News
Dinghy Show 2022
Thanks to all who stopped by to say hi at the dinghy show.
Our amazing coaches Ali Young and Shaun Priestly spent considerable amount of time chatting about the training we deliver and plans for this year.
The entire team was very busy throughout the weekend chatting about the class, boat set up and events across the country.
Max was on site showing off his superb Southeast Sailboats set up and Stick kept visitors both entertained and fit with the wheel of fortune. I have never seen anyone queue and fight to win a chance to do burpees or press-ups!
The winner of UKLA training weekend is Zach Aziz! Hopefully you are reading this! Please get in touch with us to claim your free weekend of best quality coaching.
Simon Morgan from Wildwind Holidays personally came to draw the winner of Grand Prix participation prize! Gary Bullock from Maidenhead Sailing Club grabbed the prize with 6 participation tickets. More events you enter equals more chances of winning! Well done Gary - we hope you have a great time in Greece - send us some snaps!
Wildwind has been running sailing holidays in Greece for over 30 years now and are well established. If you are looking to sail somewhere more sunny to UK - this is a place to go.
Next chance to win a holiday is at Masters Nationals.
We also had a chance to catch up with the Andrew Simpson Foundation team and summarise our year long efforts of fundraising for them.
We raised an amazing £12,939!!
and you can read about your contribution here
On behalf of UKLA and the Andrew Simpson Foundation we thank you for all your donations.
OPEN AND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2022
@Georgie Altham
We’re all very excited about the National Championships 2022 - held this year at Hayling Island 18th- 22nd July.
Our Nationals dedicated page is up and running and we will be adding information on regular basis so be sure to check it out from time to time.
Entries will open within the next few weeks - we are just finalising the Notice of Race.
Plan to join us on Sunday 17th July for our Welcome Evening where we’ll be meeting and greeting visitors from across the British Isles and further afield.
You will have the opportunity to learn about the expected Hayling conditions and tides from Race Officer and Hayling expert Tim Hancock. You can order a meal in advance or enjoy a drink overlooking the sea… perhaps with some live music to accompany.
We plan to have two races per day from the Monday to Friday. Hayling has some of the best sailing waters in the UK - look out for those beautiful WAVES - so is a great place to race, and we’re really pleased to have the Nationals here again!
Off the water there’ll be the (possibly a bit mad!) Quiz, courtesy of Neil Peters, Sports Night, Gala Dinner, Daily Prize Giving with Q&As, Race Clinics, Mentor/Mentee Scheme, The Hike Off Challenge, Hayling Chaser, Live Music, BBQ, Prize Draws- lots of prizes to be won etc etc…
Put the dates in your diary, come along and get involved in what is sure to be a memorable event!
ILCA 6 Youth Summer Team - Youth Performance Squads
Apply for RYA British Youth Sailing Activity!
@LotteJohnsonFilm
Racing Squads Applications for Summer Teams 2022 are open until 13th April 2022
The RYA UK Youth programme, British Youth Sailing (BYS), is designed to enable the best British sailors to develop their racing skills so that they can succeed on the international stage. It is aimed at sailors with the potential for world-class performance.
Read more about Youth Performance Squads and check out the RYA Performance Pathway Handbook
Any current Youth Performance Squad Sailors will need to apply again for the Summer Team.
Best of luck to all sailors attending the RYA Youth Nationals this year!
#StandWithUkraine
Message from Jean-Luc Michon, EurILCA Chairman
The Executive Committee of EurILCA (European Region of ILCA) has launched this crowdfunding to support the 18 ILCA sailors from the ILCA Ukrainian team and their coaches.
Those 18 Ukrainian sailors were outside of Ukraine, training or racing, when the war started. They can’t go back home as most of them are from Kiev or Odessa. They are looking desperately for help and support in order to keep sailing and competing.
EurILCA is the organization in Europe who is in charge of organizing the European championships, Europa Cup and EurILCA Master series for ILCA dinghy. The association unites 42 European districts and coordinates the development of sailing in the ILCA Class.
On the side of the EurILCA (European Region of ILCA) we are giving our best to support them and have hosted those sailors under our solidarity program and we will support them financially as much as we can.
The money we are collecting will solely go to the ILCA Ukrainian Team to support traveling, training and racing.
EurILCA is collecting the money and will reverse it to the members of the team in coordination with Sofia Naumenko, ILCA 6 sailor.
EurILCA is an establish Sport Association in Geneva (Switzerland) and the accounts of the EurILCA are audited every year by 2 auditors who report to the European annual general assembly who is voting the accounts.
We expect your generosity to support the Ukrainian ILCA team. Please share with your district members,
Thank you very much. Jean-Luc Michon, EurILCA Chairman
Investing in our sailors
UKLA to invest £25,000 in sailing in 2022
The last 2 years have been difficult to forecast financially, as we didn’t know what the impact of the pandemic on membership and events would be. As things have stabilised, we have agreed a budget for 2022 that includes investing more than £25,000 in sailing. We are able to do this because membership actually increased through the pandemic and because of the ongoing support of the RYA and our sponsors, especially Noble Marine and Vaikobi.
@LotteJohnsonFilm
We will invest by running events and training at below their cost to us to give members access to even greater value sailing.
Our plan is to spend the £25,000 as follows:
Grand Prix Circuit (£5,000) – new for this year, we will be contributing to the prize fund for each of the regional circuits. Richard Mason, our new National GP Co-Ordinator also has a fund to be used to pay for coaches for 21 days of club level training. Watch for more information on how clubs can access for this funding.
