ILCA UK Chair Blog #147

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 6 report

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 7 report

QM ILCA initiative has gone from zero to international in six months

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

Finally have you seen the tracking? Here are the links - ILCA UK National Open 1 ILCA UK National Open 2 James Foster did a nice debriefing of the racing using the tracking data, see here. ILCA7 briefing. ILCA4 briefing.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 7/7/25 Mark Lyttle 7/7/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #145

Nationals 2025 and race management….

Just a short blog today. At this time of season there is loads going on from club racing, Grands Prix through championships. Late entry kicks in on Wednesday for the National Championship. See links to both our calendar, the Nationals and other information below.

Snippets

ILCA UK Events

Visit our National Championship dedicated website Why not come and join us? Entries to UK Nationals

ILCA UK AGM

Volunteer at the Nationals - HERE

Skills Week South (More spaces available this week) & North - entries open

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Other news

2025 Welsh Championships

2025 ILCA UK Women’s Regatta

2025 ILCA4 Youth Europeans

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 6 report

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 7 report

QM ILCA initiative has gone from zero to international in six months

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 6/30/25 Mark Lyttle 6/30/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #144

Nationals 2025 and race management….

Our next big event is the ILCA UK National Championships in Pwllheli, where we do know we will be racing on a world class race track and of course ILCA UK will be doing our best to put on our usual “festival of sailing” where all are welcome. Late entry fee kicks after 8th July so please get your entry done in the next week. We are also looking for more volunteers - everyone is welcome to help included new parents and whether you are an experienced sailor or not. Also we have a couple of experienced, volunteer race official places and can cover expenses. We are also looking for a band to play one of the nights at Plas Heli! If you are coming and are musically inclined please let us know at hello@ilca.uk. In particular we are looking for a guitarist, drummer and singer. See our dedicated website here for all information on the event.

One of the things at the recent Master Europeans was how efficient our time on the water was. It wasn’t always like that. I remember in the eighties when we had two races a day over a weekend and at the end of the first race of the day we would stop on the water for lunch. The safety boat would hand out packed lunches – sandwich, drink and an apple or orange. These would be demolished quickly but then we had to wait for the committee boat to finish their lunch at rather more sedate pace ! Maybe I am being a bit unfair given the passage of time. In recent times, we treat dinghy racing as a sport, rather than a “day on the water”. I guess the start the 1996 Olympic cycle saw this accelerate with races of less than one hour on trapezoid courses. Two other things have changed the way we manage races – better forecasts and easier ways to communicate with sailors.

Better forecasts allow both competitors and race teams to manage time more efficiently. At yesterday’s ILCA Thames Valley ILCA GP / Open many sailors stayed away as the forecast never had the wind over 3 knots and the fleet never launched. I have no doubt if the wind has been like Saturday – 15knots in warm, sunny conditions many more would have turned out. These forecasts also allow organisers to plan ahead, especially for National events where lots of sailors are travelling – we have seen ILCA weekend events curtailed on Saturday after racing or indeed a decision on a Friday not to race till Sunday when too much wind is forecast. It also allows organisers to go for an early start – we tried earlier in the year (unsuccessfully it turned out) to race at 9am on Sunday at WPNSA to catch the best forecast wind. At Hayling for the Master Europeans, we did not launch until the sea breeze had fully established. Of course, all of this requires judgment and understanding of local conditions.

Communication with sailors is also key and this can be done easily with messaging platforms like WhatsApp. Putting up the postponement flag ashore maybe the traditional requirement but this now backed-up with the reasons why – what are the race team’s expectations and timing. This can be extended to explaining why racing is held in a certain area (tide, expected wind shift etc) and other racing decisions and can be done both before and after racing. This approach is certainly becoming prevalent, certainly at our regattas. After all, what we want is quality racing, done as efficiently as possible, rather than a nice “day on the water”. I ceetainly beleive the class is leading the way on this.

I also wanted to mention again the 2025 EurILCA Team Racing European Championship for four boat teams and will be sailed in ILCA 4 – two boys and two girls – in Greece in Dec 2025. There is currently no GBR team entered – if interested please go head and make and application.

Finally our Youth Series which is in full flight now with three regional events done with strong fleet numbers. Next one is part of the Welsh Championships (40 entries already) followed by the East region at Royal Harwich. Check out our calendar.

Snippets

ILCA UK Events

Visit our National Championship dedicated website Why not come and join us? Entries to UK Nationals

Volunteer at the Nationals - HERE

Welsh Championships - CLOSED

2025 Women’s Regatta at Rutland entries closed

Skills Week South (SOLD OUT) & North - entries open

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Other news

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 6 report

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 7 report

QM ILCA initiative has gone from zero to international in six months

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 6/23/25 Mark Lyttle 6/23/25

ILCA UK Chair blog #143

Many thanks to Ellie for last week’s blog - it was a great read - if you have not heard about Karen, you can find it here.

So what happens when you run a sailing event in warm, sunny weather and lovely sea breezes at a super sailing venue? Well, you get quotes like “best event I have been to for a long time”, “fantastic advertisement for the class”, “brilliant sponsors”, “privilege to be part of it” and “reaffirmed my belief and reignited my passion for sailing”. Of course the weather helps, but we waited ashore everyday until the sea breeze built and then arrived at the course with everything ready to go. No hanging around on the water. Overall super race management.

Ashore, Hayling Island Sailing Club hosted us superlatively. But it was also fun meeting old friends and new in a friendly atmosphere. As expected in a fleet with three Olympic gold medalists and multiple champions from through the years, competition was fierce but for the most part, masters have learnt to temper their competitive zeal with some “give and take” and friendly banter which ensures that all sailors, no matter their level of experience, can compete together.

Although this was an EurILCA and Hayling Island event, ILCA UK played no small part in ensuring its success. With Alan Davis and the author working closely with the club on the original bid, through to the work Alan, Guy Noble and Ellie did in particular in supporting the club both before and during the event, it was a tremendous team effort.

