ILCA UK Chair Blog #139
@Lotte Johnson
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.
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