Super Grand Prix (£4,500) – Super Grand Prix bring together coaching on a Saturday with racing on a Sunday. UKLA will fund up to 4 coaches at each of the planned SGPs. This means that the only cost to members for the coaching will be the fees charged by the club.
Qualifiers, Inlands and Masters (£7,000) – The most significant cost of running these events is the fees that we pay to the organising venue. We will aim to run the events at below the cost being charged to us to give great racing at the lowest entry fees.
Open training (£4,000) – making some of the best training available at the lowest cost we can by covering some of the coaching costs.
Nationals (£3,500) – We will continue to develop the racing and social sides of the Nationals whilst keeping the entry fees low.
Yearbook (£1,500) – historically, we produced 4 editions of Gybe a year. The move to an annual Yearbook and covering much of the production and distribution costs with advertising is helping us invest more in training and events.
Steve Taylor
UKLA Treasurer
Get in touch if you have any questions
@LotteJohnsonFilm
Masters News
@LotteJohnsonFilm
Masters Inland Nationals 16 - 17 April 22
Sign up now for the first Masters event of the season. Early entry closes on 31 March 22. Late entry closes 13 April 22.
Chew has a big ILCA fleet, so come and see how you fare against the locals. The event is over Easter weekend, so why not bring the family and make a holiday of it. The surrounding area is lovely.
Masters Training 10 - 11 June 22 - Stokes Bay Sailing Club
Masters specific training at the 2022 Masters Nationals Venue. There will be one day and two day options for this training. Limited places. Entry opening soon.
Masters Nationals 1 - 3 July 22 - Stokes Bay Sailing Club
Entry to the Masters Nationals and EuroMaster opens 01 April.
Masters Europeans 7 - 13 October 22 - L’Escala, Spain
The EurILCA Master European Championships at L'Escala, Spain entry opens on 1st April. This town is on the opposite side of Roses Bay to the town of Roses which has always been a favourite across the Master sailors. Event dates 7 October to 13 October 2022. Check out the link below.
Northern and Southern Area Championships
For the first time in a long time the UKLA is organising Area Championships - we felt the need to have some more big ILCA events in the summer.
The Northern Area Championships are to be held at South Shields Sailing Club on 14/15 May..
The Southern Area Championships will be combined with the Super Grand Prix at Paignton Sailing Club on 9/10 July.
We’re also planning Welsh and Eastern Area Championships, tbc.
Expect great racing, great prizes, and great socials!
Grand Prix 2022
National Grand Prix Circuit - GP events
Hello everyone!
My name is Richard Mason.
I hope we are all looking forward to a great year of sailing! I have undertaken the role of the national coordinator to pull together all open meetings across the country (called GP events)
The GP events are one day events of racing, usually Sundays - great fun and everyone is made to feel very welcome. So why not try a few and come along and enjoy. If in doubt of what happens contact me.
Rutland 2021
So that leads me to tell the story of my first GP event in 2021 (2022 to follow in next edition!)
Many people think all ILCA sailors are fit young people who sail hard, but the real story is that many are just people like me who just love class racing.
My first event of last year was at the great lake of Rutland - first time in proper wind that year for me - a good 25mph.
All changed, entered, listened to the briefing, and a long run down to the dam wall ( 1.4 miles) for the start. Having not sailed much, I did not risk a run, so I broad reached across the lake a few time times, granny tacked when I got to the bank and planed all the way down the lake.
Getting to the start area with a huge smile on my face, the flags were up and start sequence was well under way…
…only about 50 seconds to go to the start!
Captions please…
I went along the line found a big gap and looked at the watch 10 seconds …yipppeee sheet in, sit out and hope its my day ……there we go, clear start everyone away.
I sheet in, sit on the side to look up at the sail and……what no battens!!?????…..
After a long sail to the club and back, I did make the other races……
We have a few new events this year as well hopefully let you know about these in the next few issues.
PS if you want to organise a region please get in touch …your class needs you!
Super Grand Prix Events 2022
As well as GP events look out for the Super Grand Prix (SGP) events - fun weekends aimed at all levels -Club sailors come along and learn from top coaches on the Saturday, have a fun meal/social Saturday night, and have some great class racing on the Sunday.
This year there are four SGP’s in the North and one in the South -
South:
Paignton July 9/10. (Also the Southern Area Championships.)
North:
Carsington SC 25/26 June Richard Mason
St Mary's Scotland August 27/28 Myles Ripley/Mark Jones
Pennine 24/25 September Dominic Barnes
Burton 8/9 October Richard Mason
Now some info about my own region - Midlands Grand Prix Region
Well, hopefully it’s going to be a great season in 2022! The sun is shining and there’s a nice breeze as I type…
The Midlands events are all up and running so come along and enjoy some great class racing.
There is a brill events page on the UKLA web site with the dates of each event on it.
Click here for the Midlands Web Page
Also has some information on it as does the Facebook group
The season started with a great welcome at Shustoke SC with everyone being made to feel welcome and some fantastic racing. As with all racing on the Midlands region the handicaps for ILCA 4, 6 and 7 were used and the event was won by an ILCA 6 sailed by George Faraday from Bartley SC.
So, no matter what your age or skill level come and join the circuit and enjoy some of the best fleet racing there is.