Well done to all the volunteers and the staff at Hayling and of course to all the sailors.

Meanwhile, our younger part of the fleet, ILCA 4 sailors, continue racing at the ILCA 4 Youth European Championships in Poland - read here

Our next big event is the ILCA UK National Championships and while there is no guarantee of warm, sunny weather in Pwllheli, we do know we will be racing on a world class race track and of course ILCA UK will be doing our best to put on our usual “festival of sailing” where all are welcome. Two weeks to enter before the late entry fee kicks in. See our dedicated website here.

Finally, I wanted to mention our Youth Series which is in full flight now with three regional events done with strong fleet numbers. Next one is part of the Welsh Championships (40 entries already) followed by the East region at Royal Harwich. Check out our calendar.

Snippets

ILCA UK Events

Visit our National Championship dedicated website Why not come and join us? Entries to UK Nationals

Volunteer at the Nationals - HERE

Welsh Championships - Enter or volunteer through the entry page

2025 Women’s Regatta at Rutland entries closed

Skills Week South (SOLD OUT) & North - entries open

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Other news

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 6 report

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 7 report

QM ILCA initiative has gone from zero to international in six months

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Ellie Ratusniak 6/16/25 Ellie Ratusniak 6/16/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog # 142

Be like Karen!

Whilst Mark’s focus this week is on winning the European Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club (HISC), I’m filling in his blog this week.

I am here to, volunteering on the water in a rib with Chris the safety lead. It’s really not hard to become a volunteer. You should try it! You just need to be in a wrong place at a right time! Just like Karen…

Karen is not a sailor, and she has never been to a sailing event before but that all changed when she met her new boyfriend John. So in 2024 at the National in Weymouth the sailing committee were short of a boat crew on one of the courses run by our lively vice chair Neil Collingridge, and she answered the call for help. Little she knew it would be so much fun that it would keep her coming back for more!

Fast forward one year, she is also at HISC (yes), with the same boyfriend, throwing herself into the centre of action.

I took this opportunity to talk to her to find out why… just why did she like it so much?! Here is her story:

“I just wanted to find out what it was all about” – they said no experience necessary, so I thought, “why not?! At least I will get to see what this sailing is about – and it turned out to be much better than sitting on the shore.”

Inspired by the first experience of volunteering, she then went to volunteer at John’s local club Grafham. She assisted the local race officer running the club racing. “A bit of everything - from starting to finishing – the whole SHEBANG!” Another enjoyable experience.

She is a willing volunteer at every event she goes to – sometimes she can get a slot, sometimes she needs to think outside the box to be on the water. At the Masters event at Parkstone, she “only” managed to get on the “water taxi” taking sailors to their yachts, but ended up assisting an ILCA sailor anyway.

Rewind to last week’s Master Nationals at HISC, being on safety, she had a pleasure of meeting the eldest sailor in the ILCA 6 fleet – Claude. Straight from Paris, at 90 years young, Claude speaks very little English, and when he was asked not to sail through the Bar, he went straight for it! Finishing his day with a big “ooh la la!” on shore.

So where does it all go… you don’t need to be a sailor or have much knowledge in this department to have fun on the water. In fact, Karen also volunteers at her local football club (Real Bedford) and guess what? She doesn’t play football either!

Volunteering is rewarding and you meet new friends whilst doing something worthwhile and having fun at the same time! You just never know how this may change your life path… Karen would now like to have a PB licence so she can get a bit more out of this. Learn a new skill!

Be like Karen!

Check out our calendar and volunteer, find something for yourself as its not the same for everyone. You can be 18 or 81 – there are various opportunities available from being on shore organising a band for the social or crewing on a safety boat! Dive in though the below links.

Ellie

Snippets

ILCA UK Events

Visit our National Championship dedicated website Why not come and join us? Entries to UK Nationals

Volunteer at the Nationals - HERE

Welsh Championships - Enter or volunteer through the entry page

2025 Women’s Regatta at Rutland entries open

Skills Week South (SOLD OUT) & North - entries open

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Other news

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 6 report

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 7 report

QM ILCA initiative has gone from zero to international in six months

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 6/12/25 Mark Lyttle 6/12/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog # 141

Masters Nationals

I thought I would share some observations on the ILCA UK Masters National Championship just finished on Monday, as we head into the Suzuki European Masters Championship. We had around 120 entries and were treated to 8 races in moderate to strong winds and big waves, hosted superbly by Hayling Island Sailing Club. I would say mostly a boat speed event but also lots of persistent shifts that were hard to predict. Great sailing! You will see various reports on social media (links below) and of course can analyse all the races on TracTrac but as I move towards the end of my fifth decade of Laser /ILCA sailing, I wanted to reflect more broadly on Masters sailing.

Firstly, as you all know, sailing is a sport for life. As a teenager, through my university years and beyond, it was all about improving, both technique and race strategy and tactics and little did I know it was also about making friends and acquaintances that I would still know and meet again decades later. At my first Masters Worlds in 2018 in Dun Laoghaire, my Laser was in the boat park beside Arnoud Hummel from the Netherlands. I had raced against him in the early eighties as a 20-year-old although he would not have known that as he was “one of the stars” at the front and I was decidedly learning my trade mid-fleet. So it was lovely to chat about those days and events and also to race together again 40 years later (in closer proximity this time!).

The waves in Hayling Bay provided for exciting (and maybe scary at times) that many sailors enjoyed but each has a focus on their own performance – having a good race or two, getting around the course without capsizing in the big waves or finishing ahead of friends and club mates. Putting yourself out there and feeling the reward based on your own benchmark. Of course, ILCA racing has the added benefit of keeping us fit, as well as being good for our mental health.

The terrific thing about ILCA sailing is that you can keep doing it, even as you get older. Sure, you notice a few subtle changes – a few more bruises trying to get back into the boat after a capsize, a bit more stiffness after racing (I definitely need to do more stretching now) and maybe not quite a quick as before. But it’s about staying the journey. That’s why the real champion this weekend was the oldest competitor, at 90 years of age. How impressive is that! Could I have really be almost another three decades of ILCA sailing? Who knows but I am going to enjoy the journey while I can.

