ILCA UK Chair Blog # 142
Karen with safety team
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 ILCA UK Masters Nationals video
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