Book a date …SUPER GRAND PRIX (SGP)
This is posh talk for a weekend of fun, coaching and racing…
Carsington sailing club June 25th and 26th with top class coach Tim Hulse booked for training. A great social Saturday night and racing Sunday. Limited numbers are available for Saturday so when the booking opens secure your place. Of course you’re welcome just to turn up Sunday and race.
A huge thanks goes to Joe Scurrah for helping out this year. So, be kind to him as we are all volunteer workers in this. He is a sailwave guru and is doing the results …
Happy smiley sailing days!
Richard Mason
National GP coordinator
grandprix@ilca.uk
Starting Tactics
Extract from Tactics to Win by Nick Craig
Tactics to Win
Being able to start consistently well in big fleets is a key skill for delivering a consistent series.
Starting is a process, albeit a relatively complex one. Like any process it can be perfected if each part of it is well practised. So it is easier to perfect starting than picking shifts or sailing fast downwind, which are more of an art rather than a process.
Conversely, starts are less important in smaller fleets and shiftier winds so the ability to start consistently well is a key factor in the transition from a leading club racer to championship contender.
SLOW SPEED BOAT HANDLING
Slow speed boat handling is the foundation for strong starting. It is a distinct skill; sailors can be fantastic at normal speed boat handling and many aspects of the sport but still weak at slow speed boat handling. However, it is an area few sailors practise.
Boats behave very differently at fast and slow speeds. At slow speeds, the foils start to stall or are completely stalling so that your boat becomes a very different and tricky beast. So practising controlling your boat at slow speeds is key to starting consistently well.
Being able to handle your boat effectively at slow speeds will enable you to generate space quickly on a start line, thus reducing the time available for anyone else to fill that critical space.
Stalling Foils
As your boat slows, the flow over your foils will eventually stall. Your boat then behaves totally differently.
Starting well is hard because everyone is sailing slowly with potentially stalling foils and boats which are difficult to handle. This is how start line pile-ups arise!
The key is to practise sailing your boat with both stalled foils and foils on the edge of stalling. You need to learn where that knife-edge of stalling foils is for your boat in all conditions.
You should aim to be able to stay on that knife-edge of stalling foils more effectively than your competition. By doing that, you can crucially creep towards the line more slowly than other boats in the last minute before the start and in control. This gives you more space to accelerate and more options.
You should also practise generating a gap to leeward as quickly as possible. This is achieved by being able to sail your boat up to head to wind and even slightly beyond head to wind, without losing control. While you have no rights if you point beyond head to wind, you can briefly do this to gain more space to leeward so long as you don’t infringe other boats. So being able to steer some big angles and manage that with aggressive but legal rudder use, heel and sail trim is a key skill. The precise combination of these three weapons (rudder, heel and sail trim) that is most effective varies by boat but can be learnt with practice.
In general, leeward heel will help keep your foils biting longer. In lighter winds, this generally means standing up rather than sitting comfortably on the sidedeck digesting your breakfast!
You should practise controlling your boat with stalled foils. So then, if you do slow down to the point that your foils stall, by accident or design, you can remain in control.
Exercises
An effective exercise for learning about your boat’s stalling foils is to stop by a mark and aim to stay within around a boat’s length of it for two minutes. You should vary that boat length gap depending on how easy your boat is to handle at low speeds, the wind strength and how experienced you are at this.
As part of that exercise, you should aim to be at as near to full speed as you can by the mark on the ‘start gun’. Being able to bring your boat up to speed, known as ‘pulling the trigger’, in as short space of time and distance as possible is a critical skill in a crowded start.
This isn’t the most exciting exercise, so trying this little but often works well to stave off boredom. Do this two or three times before racing every time you sail and you will quickly develop great slowspeed boat handling skills. You should line up next to the buoy at different angles to simulate both a starboard and port biased start line.
THE START PROCESS
1 Hour to 10 Minutes Pre-start
This is a key time because your information gathering during this period will determine your chances of getting the first beat right.
However, it is absolutely OK, and pretty common, not to know which way will pay up the first beat. Be honest with yourself about this as a rash decision that one way is favoured means that you are taking uncalculated risks which typically racks up points over a week.
If you are unsure, sail up the middle of the course relative to the fleet.
Your starting strategy is closely linked to your first beat plan so this information is doubly important. The table shows the 9 start scenarios:
You should overlay your attitude to risk for that race on your starting strategy, backing away from the ends or crowds if you are looking for a low-risk race. Starting at the ends is especially high risk because, if it all goes wrong, you may hit the committee boat or pin end or miss the line, whereas the cost of a poor start away from the ends is usually less.
You should also know your boat and your capability in it. Some boats are harder to handle in tight situations (e.g. skiffs). Quality pre-start boat handling requires practice. So if you are new to a boat, or rusty, you may back-off from tight spots at main events (but not training events!). If you are well practised in the boat you are sailing, you can be punchier with your starting plan.
In very light winds, it often pays to start at the ends, especially in big fleets. The wind has little energy so dirty air and the deflection of wind as it passes over the fleet is bigger, making the ends better places to start.
In light winds, it often pays to start at the ends in big fleets
You need to practise all these types of starts in your training events so you become 100% comfortable with every type of start in all situations (light winds, windy, tidal etc.). This is a key set of skills to enable big fleet consistency so you can deliver great starts in all situations rather than the occasional great start and then weaker starts in your unfavoured scenarios which leads to inconsistent results.