Snippets

ILCA UK Events

Visit our National Championship dedicated website Why not come and join us? Entries to UK Nationals

Scottish Championships - This weekend!

Welsh Championships - entries open

2025 Women’s Regatta at Rutland entries open

Skills Week South & North - OPENS MONDAY 9th June

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Other news

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 6 report

2025 ILCAUK Masters Nationals at Hayling Island Sailing Club - ILCA 7 report

QM ILCA initiative has gone from zero to international in six months

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 6/2/25 Mark Lyttle 6/2/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog # 140

Nationals…

Volunteers on the finish boat -come and join them

Over the last couple of years ILCA UK have focussed on turning our National Championship into a “festival of sailing”, attracting sailors of all levels, ages and regions to the event with high quality racing combined with lots of onshore activities and social events. This formula has worked well with over 250 entries coming in recent years across our three rigs of ILCA4, ILCA6 and ILCA7. We aim to provide world class racing at great venues on two separate racecourses. As well as daily briefings on local conditions, we have daily morning race clinics from top sailors ensuring every sailor feels welcome. We cover set up/rigging to boat speed down wind, from pre-race strategy to wave technique. A great opportunity to listen to our best sailors, see what they do differently, and ask them questions. We also have a mentor/ mentee scheme which is a great way to meet fellow sailors and get some sailing tips and encouragement.

Ashore we provide a sailor’s hub with sponsor tents with chillout zone including table football and table tennis. There is a daily prize draw with the support of our sponsors where sailors and volunteers win prizes. Much of this was made possible by our great sponsors (Noble Marine, Ovington, Rooster, sailingfast, Tideway Wealth, Southeast Sailboats and Fenhurst Books), with the class working closely with them to ensure we promote and encourage grass roots sailing by providing support throughout the fleet through spot prizes. After sailing each day, there is a pasta snack and this year will have a Hog roast evening with entertainment.

Our festival of sailing aims to be inclusive, typically with sailors in their teenage years through to those in their seventies. All rigs and age categories have prizes for both men and women. We want all three rigs, ILCA4, ILCA6 and ILCA7 at our events so younger sailors interact with older sailors and but allow family groups to compete in the same championship.

We also work hard to promote our championship with a dedicated website and a special logo for the event

Our volunteer base is something to be proud of. We welcome a diverse group on volunteers with no sailing experience or lots of sailing experience.

Visit our Championship dedicated website

Why not come and join us? Entries to UK Nationals

Snippets

ILCA UK Events

Entries to Masters Nationals - CLOSES ON WEDNESDAY 4th June

Scottish Championships - This weekend!

Welsh Championships - entries open

2025 Women’s Regatta at Rutland entries open

Skills Week South & North - OPENS MONDAY 9th June

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Other news

QM ILCA initiative has gone from zero to international in six months

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 5/27/25 Mark Lyttle 5/27/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #139

numbers….

I recently saw an article on declining open meeting numbers and how some classes are bucking that trend but no mention of ILCAs. So, I thought I would fill you in with some numbers.

At our National Opens in March 2025 at WPNSA we had entries of 190 and 160 (there were a couple of dropouts on the day) with the ILCA6s on the first weekend having to be split into two fleets

At the Masters Open in Parkstone in May 2025 we had 84 ILCAs sailing including four sailors over 75 years of age

At our first Youth Series Open at Datchet in February 2025 we had 74 youths across ILCA4s and ILCA6s

Our National Championships in 2024 had around 250 entries, in fact “our festival of sailing” approach has attracted that number for three years in a row

Already two clubs have run Women ILCA training supported by ILCA UK, both sold out, with more clubs lining up

We continue to have around 1,000 members.

Internationally the class is booming as well. Clearly this will be true for the “pros” competing in the two Olympic events, but the Masters Worlds in Italy already has 495 entries – almost unbelievable. Meanwhile the ILCA4 Worlds in Portugal in 2024 had over 650 applications which was restricted in the end to 425 sailors from 51 countries.

I think these numbers show a class (or a community) bucking the trend. Of course, events are going to be more or less popular depending on location and time of year but ILCA UK continues to be focussed on providing inclusive opportunities across the UK for sailors of all ages and experience. We have launched our Youth Series across 10 regions which we hope to develop. We are running our second Women’s Regatta in June at Rutland. We would like to refine our popular GP series in each region to make attractive to a wide range of sailors. We are building our community of volunteers. At club level, I am hearing stories of new formats and racing days – sprints and Friday evening racing – the great advantage many clubs have to access to lots of ILCAs and ILCA sailors, unlike other classes, so it is possible to experiment with different innovations and formats to uncover latent demand - over to you!

Snippets

ILCA UK Events

Entries to Masters Nationals

Entries to UK Nationals

2025 Women’s Regatta at Rutland will open for entries this Friday!

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Other news

Ollie Wilson (15) is doing a sponsored sail this weekend in his ilca from Portland to Starcross. Support him here

QM ILCA initiative has gone from zero to international in six months

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 5/19/25 Mark Lyttle 5/19/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #138

They saw a game….

ILCA sailing is much like other sports when it comes to analysing races – it is all in the eye of the beholder. Everyone looks at it from their own perspective like “I was in prime position on the right until the wind shifted left” versus “those on the right were always buried”. Well, it is not surprising. There is a well-known case study (at least to sports performance analysts) published in 1952 about an American football game “They saw a game”*. Quick summary - different people experience different incidents from a total matrix of incidents in a game that they could have experienced, based on the reactivation of previous experiences i.e. what they brought into the game. The games exist for each person and they only exist based on certain events that have significance for them. They select for themselves.

