UKLA Chair blog #13
Despite the lovely autumnal weather, thoughts are starting to turn to frostbite racing, and this is where I think the ILCA comes into its own. Why?
There is great club racing up and down the country all winter. You can rig up in no time at all and there’s no crew to organise. Out for a couple of quick races and in for a hot shower and drink in the clubhouse.
I mentioned recently how much fun it is to take an ILCA for a “blast” in strong winds, but at the other end of the wind scale, there is some great racing in 5 knots with everyone in near identical boats and similar boat speeds. As well as good racing, you get a physical workout and its great to socialise with other sailors after racing.
When I was much younger, I loved frostbite racing but I hated the really cold days. Younger sailors today don’t probably appreciate how much resilience was needed then, now that the sailing gear has improved so much!
For those interested in pursuit racing, there is the SailJuice Winter Series which was won a couple of years ago by Alistair Goodwin in an ILCA7. It would be great to see some more ILCAs entered this year.
Finally, entries for the UKLA Inlands at Grafham this week are 193, which is super, but it does mean we need some more volunteers to help run this – we have a new sign-up sheet here SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER. Good news is that we are now paying a fee (plus expenses) for use of private RIBS at UKLA events. See Brett for details. A reminder that we have a volunteer drinks reception at 17:30 – please come along and have a drink on UKLA if you have volunteered during the year.
All the best
Mark
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