You will know which of these starting types you relish and which you approach with slight trepidation. You should put yourself out your comfort zone at training events, challenging yourself to pull off great starts in your weaker areas. Also start in the pack at training events to improve your ability to pull off the really tough starts. It is rare that there is lots of space in a big fleet start so, by pushing yourself to start in the pack at smaller events, you can simulate big fleet starts all year round rather than just a few times a year. This will massively accelerate your learning curve.
10 Minutes to 5 Minutes Pre-start
Once you have gathered all your information about the racetrack for the day, it is time to check transits and line bias. Whilst doing this, you should remain aware of anything that may change your first beat plan, especially the windshift and gust pattern. So, keep your head out the boat and looking up the racecourse whilst performing these transits and line bias checks.
Getting transits
It is rare that there is a perfect transit on the shore in line with the start line. If there isn’t, this should not be a concern. You should aim to have two or three 3 transits at either end of the line: ideally, one for when you are over the line, one on and one behind. And, if you can, develop a picture of what you see in between them. This typically means having a look down the line several times so you can form a map of the start line geography in your head, at both ends if possible. In the reality of the last seconds before the start on a crowded start line, it is rare that you will find you’re on a line transit, but just a glimpse of what you can recall on the landscape can give you the confidence to take a crucial jump on the fleet.
If there are no transits this is, in many ways, a great opportunity for a flying start! No one else will have a transit so there is typically a lot of line sag. This presents the chance to make a jump on the fleet away from the ends if that fits with your first beat plan. There is typically more line sag on longer start lines, lower quality fleets and where there is more adverse tide and wind or waves. So be comfortable taking a jump on the fleet if those factors are in play.
5 Minutes to 1 Minute (or sooner depending on the boat) Pre-start
During this period, you should still very much keep your head out the boat and be aware of any changes in wind across the course or signs of change from the clouds. Consider the impact of any changes on your starting plans both in terms of line bias and which way may pay up the first beat.
As you move towards a minute (or sooner with a densely-populated start line), you should find space in the area that you would like to start. You should remain flexible. For example, if the line is starboard biased but you want a low-risk start, this generally means starting away from the committee boat. However, if everyone is doing that, there is sometimes lots of room at the committee boat. That often happens early in a series when most boats are looking to de-risk their starts.
Starting in as much space as possible reduces the damage of a sub-standard start. With fewer boats around you, there is much more likely to be room to tack or sail free and find a lane than if you are starting in a pack.
Choosing who you line up near is very important. Ideally you should line up near boats that you know you can outpace. However, you should avoid lining up next to someone who might be out of control. Whilst an out-of-control boat may be penalised with a 720⁰ penalty, an incident just before the start can ruin your start no matter how right you are!
Starting next to an in-control, but slower, boat gives you a strong chance of gaining a crucial early lane and also starting worry free. By the same token, it is very powerful to gain a reputation for being fast and difficult to start near (so others avoid starting near you). This is worth cultivating at training events.
The Final Minute Pre-start
You should be seeking to line up bow down of the boats around you i.e. further back from the start line than the boats around you with your bow just overlapped with the front row to keep your ‘starting slot’.
Ideally position yourself slightly further back from the boats around you with 30 seconds to go
By lining up down versus other boats, you are highly unlikely to be black flagged or put your sail number in the race officer’s head. Lining up bow down also means that you have more space to accelerate into before hitting the start line than the boats around you. So you can sheet in before everyone else and hit the start line with more speed. Also, lining up bow down means that you don’t reveal where your transits are.
On a port-biased line, when you sheet in on starboard you make less distance towards the line than on a starboard-biased line. So you can typically sheet in earlier on a port-biased start line.
You should reveal your transit as late as possible. So, ideally, you should sheet in and accelerate once and not have to slow down again, whilst using up every inch of your transit. Not easy! Judging time and distance is key for this. Spending some time pre-start understanding your speed of travel versus your transits can be a helpful exercise, especially in tide.
Lining up bow down is potentially a risky starting strategy because, if you don’t sheet in before the boats around you, they will roll you.
The key to making this work is confidence in your transits and the time and distance it takes to reach those transits. If you are 100% confident in both, anyone who sheets in before you will be OCS so it is unlikely that anyone will do that. If you are not fully confident in your transits or time and distance to the start line, you should de-risk by lining up further forward on the boats around you.
If you aren’t 100% confident in your transits, line up further forward
You should create space to leeward as late as possible to reduce the risk of the lovely gap that you have hopefully created being filled by a latecomer. Being able to create that gap quickly is a key benefit of practising your slow speed boat handling.
With a starboard-biased start line, you are looking for a gap to leeward as it is going to take some time to get your bow forward on your opposition so that you have enough room to tack. You are going to have to live with the lane you created pre-start for some time, so a gap to leeward is important.
In lighter winds, you should aim to create a bigger gap to leeward as acceleration from near stationary to full speed takes longer.
In the last minute, you need to be highly aware of boats potentially coming in and filling your gap to leeward. In a 2-man boat, the helm should be more visually focused to leeward as a fast reaction is needed to stop a boat filling your gap to leeward. The crew should then be more focused on looking to windward for transits and cover.