Obviously, this is written from a fan perspective but I guess it also applies to participants and it’s what makes self-coaching so difficult – separating out what really happened as opposed to your perspective based on prior experience. Over the next number of years, we may see this change. The use of trackers show the route you really took, not the one you thought you took but to be really effective we need data about wind speed and direction from across the course. With all that data, an AI algorithm will tell us what really happened but until then, the beauty is that we can talk endlessly in the club afterwards about what we thought we saw.

*Hastorf, A. H., & Cantril, H. (1954). They saw a game; a case study. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49(1), 129.

Well done to British Sailing Team in China, loads of content and results on Event website.

Snippets

ILCA UK Events

Entries to Masters Nationals

Entries to UK Nationals open tonight

2025 Women’s Regatta at Rutland will open for entries this Friday! (9th May)

Keep an eye on the ILCA Calendar for details as these sessions sell out quickly.

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Other news

Ollie Wilson (15) is doing a sponsored sail this weekend in his ilca from Portland to Starcross. Support him here

QM ILCA initiative has gone from zero to international in six months

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 5/12/25 Mark Lyttle 5/12/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #137

BST ….

British Sailing Team are in action at the World Championships in China, which started today. Follow the racing including live tracking and results on Event website. Good luck to sailors taking part.

Update on Women’s Training from Jonathan Stirling

The ILCA Women’s Coaching Programme is going great guns. Last week our sponsor Wildwind ran their first ever Women’s ILCA Clinic coached by NED International Maartje van Dam. They’ll be a write up in Y&Y but ‘best week ever’ was the verdict of one experienced ILCA sailor.

Next weekend Ellie Cumpsty is delivering the Programme at King George SC with complementary club racing on the Sunday.

Booking is now live for the ILCA Women’s Programme at WPNSA on 31st May hosted by the Andrew Simpson Performance Academy and coached by.George Povall, Molly Sacker and Coco Barrett. This is a fantastic opportunity for our women sailors to brush up their sea sailing ahead of the summer’s events. We will be running another event at Stokes Bay on 26th July - details to follow - and we are planning to extend to at least two other venues over the season to cover more of the country.

And booking is now open for the fantastic ILCA Women’s Regatta at Rutland Water SC over the weekend of 28th/29th June.

Snippets

Keep an eye on the ILCA Calendar for details as these sessions sell out quickly.

2025 Women’s Regatta at Rutland will open for entries this Friday! (9th May)

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Finally I was asked about the entry list for the British Nationals at Parkstone in 1982 - well here you go

PS Are you interested in Team Racing - Eurilca has a European Championship and are inviting entries from ILCA UK? See here

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.

2025 ILCA7 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA UK Events

Entries to Masters Nationals

You can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

ILCA UK have two National Opens at WPNSA on 11/12 Oct and 18/19 Oct - the latter clashes with the U21s Europeans so discretionary points may apply for the qualification ladder but not for the first weekend (we moved from 25/26 Oct to 11/12 Oct to avoid a double clash). Masters Inlands date is confimred for 25/26 Oct.

Other news

2025 ILCA6 Masters Spring Qualifier at Parkstone Yacht Club

ILCA Midland Grand Prix at Attenborough Sailing Club

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 5/6/25 Mark Lyttle 5/6/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #136

masters at parkstone

We had the Master Series at Parkstone at the weekend and here are 10 things you should know. I also asked Orlando Gledhill (ILCA7 with most race wins) and Ross Harvey (ILCA6 overall winner) to give their insights, which I share below.

We had 84 entries which is the biggest fleet for some years outside the Masters Nationals
We sailed in Poole Bay in a large ILCA regatta for the first time in decades
We successfully negotiated the Chain Ferry at Sandbanks (well almost!)
We had four Legends sailing – that’s 75 and over
The Race Officer was Stuart Childerley, a Laser star in the ‘80s – welcome back Stuart
It was very shifty - my favourite was the last race – beating at a heading of 30 degrees on starboard and then 30 degrees on port
We had a prize draw at Saturday night dinner with father of the fleet Ian Rawet – thanks to sponsors Tideway Wealth, Ovington and Rooster
Parkstone put on a great show from a super club house – well done
Masters sailors are tough and did brilliantly to race four races on Sunday
It can still be cold in May

Entries for Masters Nationals are open and it is not too late to enter to Masters Europeans.

Orlando provides some insights into getting your own best performance from yourself as a Masters sailor

1. If you are fast/skilled relative to the fleet in the conditions, it is usually better to focus on starting a little more conservatively, with a good “lane”.

The idea is to avoid messing up a good opportunity to perform well in conditions which suit you by putting yourself behind in the critical first seconds or minutes of the race. Starting conservatively does not mean not being in the front row. But be in the front row in a less crowded area of the start line. I had a poor start right at the pin in the first race on Sunday. Luckily for me, it was a general recall. From then on, I realised that in conditions that suited me (medium to strong winds, medium waves, obvious shifts), my focus should be on getting off the line safely, with scope to work what I hoped might be an upwind speed advantage.

2. Events are very often decided by consistency. More precisely, in a 1-discard series, by how bad your second-worst race is. In the ILCA 7s at Parkstone, the top 7 places overall were decided essentially by who had the least bad second-worst race.

I wonder how many of us will approach the performance in that second-worst race as a key focus for improving next time. It is so much more enjoyable to think about (and talk about!) the races that went well. And easier to pretend that the less good results were just down to luck.

Working on weaknesses is a much more efficient way to improve results than working on strengths. Working on strengths will not usually improve consistency and may even make it worse, unless of course the event is sailed in the conditions of strength. This is rather obvious, but how many non-professional sailors actually consciously aim to identify, analyse and work on their weaknesses? It is rare to see an amateur sportsperson improve a known weakness in their game.

My resolution: improve lighter-wind starting and upwind decision-making.

3. In ILCA sailing there is a huge amount of readily-available information about how the boat should be sailed and raced in any given conditions. The issue is not usually access to information, it is taking advantage of the information and putting knowledge gained into practice.

