playing for Portugal in the World Cup after showing a poor attitude / disrespect to the manager when being substituted in the prior game. After losing to Morocco in the quarter finals, instead of congratulating the African team, he headed straight off the pitch without so much as a handshake – not much respect there. Of course, we only see Ronaldo through a media lens, so it is hard to judge, but the optics don’t look great. Same is true of Eddie Jones, former England rugby manager or Jose Mourinho, a renowned football manager, both brilliant coaches but always ready to take a dig at the opposition. It may have helped their teams, but not a good look. Then again there was Sir Thomas Lipton who challenged for the America’s Cup five times – he was considered the world’s greatest sportsman for his consistent respect for his competitor and host and because of these attributes, in his later challenges most of America wanted him to win over their countrymen – he never did!

So while being a class act may not a pre-requisite for success or indeed guarantee success, but we would like our sailors to act as one – they are better role models, likeable and something we can aspire to. So we should encourage this behaviour surely. It is something to teach young sailors as they get some success – humility, kindness, and respect to the competition. We can learn to be fierce competitors on the water but still show respect both on the water and ashore. I am sure I wasn’t an angel as a younger sailor but I have got wiser with age. I think we should encourage our younger sailors to strive to be both brilliant sailors and class acts – people will look up to them even more.

UKLA Chair blog #24

Looking to kick-off my 2023 sailing at Queen Mary, I checked the forecast Sunday morning racing, and it looked cold and windy. But my perseverance, and those of the 20 other ILCAs, were rewarded with two exhilarating races in 15 to 20 knots where I could still feel my hands and feet throughout!  I am sure many of you are looking at 2023 too, so I wanted to mention UKLA schedule. 

After the RYA Dinghy Show in late February, we have three qualifiers in March, one at Stokes Bay and the other two at WPNA. These are of course really high quality open meetings and most are attending for the racing, rather than qualifying for anything. In fact, readers of this blog will know than qualification for internationals events is hardly ever needed anyway. As well as the Masters events mentioned last week, we have our National Championship back in Hayling Island in August and four more open meetings in the autumn – one in Paignton, two at WPNSA and one at Draycote.

We did say that we wanted more events away from the South coast but this has proved difficult so far. We have approached many venues, and few are able to take 200 boats and some of those that can have no availability. If you know a club that can take us in 2024 or 2025 please let us know. We of course already know the possible venues, so we are really looking for input if you know a club that could actually host us.

You will also notice that the Stokes Bay qualifier doesn’t include ILCA4s. This partly because Stokes Bay could not host all of us and partly because close to 50 ILCA4s are involved in RYA RTG training that weekend. We have been trying to schedule a Youth event during the winter but have not been able to find an available weekend for the ILCA4s given the amount of training they have (UKLA open / National and RYA RTG) - a lesson learnt for next winter. However we are in the final stages of getting a Youth event for late June (details soon hopefully). I understand also that the ILCA4s will be included in three venues for the RYA Regional Junior Championships in June and the RYA Eric Twiname event (usually in early May and open to RTG sailors).

 Over the next month or two, you will also see many Grands Prix appear in the calendar.

All the best

Mark

Join UKLA here

Check our UKLA website and calendar of events

UKLA Chair blog #23

Some years ago, the North America Laser Class (as it was then) ran some adverts…*.

• It is okay to be 59 when you feel like you’re 39 – become an ILCA Master

• Hot competition, cold beer - become an ILCA Master

• It’s not who you beat, it’s who you meet - become an ILCA Master

• Live life to the fullest - become an ILCA Master

• Remember when life was simple? It can be again - become an ILCA Master

• Whoever dies with the most toys, never won a master regatta. Simple is good - become an ILCA Master

  *(Courtesy of Rupert Bedell)

As you start to think of the season ahead, think beyond to 2025 when the European Masters Championships will be sailed at Hayling Island Sailing Club. This is not Olympic level competition but accessible racing for any competent club sailor. Whether you aspire to this or not, UKLA has a programme of activities in 2023 to get you going.

We start later this month with UKLA led virtual winter education / training programme for ILCA club / master sailors. Open to everyone (including non-members) but focussed on ILCA sailors who want to improve their own club sailing and/or could be tempted to attend a masters event. It kicks off with coaching guru Tim Hulse and features some of the top sailors in the world. More details later this week.