To prevent someone filling your lovely leeward gap, you need to temporarily fill the gap before they arrive. This will generally deter the gap filler and they will sail along the line and seek an easier gap. You should fill the gap by bearing off hard so that your boat spins 90⁰ which fills the gap more effectively. You should bear off ‘badly’ such that you move forward as little as possible so not losing too much of your gap to leeward. A bad bear off uses lots of rudder to slow you down. To do this, use heel and sail trim to fight the turn so you need to use more rudder to turn (i.e. leeward heel and main sheeted in and jib eased as you bear off). As soon as the boat potentially filling your gap has headed on their way, you should luff back up hard and use the momentum from your bear off to claw back some distance to windward so re-creating your gap to leeward. All of these moves are difficult and need practice in training time.
To protect your leeward gap, bear away sharply
And then luff up hard to claw back some distance to windward
If you find yourself in a pile-up, or even just a crowd, from which a good start looks challenging, be quick to escape and find space if you see there is more space elsewhere.
With a port-biased start line, you are generally looking to tack early to consolidate a hopefully strong start. To do this, a gap to windward is needed. So create a gap to leeward in the prestart period and then sheet in really early to use up that gap and create a gap to windward on the starting signal. This gives you the room to tack early. If you don’t envisage that you will be able to tack quickly, you also need to leave some gap to leeward so you can maintain a lane out the start. This is a very hard start to pull off, but potentially very rewarding as not many boats will manage it. If you can make room to be one of the first to tack out, you are probably laughing your way to at least a top 5 placing at the windward mark!
You should review how often you are OCS. If this is rare, especially at training events, you should be pushing your starts harder.
As you accelerate for the start, in order to ideally hit the line at full speed on the start gun, ensure that you use heel and sail trim to accelerate. This will maximise acceleration and hopefully give an edge on the boats around you. Your bear off to accelerate should be initiated with windward heel and early jib trim. You should then straighten your course and then luff with leeward heel and fast main trimming.
There is a lot going on during this last minute, but you also need to keep your head out the boat and stay observant, especially in shifty unstable breezes. You may need to change your plan quickly and move up or down the line if you see new pressure or a shift coming. This is a key role of a top crew.
The First Minute Post-start
Gains in the first minute of the race are massively magnified as you move through the race as the early leaders benefit from clear air, clear water and control of their race plan. So hiking at your absolute hardest as soon as there is wind on for at least the first minute, or until you poke your bow out from the pack, is very rewarding. Sprint hiking and trimming hard for 10 seconds can work to nudge your nose out. Sprint hiking is when you hike to your absolute maximum for a burst and then rest up a little to let the blood flow back through your legs. In light winds, all the smooth steering and movement you have practised (see Helming to Win) should give you the confidence to relax and sail fast.
In this first minute, you should drive home your first beat strategy:
• If your plan is to go left then, if there is space, sail a little lower on starboard than usual.
• If you are unsure which way will pay and find you are to the left of the fleet, sail a bit higher or tack on the next small shift or gap.
• If you are looking to head right, you should tack early or proactively find a lane to tack by sailing high to force the boats above you to tack, or if your start was not so good, look for a gap to tack and duck transoms.
You should sail high or low using your rig set-up and heel rather than pulling on your rudder too much:
• To sail high: a touch of leeward heel, more sheet tension and kicker, draft back on sails. Consistency of heel maintains flow over your foils so, if you do need to sail with heel, aim to keep the amount of heel stable. Leeward heel adds bite to your foils so you are less likely to slip sideways which can be very helpful – for example, if you are trying to live in a leebow situation where you might be pinching and therefore slowed, giving an increased risk of slipping sideways.
• To sail low: dead flat, more forgiving leeches and draft forward.
You should weigh up making these potential adjustments versus the distance lost whilst making them. Adjusting heel and sheet tension is easy and generally loses no distance. Adjusting kicker and draft may take more time and lose distance if you have to move in from hiking or lose precision of steering to make the adjustments. You should work on being able to make adjustments with minimal distance loss. A top crew can make these adjustments whilst the helm keeps their head out the boat and in rhythm with the windshifts – Alan Roberts is outstanding at this in a Merlin.
You should always stay positive about a poor start line as they present a great opportunity! A biased, short and congested start line means that only a few boats will get a decent start. Make sure you are one of them!
© Not to be reproduced without written permission from Fernhurst Books Limited.
Multi-champion Nick Craig is author of the amazing book Tactics to Win which gives you some understanding of why he’s won so many championships.
To get more of Nick Craig’s top tips, Tactics to Win can be bought here (https://fernhurstbooks.com/books/permalink/10/tactics_to_win). People who sign up to Fernhurst Books’ newsletter can get 25% off.
Spring Qualifiers Summary
@Giles Smith Photo UK
Massive thanks go to all staff and volunteers that make our events happen and of course to all sailors and supporters for attending.
A special thank you goes to our PRO Paul Jackson for leading a great Race Team and delivering some fantastic sailing in often challenging conditions.
We hope that you continue to enjoy what we organise and are looking forward to more events lined up for this season.
You can have influence on how/where we run UKLA events - take a short survey and let us know your thoughts.
Here are the links to the first two Q Reports, and the Jon Emmett interviews, in case you missed them:
Q1 STOKES BAY
Jon Emmett’s Interview with winners Ben Elvin and James Percival-Cooke
Q2 WPNSA
Jon Emmett’s Interview with winners Max Steele, Sam Whaley and Seb Kemp
Q3 WPNSA
Jon Emmett’s Interview with winners Sam Whaley, Hannah Snellgrove and Fred Salter
New Podcasts!