For ILCA 7 Masters interested in improving medium to strong wind performance on the sea, the secret is that there are no real secrets: it boils down to: (1) being about 85kgs or so (Masters tend to sail heavier than the Open fleet, because they are not as fit); (2) good (amateur) fitness levels (legs, core, arms, aerobic); (3) not “pinching”—pinching is very slow in waves; (4) and trying to minimise slamming into waves upwind.

Everything else is (relative) detail that can be developed once the above is in place. The technique mistakes often have as their root cause lack of fitness e.g., (pinching, not sailing flat, not sheeting in/out enough) There are obviously big gains to be made downwind as well, but most of the time at Masters level the major determinant of results in these conditions will be upwind speed.

Ross gives some insights to the tactical decisions needed over the weekend:

The ILCA 6 Masters event at Parkstone Yacht Club over the weekend of 3rd and 4th May 2025 featured six closely contested races, with varying conditions that tested the fleet’s tactical awareness and finesse. One of the key insights came from Race 2, where a significant right-hand wind shift before the start required sailors to hold their lane in anticipation of the predicted left shift. Ross Harvey capitalized on this, managing the upwind phase with precision and choosing the correct side of the course to secure the win. Roberta Hartley sailed an excellent first run, finding stronger breeze on the right-hand side, but Ian Gregory’s consistent speed saw him edge into second place by the finish.

Race 5 highlighted how quickly positions could change downwind. Hywel Roberts had an excellent start, leading from the left and rounding the first mark in front. However, Ross Harvey showed superior downwind speed, passing Roberts on the first run. The lead changed again on the second upwind leg, where Jon Emmett’s decision-making and clean lanes allowed him to pass both Harvey and Roberts. In the final stretch, Harvey managed to recover just enough to edge back into the lead and take the win, showing not just speed but also resilience and sharp situational awareness under pressure.

In the final race of the event, strategy around the shifting breeze became critical. At the start of a left-hand shift, Ross Harvey and Steve Cockerill tacked below the port layline early. While Jon Emmett and Hywel Roberts opted to dig deeper into the left, the wind shifted back to the right just before the mark, benefiting Harvey and Cockerill. Their positioning allowed them to sail one more lift into the windward mark while Emmett and Roberts, already committed to the layline, had to sail a header and lost ground.

Snippets

RYA are looking for volunteers to join the RYA's Youth Racing Committee - interested? Apply online here.

The next ILCA Women’s Coaching session, led by Ellie Cumpsty, is at King George SC on 17th May. Further dates at Parkstone YC, Stokes Bay SC and Draycote Water are being finalised. Keep an eye on the ILCA Calendar for details as these sessions sell out quickly.

2025 Women’s Regatta at Rutland will open for entries this Friday! (9th May)

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Finally I was asked about the entry list for the British Nationals at Parkstone in 1982 - well here you go

PS Are you interested in Team Racing - Eurilca has a European Championship and are inviting entries from ILCA UK? See here

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Events

Entries to Masters Nationals

You can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

Other news

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 4/28/25 Mark Lyttle 4/28/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #135

Reaching…..

We are almost up to 70 for the masters at Parkstone – entries open until end of Wednesday – forecast is warm weather and moderate wind, with sailing in the Bay. Entries to Masters Series at Parkstone. See you there.

We had a couple of close reaches at Queen Mary recently which made me think. In many ways the art of reaching has died to a great extent compared my early days of Laser sailing. In my formative years I had many great battles with Bill O’Hara, a double Olympian in the Finn class, and these were often defined by the reaching legs. On those days, the course was usually triangle, triangle, sausage (remember that?) and the reaches were quite broad and much more important than the running leg. Bill was much faster than me upwind and was invariably ahead at the first windward mark and my target was the pass him on the next two reaching legs and establish a lead that I could defend. Being lighter I could surf the waves longer and lower so would always aim to sail higher and then over the top of him. This was hard to defend so Bill adopted a strategy of sailing rhumb lines rather than sailing high to defend his position. It became a game of cat and mouse but more importantly, speed on the reaches was critical.

I can still remember (a little) of racing the Worlds in Gulfport in 1983 and one of the memories that sticks was the reaching. On the first reach of the first race, I sailed very high and the question was how much I would lose coming back down to the mark. As it happens the gybe mark was close to the shore and the waves got bigger as we approached so I was able to surf down over the top of others. It was a strategy that worked well all week.

By the time, the Laser came to the Olympics in 1996, the game had changed. The reaches were much tighter with less scope for making big improvements. I distinctly remember approaching the windward mark in Race 3 in second just ahead of a bunch led by the Greek sailor – my over-riding thought was to round ahead of him as he as slow on the reach and would act as a block – we were only talking 2 or 3 boat lengths on the leg, but enough to create a gap to the following group and so it was… funny the things you remember.

That change to shorter courses and more running (and S turns) started in the lead-up to 1996 and it certainly de-emphasised the reaching. However, some aspects still remain. When the top sailors are faster, they get into a “passing lane” to windward of the line of reaching boats and just sail over the top, going faster. I have seen this many times in recent years with the British Sailing Team sailors at our Qualifiers / National Opens. I think their speed advantage is down to keeping the boat very stable and anticipating a drop in speed by going higher. My own strategy is usually “don’t lose ground on the leaders” or “extend on the bunch” behind if in the leading group, often involving sailing a straight line, while keeping clear air.

With tighter reaches going low is much harder to execute and the risk needs to be assessed. It sometime works if the reach is a bit broader or the wind is decreasing or backing. Of course, lake sailing is a different game. Clearly going up and down in the lulls and gusts works but I think a lot depends on how quickly a gust moves down the course.

So while the options for catching up on the reach are reduced, they are still there, and it is certainly possible to lose a lot of places.

Snippets

RYA are looking for volunteers to join the RYA's Youth Racing Committee - interested? Apply online here.