#1 - Wed 25th Jan Tim Hulse (UKLA Training officer) - Setting up your ILCA for performance

#2 Wed 8th Feb Daisy Collingridge and Matilda Nicholls (British Sailing Team) - ILCA technique for upwind / downwind in light air and heavy air 

 #3 Wed 22nd Feb Micky Beckett (British sailing Team) - Getting your racing tactics right

Moving on from this, Alison Stevens, our Master rep, has organised three great venues for 2023 – our Spring Open meeting on 22nd/23rd April at Parkstone Yacht Club, our Masters Nationals on 30th June/2nd July at Hayling Island and our Autumn Open meeting at Grafham Water on 28th/29th Oct. These events are run in the spirit of master sailing as described at the beginning and are open to all.  We also hope to run another virtual session in late March hosted by Guy Noble to help you get ready for the first event.  

All the best

Mark

Join UKLA here

Check our UKLA website and calendar of events

UKLA Chair blog #22

Since Mark is away this week, you get a message from UKLA Class Secretary - Ellie

Happy New Year to you all!

This is just a short message to welcome you all into 2023! I hope you are excited about the upcoming year.

With the new year comes the new membership year and earlier today we invited you to renew your membership. We would also like to encourage the non-members receivers of this blog to join our class. Not only you can participate in the excellent training programme continuing throughout the winter months in preparation for the racing season, but also world class racing events, competitive and fun grand prix circuit and super grand prix events. There is something for everyone, not to mention that UKLA members get up to 12.5% discount with Noble Marine and 10% off spars online with Sailingfast.

Reminder: Winter training bookings are being released at 6pm today.

Check out the Training calendar

All the best

Ellie

Join UKLA here

Renew Membership here

Check our UKLA website and calendar of events

UKLA Chair blog #21

Christmas in Perth

In autumn 1994 I had given up my job to sail full-time to try and get to the Olympics and spent 4 weeks in December at a training camp in Israel with amongst others the current GBR coach Chris Gowers. It was an intensive camp not least because we spent most of that time on a kibbutz with little outside contact. And so it was a nice relief to fly home for Christmas in Dublin.

The following year, having never been away for Christmas, a group of us flew to Perth for the Australian Nationals on the Swan River, which started this day 27 years ago, and was preceded by my first (and so far only) sail on Christmas Day, and then on to the Asia Pacific Championships next door in Fremantle. What a great place to sail in glorious sunshine and the famous Fremantle Doctor (sea breeze), remembered by many for the 1987 America’s Cup.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and hoping some of you have had a sail over Christmas.

All the best

Mark

Join UKLA here

Check our UKLA website and calendar of events

UKLA Chair blog #20

As we draw to the end of the year, we can reflect on a busy and successful year for UKLA. Our membership is hovering around 1,000. At our events we had around 1,500 entries, an increase of 31%,  and 135 races. Skills Week was oversubscribed, and we did around 2,000 sailor training days. We launched our club training programme and saw over 100 individual sailors competing aboard. I say all this, not as a comprehensive review of 2022, but to indicate the scale of our activities when you consider we are just an association of members run with one part-time class secretary and many volunteers - I think it is quite impressive. And that context is important when thinking of and interacting with UKLA – it is your association and often you are just dealing with other members as volunteers.

I would like to call out some of those that make this work and I apologise in advance for not covering everyone. We get super support from our volunteers at events, both on and off the water, so thank you for that. Many of you are serial volunteers and events would not work without you. Thank you also to those who have taken on initiatives, often working quietly in the background. And of course, thanks to our coaches that deliver such quality training.

Ellie Ratusniak is the UKLA Secretary who works very hard to support all of us. She is committed and competent. Thank you so much Ellie.

On the committee we have:

• Ben Nicholls – Vice Chair and Youth Rep

• Tim Hulse – Training Officer

• Keith Videlo – Sailing Secretary

• Steve Taylor – Treasurer

• Guy Noble – Media and Sponsorship

• Alan Davis – Measurer

• Tony Woods – Nationals Co-ordinator

• Gary Finkelstein – Governance

• Brett Lewis – Safety Officer

• Richard Mason – Grand Prix Co-ordinator

 Also on the committee as Reps:

• ILCA4 – Pamela Cross

• ILCA6 – Jane Sunderland

• ILCA7 – Same Whaley

Thank you all for your hard work this year. I would also like to thank Tim Hall from the RYA for all his support this year.

The amount of training this year has increased dramatically (with a lot of new process to bed in) and would not have been possible without the support of Lisa Anderson, Jo Sinclair and Lorna Phipps helping Ellie and Tim.

Paul Jackson has been PRO at many of our events but has also provided stalwart support to Keith. Also, there would be no results without our scorer Nik James, who doubles up as our EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) Champion.

All the best

Mark

Join UKLA here

Check our UKLA website and calendar of events

UKLA Chair blog #19

International events – something for you?