The latest episode of an Hour with Flower is now out - this time Ben chats to top ILCA 6 sailor and Olympic Coach, Jon Emmett.
@Sam Pearce
HISC Masters Training Report
by Zoe McCaig
We all arrived at Hayling island first thing on Saturday morning. My first views of the sea state made me a little nervous. Gusts over 30 mph were predicted and this sailing session was not going to be an easy one.
8 master sailors had the privilege of having James Royston and Jake Bowhay put them through their paces at the beautiful Hayling Island Sailing Club.
We started by having a briefing. Very early on the chat was about keeping in control and de-powering the boat in the gusty conditions. We had a quick demonstration from Jake and then we started to get ready to go out on the water. Once out on the water we started to do some upwind/downwind exercises and a few of us ended up taking a swim.
It became apparent very early on that the skill of the day was going to be getting control of the boat and holding on for dear life. After about 45 mins couple of us retired which left just the six of us. We proceeded to practice reaching and gybing, which weirdly I love. We then did some race practice.
The starts where difficult with the Tide and the gusty conditions but on the whole everyone did well. The upwind legs where cruel, especially if you are 5 ft 4 and not able to get your kicker on hard enough but the downwind legs where great fun in the gusts.
After what felt like a long time, over 3 hours, we called it quits. Most of us had given everything we had out on the water and it was time for a well earned drink and some dinner.
The debrief over dinner allowed us all to consider the areas we worked on and what we need to work on in the future. James and Jake also filmed aspects of the session so that we could review at our leisure. All in all, a fabulous training session.
As someone who is new to the Masters series, it was great to train with other Masters and I feel that I learnt a great deal throughout the day.
I will forever have James' voice in my head shouting "put your kicker on MORE". Something that I have already put into practice last weekend when racing at my club.
On behalf of the others who attended the session, I would like to thank Alison for arranging the session and, James and Jake for their excellent training.
Dinghy Show 2022
Come and join us at the Dinghy Show this year!
You can find us at stand A32 next to the RYA.
Highlights:
Saturday
11am - Train to success with UKLA. Tim Hulse, Shaun Priestley and Ali Young will talk about training plans for the year and ILCA4 support.
2pm - If you miss this, you can catch Ali again at 2pm for an hour - pop in to talk to her about Olympics, career, training or just come to say HI
Sunday
11am - Tim and/or Shaun will be back talking about what they know the best - training
12pm - Come and meet the man who delivers great racing at our events. PRO Paul Jackson aka PJ.
1pm - Richard Mason, our new national hero, I mean national Grand Prix co-ordinator, will be on site.
Throughout both days you can also get some great rigging tips from one of our sponsors Max @Southeast Sailboats , meet other members of the UKLA Team like lovely Alison (Masters), our Chairman Rob, Sailing Secretary Keith, Youth Rep Ben and other members of the association.
Stick will be spinning the wheel of fortune and you may be lucky to win some prizes!
Check out the RYA page
Grand Prix Circuit
After years of searching, long awaited, he is finally here… (drum roll)
UKLA National Grand Prix representative - Richard Mason!
Richard joined the UKLA team in January and is already making a lot of noise nationally. He will work with all regional Grand Prix representatives to make sure ILCA fleet racing happens across the country.
If you are a fleet captain at your local club or simply would like to host an event, please get in touch
You can meet Richard at the Dinghy Show. He will be there most of the Sunday, but you will definitely catch him at 1pm.
Spring Events
Booking open:
12-13/03/2022 - Noble Marine & Vaikobi Spring ILCA 6 & 7 - Qualifier Stokes Bay
Booking opens 09:00 19/02/2022
19-20/03/2022 - Noble Marine & Ovington Spring ILCA 4, 6 & 7 Qualifier 2 - WPNSA - Enter here
26-27/03/2022 - Noble Marine & SailingFast Spring ILCA 4, 6 & 7 Qualifier 3 - WPNSA
Handbook 2022 - Constitution and Class Rules
2022 Handbook has now been released.
You can download your PDF copy from the Equipment part of the website
If you wish wish to get a printed copy, they will be available for grabs at events later in the year.
Click to download
The Ultimate Sailing Holiday Job this summer?
If you are an excellent sailor, particularly one who likes sailing in high winds, perhaps you’d like to join the team at Wildwind in Greece this summer?
As you’ll already know from Wildwind’s continuing sponsorship of numerous ILCA events, Wildwind is an award winning dinghy and multihull sailing holiday company with a reputation unmatched throughout Europe – with the widest range of equipment, incredible sailing conditions and a staff that is dedicated to showing their guests the very best in the sport of sailing. Wildwind clients range from total beginners to Olympic medalists and come from all over the world for the Wildwind experience…there’s simply no place like it.
Unfortunately, one of the effects of Brexit is that it is extremely difficult for companies such as Wildwind to employ British youths and students abroad in Greece. Over the past thirty or so years Wildwind has been fortunate to have taken on board many young people who have perhaps come through the excellent RYA youth programmes, or have excellent racing experience. In fact, Wildwind lists among its staff alumni sailors such as Chris Draper (silver medalist Athens 2004 and Americas cup skipper) and David Graham current president of World sailing…
Until there is some sort of reciprocal arrangement agreed between the EU and the UK as regards employment companies such as Wildwind are only able to employ staff who have an EU passport (or can get one with dual nationality). If this is you, and you’d like to spend the summer working and sailing in one of Europe’s top sailing locations and with a great team, please do get in touch with Simon Morgan, Wildwind founder, in the first instance.