Our sponsor Wildwind are hosting a Women's ILCA Clinic led by NED sailor Maartje van Dam from May 4th (SOLD OUT)

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Finally I was asked about the entry list for the British Nationals at Parkstone in 1982 - well here you go

PS Are you interested in Team Racing - Eurilca has a European Championship and are inviting entries from ILCA UK? See here

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Events

Entries to Masters Series at Parkstone and Masters Nationals

You can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

Other news

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 4/22/25 Mark Lyttle 4/22/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #134

Masters at Parkstone - what’s your excuse?

Truncated blog this morning with Easter. If you are a master, why not come to Parkstone on 3/4th May? Dust down your ILCA next weekend and do a club race and then head to Parkstone - it is not the Olympics or an ex-squad zone - all are welcome. Sailing in the Bay with some exercise and socialising! Entries to Masters Series at Parkstone

Snippets

Our sponsor Wildwind are hosting a Women's ILCA Clinic led by NED sailor Maartje van Dam from May 4th.

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

Finally I was asked about the entry list for the British Nationals at Parkstone in 1982 - well here you go

PS Are you interested in Team Racing - Euricla has a European Championship and are inviting entries from ILCA UK? See here

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Events

Entries to Masters Series at Parkstone and Masters Nationals

You can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

See our calendar - last winter training is available to book.

ILCA UK training - all remaining training for winter/spring is now open. BOOK here

Other news

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 4/14/25 Mark Lyttle 4/14/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #133

Sporting moments …and trackers

There are many reasons why we compete in ILCA races or indeed in any sporting competition but fundamentally there is something purist about competition. It is the jeopardy of not knowing how performances or results will work out, not knowing who will win or produce the standout performance. It is knowing that at one level it is a deeply personal experience for those competing given their context and preparation. It is also the fact that the game is played based on a defined and agreed set of rules. Yes sometimes, competitors break those rules or someone else judges they have been broken, but this just adds to jeopardy.

Two outstanding sporting moments brought this to life for me this week. On Tuesday, I was at Arsenal in North London for the quarter-final of the Champions League with perennial winners Real Madrid. My expectations were not high, but the atmosphere heading into the ground was amazing and after a first half of chances for both sides, the game came alight with two world-class free kicks for Arsenal. The stadium went wild and the joyous mood continued on the walk home. I couldn’t help thinking how depressing the news had been at the start of week – major wars and chaos in the global economy where complexity reigns – juxtapositioned with the simple task of putting a ball in the net but not knowing in advance whose net. There was nothing complicated – the stakes were high but there was a winner and a loser, and we didn’t know who it was going to be. Then Rory McIlroy produced a final round at the Masters in Augusta that was filled with ups and downs. I don’t how many times it looked as if he had let it slip by, only to recover with a world class shot. The resilience and human endeavour involved was so compelling and nerve-wracking. The jeopardy was obvious.

Well I am not really suggesting tht ILCA racing at club level is comparable but it many ways it is! We don’t know who is going to win in advance and throughout the fleet there are individual performances where some go home delighted, happy or content while others are disappointed. Last weekend Marcus Bird won the first race at Queen Mary, sailing superbly and while he wins regularly, he knew it was not going to be a foregone conclusion – he had a chance if he sailed well. It was Matt Fletcher who wrote the report as first around the first mark, winning that particular battle. He deserved it because he sailed well and I am sure he was pleased as it doesn’t happen every week. Of course many will say it is only sport, whether ILCA racing, the golf Masters or Champion’s League, but that’s surely the point. We compete based on a set of rules, we perform and the winner emerges. It’s that simple. And the jeopardy produces moments of elation / satisfaction or the opposite.

As some of you will know we used Trackers at the two National Opens in March and Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet in February. These were trials to allow us to assess the impact and feedback. I wrote about digitisation in ILCA sailing in Blog # 114 and stated that use of trackers divided opinion. Well, I think it is fair to say that the overall feedback has been very positive. You can see the races here on the TracTrac site (search ILCA UK). At each event there is about 90 trackers (ILCA4s/ILCA7s at NO1 and ILCA6s at NO2) and during each weekend, the website was getting around 1,000 unique visitors, which seems to me a very decent number.

A feature of our use of this is the feedback sessions after the event, kindly done by James Foster – see links below. ILCA6s, ILCA4s

Post-event feedback through survey has been positive with 100% recommendation for use at future ILCA UK events and the good news is that we will be using trackers at the Masters Nationals. The challenge though is the cost. So far this season, this is being funded mostly through class reserves (about £500 per event) as we don’t want to increase entry fees to cover. Going forward we will need to find the right balance between funding through entry fees, the class and sponsors. Finally thanks to Brett Lewis for his support around this initiative.

Finally I was asked about the entry list for the British Nationals at Parkstone in 1982 - well here you go

PS Are you interested in Team Racing - Euricla has a European Championship and are inviting entries from ILCA UK? See here

Snippets

Our sponsor Wildwind are hosting a Women's ILCA Clinic led by NED sailor Maartje van Dam from May 4th.

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Events

Entries to Masters Series at Parkstone and Masters Nationals

You can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

See our calendar - last winter training is available to book.

ILCA UK training - all remaining training for winter/spring is now open. BOOK here

Other news

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 4/7/25 Mark Lyttle 4/7/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #132

Palma and masters …..

I hope many of you were able to enjoy the spring weather over the weekend with some good club racing. We had two races at Queen Mary on Sunday in lovely conditions, although the water is still quite cold. It was great to see some sailors start to emerge from “winter hibernation”, with the highest turnout of the year so far. I am sure it was the same in other clubs – why not let me know?

As you know this is a blog for only promoting individual performances exceptionally, but I think the results from the British Sailing Team at Trofeo Princesa Sofia Regatta in Palma merit that. Micky Beckett and Elliot Hanson were first and second and Daisy Collingridge also on the podium in third with three BST women qualified for the Medal Race. It is a great start to the LA cycle for the BST (with some other super performances as well) and they head to China for the Seniors Worlds in May. It is worth reflecting that all these sailors were competing in the National Opens in March – how lucky for us to have the opportunity to compete alongside these professional sailors – one of the unique aspects of our sport. Check ilca-uk and ilca_sailing on Instagram.