At this time of year many of you are considering racing your ILCA internationally next season, so it may be a good time to reflect on this. I fully appreciate though that this is not for everyone as it is expensive and time consuming but last year over 100 GBR sailors raced outside the UK so there is considerable interest.

The great thing about the ILCA is the number of international events across the age groups and rigs. There are European and World Youth Championships in the ILCA4 and ILCA6 as well as U21 Championships for the ILCA6 and ILCA7. There are also European and World Masters for ILCA6 and ILCA7 with age categories from 30 to over 75. And of course, there is the ultra-competitive Senior circuit featuring the Olympic contenders with Europeans and Worlds but also the classic top grade early summer events in Hyeres, on the Ijsselmeer in Holland and Kiel Week. In Europe there is a Euro Masters series and the iconic Europa cup events. You will find events in most countries and in all regions around the World.

The standard at these events varies a lot. Masters events are accessible to any experienced club sailor and many are seeing the physical and mental health benefits of sailing well into what used to be called the “retirement” years. Youth championships attract huge numbers but also a massive range in standards. Of course, the world’s best youth sailors are competing but any sailors regularly competing in the UKLA Youth Series will be perfectly comfortable at these events.

International events are a superb experience if you are lucky enough to be able to do one. For younger sailors, while it develops racing experience and skills, more importantly it can help build resilience and independence. In UK most parents bring their children (or team up with other parents), but this is far from common in other countries and commercial organisations such us Sailcoach that provide the opportunity to do it independently of parents.

Unlike other classes, for youth events there is seldom a selection needed as the UK gets lots of places and the same for Masters events. The process for Europeans and Worlds is straightforward, as you apply for entry on the international class websites (ILCA International for Worlds and EurILCA for Europeans). After the deadline for entry closes, the UKLA checks all entries made under GBR for eligibility (e.g. membership status, whether the sailor has raced in at least one UKLA qualifying event). In the unlikely event that the number of GBR entries is greater than the number of places, the UKLA ranking list will be used – for youth events this has not happened for years. Please note that this is a summary on which you should not rely and you should check the UKLA website for the formal process. You will need to decide on whether to bring your own boat or charter one (there are several companies that do this). It is normally best to have coached regatta support and UKLA now offers this in partnership with the Andrew Simpson Performance Academy (and again other commercial options are available). Finally, a WhatsApp group is set-up for each event to help with communication.

All the best

Mark

Join UKLA here

Check our UKLA website and calendar of events

UKLA Chair blog #18

Today’s blog is about rabbit runs!  Hopefully, I haven’t lost too many of you already, but I love rabbit runs. What’s a rabbit run? It is used to start a race to windward without a starting line when each boat on starboard (or port)  in turn passes behind a boat, the rabbit, on port (or starboard) roughly 2 boat lengths apart. It is a common training exercise as it allows a group of boats to start evenly and try to hold their lane to windward as long as possible.

Rabbit runs are used by everyone from club sailors to Olympics medallists. As a training exercise, a rabbit run has many useful purposes. Fundamentally is a test of boat speed allowing boat set-up and technique to be refined in different conditions. It is also a test of concentration as a momentary lapse will see you drop out of line. For less experienced sailors, it teaches you about wind shifts as the angle between boats above and below changes but (and this is sometimes under-rated) even for the most experienced sailors it allows you to assimilate and recognise for future use subtle wind changes and patterns (the so-called intuitive feel for the wind that is actually learned). You also develop the refined trade-off between speed and height in response to specific types of wave and sea condition – developing the “feel” needed to sail fast.

Thinking about recent rabbit runs, my first thought turns to the post lockdown period when organised sailing was not yet allowed and we had more than 20 ILCAs on the water at Queen Mary doing spontaneous rabbit run races in the glorious weather – it felt like some sort of relief. And this year prior to the Master Worlds in Mexico I did a couple of sessions with my friend Orlando Gledhill where we simply lined up together and sailed upwind as if on a rabbit run. These runs are intense and become like a duel, and that’s why rabbit runs become so compelling – no one wants to drop out of the line! It’s why it works for any two sailors of comparable standard in any stretch of water around the country. Then we arrived in Mexico, the 8 GBR sailors where lucky enough to have Micky Beckett as our coach and guess what - we spent two days before doing rabbit runs, refining our approach to wind and wave conditions, with expert input from Micky.

Of course, there’s a load of variations from runs that just finish after 5mins or others that turn into a race to a windward mark. You can try different settings or practice holding your height or footing – the options are endless.

So my message to anyone out there who wants to improve, get out on the water with a couple of mates and do some rabbit runs!

All the best

Mark

Join UKLA here

Check our UKLA website and calendar of events