Incidentally you can also meet Simon at the RYA Dinghy Show at the ILCA stand on Saturday 26th Feb at 3pm where he will be making the draw for this year’s Wildwind/ILCA Grand Prix sponsored prize holiday!
Please write in the first instance to Simon@wildwind.co.uk with your CV and a covering letter about your qualifications. We are looking both for full season instructors from April 20th to October 10th and also for peak season (student) staff from June onwards.
Nationals 2022 - CONFIRMED
2022 UKLA Open National Championships
Following the cancellation of our planned nationals at Abersoch this year, we have been looking for an alternative venue. We hoped that Fishguard Bay Yacht Club in South Wales would be our destination, but sadly not this time.
The good news is that WPNSA and Hayling Island Sailing Club kindly agreed to step in and host our Nationals at short notice. After carefully looking at our options, Your committee has accepted the offer from HISC to host the 2022 Nationals.
We realise that whichever dates and we choose, our Nationals will clash with some international events - especially when the EurILCA and ILCA calendars are so crowded. There are no perfect dates for running the event and we settled for least clash.
The event will be over 5 days starting on Monday 18th July. All three fleets will have 2 races each day.
Hayling Island Sailing Club is a fantastic venue with plenty of experience in running big championships, including in recent years the Laser Worlds. See A Championsip Venue (hisc.co.uk) for details.
Assuming we get a similar attendance to the last couple of years, then we plan to run 2 course areas.
To do this, we will need plenty of volunteers onshore and on the water. If you can help, drop is a line at events@ilca.uk or volunteer through the portal. The following are some of the areas we will need help:
· Ribs for safety boats
· Help with the class rib
· On-shore help
· On the water help
HISC is an exciting venue and we look forward to a great championship.
We will keep updating the Championship website as we move on towards the event. If you have never sailed at the Nationals, check it out
2022 UKLA Events
Let’s start with a quick summary of 2021.
After a slow start to the season with cancellations, we eventually kicked off with the 50th Anniversary events in the south and rolled through calm waters of Stokes Bay, harbour and bay sailing at WPNSA, lakes in Scotland, waves at Pevensey, Grand Prix events across the country and all the way to the freaky conditions at Rutland with training still running through the winter. What a fantastic year we had in the end!
As we come to the end of 2021, it is time to start planning for 2022 season. Your UKLA have worked hard over the last few months to put some great events in the diary.
Following the cancellation of our nationals at Abersoch next year, we are busy working to find a new venue, we hope to make announcement ASAP.
UKLA Qualifiers 2022
Our 6 UKLA Qualifiers are now in the calendar, starting with our first event at Stokes Bay in March:
Below are the dates:
Spring
Q1 Stokes Bay SC 12/13 March 2022 – Only ILCA 6 & 7
Q2 WPNSA 19/20 March 2022 - All 3 Fleets
Q3 WPNSA 26/17 March 2022 – All 3 Fleets
Autumn
Q4 WPNSA 10/11 September 2022 – All 3 Fleets
Q5 Hayling Island SC 17/18 September – All 3 Fleets + Masters.
Q6 WPNSA 1/2 October 2022 - All 3 Fleets
Note: NEW dates for the autumn Qualifiers.
Southern and Northern Championships 2022
In addition to the main events above, we are organising a Southern and Northern Championships.
Northern Championship - 25-26th June - Tynemouth Sailing Club
Southern Championship - TBC - We are still waiting confirmation of a venue, but hope to have more news soon.
Finally, the list of Grand Prix events is growing in our calendar and we hope to have around 6 Super Grand Prix. The calendar is not fully confirmed yet, but you we hope for this to be finalised in January.
We are already looking at venues for 2023.
MASTERS NEWS - World Championships 2021 by Neil Peters (aka Stick Daring)
Barcelona has always held a fond place in my heart.
I spent six Finntastic months living there in 1991 competing in the Olympic trials. I was never a serious contender, but had a few moments of glory. So after a flawless Easyjet flight, aside from a little entry issue, due to Spanish customs and something to do with covid forms, an hour later and a lot of appalling Spanish, all was well. After this delay, I decided to save the stress and catch a cab, accepting the forty euro penalty versus the ten euro public transport cost. I needed to make a rendezvous time with the yacht owners, where I would be living on during the regatta.
Staying in the harbour for the week seemed ideal and worked out cheaper than a featureless hotel room. Quite romantic I thought!
When I climbed into the back of the taxi, I breathed a welcome sigh of relief, believing my journey was nearly over. It wasn’t until we had circled around the harbour three times that it occurred to me that perhaps we were in the wrong place. A call to the owners of the yacht confirmed indeed we were at the wrong harbour. The Barcelona International Sailing centre (BISC) was located at a new harbour in Port Forum many miles further out of town.
However, a new issue arose at this point. Having made contact with the yacht owners they explained I was expected tomorrow, and the boat wasn’t available tonight. It was 8pm local time. A new dilemma. The taxi driver was all for unloading me in the middle of the Olympic harbour miles from nowhere. I resisted his overtures and then directed him to drive me to BISC at the other harbour. Thinking that at least there would be an ILCA waiting for me there and, at worst, I could always bed down under the cover if I had nowhere else to stay. He punched in a postcode for the Sailing Centre I had hurriedly googled in the back of the cab. Twenty minutes later we arrived at the location.