As mentioned last week, the masters season is starting to hot up. The first ILCA Masters Series of the year is at Parkstone Yacht Club on 3-4 May 2025. We were at Parkstone a couple of years ago but this year will be a little special as we are going to race in Bournemouth Bay! Come and join – you are all welcome (if you are over 30).

For Masters sailors, the 2025 SUZUKI ILCA MASTER EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS at Hayling Island in June is now open. This is a great chance for GBR sailors to sail a European Championship on home waters. If you are a competent club sailor, why not come along? Or maybe you have been out of sailing for a while, well its not too late to come to this! We have the ILCA UK Masters Nationals the weekend before (Entries will open on Monday 7th April 2025 at 2000hrs BST). We have just agreed to have tracking for the first time at a Masters event in the UK!

Snippets

Our sponsor Wildwind are hosting a Women's ILCA Clinic led by NED sailor Maartje van Dam from May 4th.

You will see our calendar starting to fill up.

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Events

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

Entries to Masters Series at Parkstone

You can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

See our calendar - last winter training is available to book.

ILCA UK training - all remaining training for winter/spring is now open. BOOK here

Entries for the 2025 RYA Youth National Championships are now open

Other news

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 3/31/25 Mark Lyttle 3/31/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #131

Parkstone ….

Just a short blog this week. The first ILCA Masters Series of the year is at Parkstone Yacht Club on 3-4 May 2025. We were at Parkstone a couple of years ago but this year will be a little special as we are going to race in Bournemouth Bay! I am assured the tides will work in our favour so fingers crossed for some decent wind. It made we think of the last time I raced there in a Laser (not an ILCA) and it was July 1982 and reading the list of entries I see quite a few of you were racing too. Let me remind you:

238 entries split into two fleets (well four flights)
One race per day, 2.5 hours long
Gate starts
3 triangles followed by a final beat – no sign of a run.

I think it is safe to we have moved on from that format.

Come and join – you are all welcome (if you are over 30).

Snippets

Our sponsor Wildwind are hosting a Women's ILCA Clinic led by NED sailor Maartje van Dam from May 4th.

You will see our calendar starting to fill up. For Masters sailors, the 2025 SUZUKI ILCA MASTER EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS at Hayling Island in June is now open. This is a great chance for GBR sailors to sail a European Championship on home waters. If you are a competent club sailor, why not come along? Or maybe you have been out of sailing for a while, well its not too late to come to this! We have the ILCA UK Masters Nationals the weekend before and a Masters event in Parkstone in early May

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Events

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 6 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 2 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

Video of National Open 2

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

National Open 1 video Here it is.

Entries to Masters Series at Parkstone

You can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

See our calendar - last winter training is available to book.

ILCA UK training - all remaining training for winter/spring is now open. BOOK here

Entries for the 2025 RYA Youth National Championships are now open

Other news

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 3/24/25 Mark Lyttle 3/24/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #130

NO2….

Another great weekend at the second National Open at WPNSA and thankfully a bit warmer than the first one. We had three fine races in the Bay on Saturday and still managed to be ashore around 3pm and the race team wisely decided to stay in the Harbour on Sunday (who wants a 1-hour beat before 10 o’clock and any racing). Overall, there was a super feeling at the event – well done to all the sailors, volunteers and helpers.

I thought Jon Emmet’s video of National Open 1 summed up ILCA UK is all about. Here it is.

Also we also had three really good write-ups from that first weekend:

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 7 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA - ILCA 4 fleet report

2025 ILCA UK National Open 1 at the WPNSA- ILCA 6 fleet report

Finally have you seen the tracking? Here are the links - ILCA UK National Open 1 ILCA UK National Open 2

On Thursday, James Foster did a nice debriefing of the racing using the tracking data, see here. ILCA7 briefing. ILCA4 briefing.

We will have race reports next week but in meantime here is a video of National Open 2.

Sometimes it is a challenge to determine what to write in these blogs on a Monday. One of the ILCA4 parents asked about that as we were packing up and the reality is that themes often emerge from conversations like that. In that case we started talking about the culture of our class. That culture started to be redefined when Rob Cage took over as class Chair and as a committee, we have worked really hard to build on that. Having the committee aligned really helps re-enforce that culture at multiple points at events like we have had over the last two weekends. It defines how sailors interact with each other and how the irregular poor behaviour is handled. It defines how parents and volunteers interact with each other and race officials and jurors communicate. We are not perfect, but a strong culture keeps us on the right track.

If you’ve been following our weekly blog over the past couple of years, you probably understand that culture. It’s about the strength of our community, our passion for ILCA sailing and the class and about working together. We’re a mix of youth sailors just starting out, seasoned masters with decades of stories, and everything in between. From British Saling Team members to club sailors. But what unites us is a shared love of ILCA sailing, top competition and great racing — and a belief that everyone should feel welcome on the start line. The culture is one of helping out, whether it’s a parent helping on the beach, experienced sailors offering tips after a race, volunteers that are the heartbeat of ILCA UK. So if you ask me what the culture of ILCA UK is, I’d say: it’s friendly, it’s open, it’s about improving and making the most of the opportunity, no matter your expectations on the race course.

Snippets

Our sponsor Wildwind are hosting a Women's ILCA Clinic led by NED sailor Maartje van Dam from May 4th.

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Events

Entries to Masters Series at Parkstone

You can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

See our calendar - last winter training is available to book.

ILCA UK training - all remaining training for winter/spring is now open. BOOK here

Entries for the 2025 RYA Youth National Championships are now open

Other news

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

Mark Lyttle 3/17/25 Mark Lyttle 3/17/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #129

NO1 …..