A pitch black concrete promenade buried in the middle of the Port Forum harbour complex with nothing jumping out looking obviously sailing centre shaped. Mr Taxi definitely wanted shot of me as the meter ticked over 50 euros and again suggested I get out. A call to the centre prolonged his agony and after passing the phone back and forth several times to the driver and the sailing centre receptionist we arrived at a Fort Knox style barricade, which quite miraculously opened as we pulled up. I had made it. Unloading my bags I then passed nearly all the euros in my wallet to the cabby and wondered what to do next.
As I stood in front of the building, a host of blue flashing lights from the local Policia descended on me. Maybe my covid papers weren’t any good after all. I needn’t have worried. They were arriving to deal with a Vodka fuelled fight which had broken out between the Olympic sailors from the seniors worlds, which had just finished that day. Apparently the Russian and Croatian sailors had a clash and the Russians wanted the organisers to take action. It was a useful diversion and I slipped into the building to enquire if I could rent a room for the night. No problem! Fifteen minutes later I was drinking coffee and eating pasta in the restaurant. The Policia stayed long into the night as Russian coaches huffed and puffed backwards and forwards looking outraged.
The World ILCA Masters was an event, which had been delayed and pushed back in the calendar to November due to covid.
Sailing in Barcelona during this month is about the worst time of year you could possibly pick for an event at this venue. The water temperature is 18 degrees and the air temperature at midday; the scheduled race times is only slightly less. 5 knots is a windy day at this time of year unless you get out of bed at 6am. It took a few days for the race officers to have the confidence to do this.
The seniors had been starting racing at 9am every day the previous week to catch the cold dense Katabatic winds being sucked down off the freezing mountains surrounding Barcelona. Winds which whipped up large waves and disappeared almost precisely every day at midday as the sun finally cooked them.
Mike Hicks and I checking over the charter boats…
The practice race was sailed in 2 knots at midday, the first official days racing was a little more and a little less at times. Day three was even less resulting in no racing for the Ilca 7 fleet, but only because the race officer was facing a full scale on the water revolt from competitors when he dummied raising the first warning signal. We drifted two hours back home.
Day 4 and the regatta proper started with first start at the unearthly hour of 9am. A 6am rise in pitch black and near zero air temperatures. But plenty of wind. Serraphin, the Portuguese master sailor won the event for me as he ventured out in his Bermuda shorts, t-shirt and a life jacket. He had slightly more onboard ballast than most, I on the other hand had full winter gear including my round Britain woolly hat.
Racing was awesome. Large rolling waves, shifty, tricky flicky flacky wind but good pressure; maximum hiking, mostly blowing off the land. There were many high scores. The best sailors somehow kept plugging away and posting scoring results though at the end of day 4 some 35% of the ILCA 7 GM fleet were carrying a penalty, either Yellow flag, Black Flag, or DSQ. The Austrian Christoph Marsano completely blew his event with a UFD(42) and BFD in the first third of the event. He demonstrated staggeringly consistent speed, posting seven top four finishes, which coupled with his other low digit results probably would have been enough to claim victory. Other notable performances were coming from Robert Hallawell USA, who kept his nose clean and was consistently at the sharp end. Nick Harrison flying the GBR flag was still in with an outside chance of a medal going into the final days racing.
Results from the first three days ultimately made his task too great but he finished a very creditable 6 place. In the GGM fleet Mike Hicks and Tim Law were right at the pointy end of the fleet for the entire series, with Tim winning three races. A black flag possibly cost him second place overall, finishing 3rd behind two former Olympic Gold medal Finn sailors Jose Luis Doreste (ESP)and Wolfgang Gerz (GER) respectively.
Unusually, there was no representation for GBR in the Masters, and the Apprentice Masters divisions with Roger O Gorman choosing IRL as his flag. I made up the last of only four GBR representatives in the ILCA 7 fleet. My event was over on day one after contracting a bout of food poisoning which lasted for the first four days. I made it onto the water, but my focus was more concentrated on preventing bodily movements between tacks. Something I felt I had mastered quite well by day 4. I wasn’t aided much by the high gloss polished interiors of the charter boats, which had been buffed within an inch of their lives; making them treacherously slippery. Several other competitors experienced similar issues with one falling over quite badly and fracturing his ribs. I successfully avoided damaging any ribs but did build a high score of capsizes in the first three days, rolling around in no wind, 6 capsizes in three races to be precise, half as many as when I sailed around the entire UK. A conservative approach to the last two thirds of the regatta pulled me up from nearly last after 4 days to mid fleet and pleasingly no penalty points.
After a difficult start, the race management team pulled a rabbit out of the hat and ran a world class series. We completed all 12 of the scheduled races, 8 of these in great sailing conditions. The race officer, Jordie, took some really unpopular decisions to get the event completed. Getting a significant amount of stick from several of the visiting sailors for the ungodly early starts. Notably the Italian sailors sending a message stating
“ We are Masters, this is our holiday”.
Fortunately this objection fell on deaf ears. After the initial shock of rolling out of bed at 6am it actually proved to be a really great plan, as we had the best of both worlds. Great sailing in the morning in breeze and lovely lazy afternoons relaxing in the sun. Barcelona.