Happy St Patricks Day ! Wow what a great weekend at WPNSA for the first National Open of the year ! 190 entries, so much so that we had to flight the ILCA6s and highest entry for a weekend event for many years. Full range of experience from almost a full complement of British Sailing Team members to club sailors, masters and first-timers. Yes there was a (very) cold chill but the race team got through the races efficiently. There was a good crowd for food and rugby after sailing.

The tracking is super – see here and adds a great new dimension to our events. I couldn’t quite get to grips with the strategy for the weekend and having replayed a couple of the races after the weekend, I was able to confirm where I was going wrong! I sailed two good first beats in Race 1 and 6 which was based on multiple shifts that required mostly taking the lift. For the other races, I assumed the strategy was similar, but it wasn’t. Quite a few of the races had long slow shifts – you can see this clearly in Race 5 of ILCA7s, where the lift on starboard off the line is followed by a very short-lived shift to the left before another dramatic shift to the right for the rest of the beat (basically a long, slow shift to the right). Other races had a persistent shift on the first beat. Of course, identifying all of this before rather than after the race is the difficult part. And those with better boat speed are able to hedge their bets somewhat. If you want to see how some of the best sailors in the world do it, you can follow their tracks. Next weekend trackers will be on ILCA6s – we are trialling tracking at these two events and looking for feedback as there is a cost to providing for the sailors (entrants should see a survey).

These events don’t happen without a load of work – below is a list of helpers who have made this happen. Sorry if anyone has been missed as it is fairly dynamic. Thank you.

While these volunteers are usually quite visible, there is a lot of work going on “below decks”. Roger Hakes as Chair of the Youth sub-committee has been working hard to get our RYA Class Recognition completed. Also Lorna Phipps is acting as our Treasurer and working on the Finance sub-committee with Fiona Grayton and Sarah Harding. These are the sort of activities that keep to class going. Thanks to them and everyone who works on the main committee or a sub-committee.

Entries for National Open 2 at WPNSA this weekend close of Tuesday.

Snippets

Our sponsor Wildwind are hosting a Women's ILCA Clinic led by NED sailor Maartje van Dam from May 4th. You can see and buy photos from this event through Lotte Johnson’s page.

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 4 fleet report

ILCA UK Events

Entries to National Open 2

Entries to Masters Series at Parkstone - open TONIGHT

You can now renew your membership for 2025. Not a member yet? JOIN NOW

See our calendar - last winter training is available to book.

ILCA UK training - all remaining training for winter/spring is now open. BOOK here

Entries for the 2025 RYA Youth National Championships are now open

Other news

ILCA UK Youth Winter Trophy at Datchet Water Sailing Club - ILCA 6 fleet report

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle will start in Mallorca

NI Sailing Team dominate Celtic Cup with clean sweep victory

Call to action: Abandoned Boats Changing Lives for Youth Sailors in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Mark Lyttle 3/10/25 Mark Lyttle 3/10/25

ILCA UK Chair Blog #128

Race Strategy……

I had a lovely two races at Queen Mary on Sunday – sun out, 16 degrees and 8 to 10 knots, attracting around 30 boats. I hope many of you also had to chance to get out. We were talking about race strategy afterwards and I don’t think I have discussed that in this blog. The great thing about our sport is the number of factors you need to address for a good performance – avoiding major mistakes, boat handling and boat speed and starting are all key, but race strategy is also critical. After all, your tactics around the racecourse are subservient to race strategy.

Components of race strategy are well-told. What geographic features affect the wind direction and strength? Is there a current or tide that is not consistent? Is the weather a factor (e.g. big clouds)? We often resort to “is the wind stronger on one side of the course than the other?” and we test for shifts by sailing upwind for a few minutes before the start.

But for many of us racing on inland venues this doesn’t really suffice as what is really needed is a clear assessment of what “type” of wind it is. The wind rarely oscillates in a classical sense (i.e. swing back and forth in a regular rhythm) but is instead a random “pattern” of shifts and gusts. This means a left shift is not necessarily followed by a right shift in a certain timescale – it could be followed by a further shift to the left or a very delayed shift to the right. But while the gust and shifts may be somewhat random, they can have patterns.

At Queen Mary on Sunday, the shifts, of usually 10 to 20 degrees, were occurring may be six times per weather leg. But sometimes they were bigger and longer and overlaying this was inconsistent pressure or gusts over racecourse. The race strategy is to stay in the pressure and take the lifts in the middle of the course. If the wind assessment is correct, this strategy works over the long run, but not every time, given the random nature of the wind.

On many other days at Queen Mary, the shifts occur much less frequently, maybe once or twice per beat and in this case, the race strategy is to stay on the lift until it shifts back (don’t take the little shifts), even if that brings you right into the corner. This is very tricky as time often runs out. It is even worse, when boats head to opposite corners on a median heading as the next shift can go either way (remember it is more random than oscillating). Of course, it is possible to hedge your bets (literally) by avoiding the corners or covering the fleet. But the first beat can be very difficult if the race starts on a median heading as it is hard to predict which way the first big shift is going to go.

Of course, sailing on the sea is often very different to this but understanding what the wind is doing remains key. I remember a masters race at Hayling a couple of years ago where the first beat in 20knots required tacking ten times on multiple shifts but the second beat required two tacks for two big shifts – sometimes the race strategy changes mid-race!

Snippets

ILCA UK celebrated International Women’s Day with the latest Women’s Coaching Programme at Queen Mary SC attended by women sailors of all ages. George Povall and Ellie Cumpsty chose to focus on speed and control in champagne sailing conditions. Inspiration and confidence are essential to all sailors: for the afternoon session the group were joined by Coté Poncell who represented Chile in the 2024 Olympics and inspired whoops and holas with her demonstrations and Q&A session. Half a dozen of the sailors joined QM Club racing on Sunday and discovered what a friendly bunch they are.

Our sponsor Wildwind are hosting a Women's ILCA Clinic led by NED sailor Maartje van Dam from May 4th. You can see and buy photos from this event through Lotte Johnson’s page.

2025 ILCA Handbook is now available online.