ILCA UK Chair Blog #148
Annual report from Chair (for AGM later this month)
The ILCA class in the UK stays in robust health despite many predicting its demise after gaining Olympic status in 1996. Why? My answer is from ILCA UK Chair blogs over the last year: what you need is
- inclusive language - we welcome sailors of all ages and experiences with a choice of three rigs
- zero tolerance to poor behaviour and language - of course this is never going to be perfect, but it needs to be called out where seen and supported by a robust policy
- national events that are open - yes many may be youth sailors but not exclusively, the focus is on high quality racing for all
- top Olympic sailors competing against club sailors - one of our autumn events had two medal race sailors from Paris 24 racing with almost 50 others in the ILCA7 for example
- no teams or squads - we are lucky to usually have enough places at international events that everyone who wants to can go. Yes, the RYA run squads for around 15 men / women, but it is a small ratio our fleet
- non-promotion of rankings - they just are not central to our class
- regional open training for everyone with national training available to those in the top half of the fleet
- a national championship that is a "festival of sailing".
Of course, the ILCA stays strong in clubs around the country for other reasons too, like a ready supply of quality second hand boats.
These factors combine to create a culture we must protect. It is about the strength of our community, our passion for ILCA sailing and the class and about working together. We are a mix of youth sailors just starting out, seasoned masters with decades of stories, and everything in between. From British Sailing 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, whether it is 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 start line.
Let us look at some of the numbers, from August 2024 last year:
· National Open 1 in March 2025 had 185 entries
· National Opens at WPNSA average 175 entries
· National Championship last year had over 250 entries
· Masters Nationals this year had 117 entries
· Our inaugural Youth Series event at Datchet had 74 entries
· The Welsh Championships had over 60 entries
· Our membership remains at over 1,000
· Skills Week has over 115 participants
· Hundreds over youths, U21s, seniors and masters competed in European and World Championships.
I would like to highlight some elements below.
James Hynes (Heinzy) took on Chair of the sailing sub-committee in September as Keith transitioned out (we awarded him for his years of dedicated service last year) with the aim of devolving more tasks across the committee. We have increased our group of Race Officers, introduced trackers from TracTrac on a trial basis and put emphasis on a more diverse volunteer base on events with greater recognition, which we hope to build on next year. We continue to run most of our National Opens at WPNSA given its popularity, but we did run a successful National Open at Pwllheli for the first time in many years. We continue to look for venues that can host 180 boats at the right time of year (as shown by our first National Open in Scotland for many years this September).Our safety team on the water continues to be led by Brett Lewis and allow us to take to the water in windy conditions when many other fleets would stay ashore. Thanks to everyone on the sailing sub-committee.
Our training program started with Skills Week at WPNSA in August 2024 (sold out) with another week at Plas Heli. We were delighted to run the RYA supported ILCA4 program (RTG lite) with over 30 sailors, but the early part of our winter program was affected by poor weather (no wind or too much) which impacted numbers, but these built steadily in the New Year. Our National training and Regional Open training in the East and North have had good numbers. Looking forward to this winter, we will continue to put on a similar program but need to be aware that the RYA have several new training offerings as well as third party suppliers. It is great that sailors have more choice, but our focus will continue to be on regional training open to all members and National training also open to all but with a defined standard. We do not run selected squads or training groups. My thanks to the Training sub-committee, led by Tim Hulse and Lisa Anderson, for all their hard work.
Our aim continues to be running ILCA UK at breakeven and during 2025 we have implemented tighter control around regattas and training to avoid last minute surprises. As we have decent reserves, we also invest in activities that help participation or promote the class. For instance, this year we invested in using Trackers at some of our events and provided grants to five clubs for club-based Women’s training. I would like to thank the sub-committee, led by Lorna Phipps, for their work this year as we transitioned to this new team with the support of our outgoing long term treasurer Steve (we also awarded him for his years of dedicated service last year). The Treasurer’s report has also been circulated.
The Youth sub-committee led by Roger Hakes have had a busy year. They supported the takeover of the RYA RTG program for the ILCA4s with our training sub-committee . We also implemented our new Youth Series, providing quality racing in eight regions. So far five events have been run attracting close to 150 unique entries. The group has also led our class recognition policy with the RYA and that has resulting in a £12,000 award for 2025 (a 50% increase), subject to conditions on how the money is spent. Finally in August with support of the RYA we have had our first coach development program with six prospective new coaches.
Our Youth Regional co-ordination group, led by Mike Powell, have done an outstanding job from a standing start - by February we had 10 regional co-ordinators and by May had almost 500 contacts in the ten WhatsApp groups. This had meant that the work of the class and its activities is reaching youth sailors and clubs across the country in a way not seen before.
Masters had three dedicated events - the Inlands, Parkstone Open and the Nationals as well as the Europeans at Hayling Island. Numbers remain strong - the Inland’s attracts masters who want to sail Inland (!) and at Parkstone we had over 80 sailors in Bournemouth Bay for the first time in decades. Hayling hosted our Nationals with 117 entries - followed by the Europeans. That event, while technically not an ILCA UK event (we co-led the bid), was a super week with survey ratings off the chart for a Europeans. Hayling did a great job, but it would not have been as great without the hard work of Guy Noble, Ellie Ratusniak and Alan Davis - well done to them.
Fiona Attwell headed our Women and Girls group (WAG). We ran another successful Women’s ILCA regatta at Rutland and have been supporting Women training in clubs (with five training weekend done so far). Through our WAG, we continue to strive for an ILCA community (sailors, coaches, race officials and volunteers) that are representative of society with more progress made this year.
Fiona, as our welfare and safeguarding officer, attends many of our events and has dealt with several cases this year, none of which resulted in disciplinary action or were reportable.
Guy Noble, our media and sponsorship officer, is standing down this year at the AGM after many years and he has a brilliant job. All our National events have Yachts and Yachting article for each fleet (that’s over 30 per year).
We are delighted to have the following class sponsors:
· Rooster
· Ovington
· Sailingfast
· Noble Marine
· Tideway
· southeast sailboats
· Fernhurst books
· Wildwind
· Harken
Finally my thanks to our great volunteers - on the main committee and sub-committees and of course the many who help at events or training. Without them, none of this would happen.
· Ellie Ratusniak - event manager and class secretary
· Leo Wilson - class admin
Main Committee
· Chair - Mark Lyttle
· Vice-chair and Sailing SC Rep - Neil Collingridge
· Training Officer - Tim Hulse
· Treasurer - Lorna Phipps
· Lisa Anderson
· Jane Sunderland
· Andy Wyatt
· Deborah Waggett
· Mike Powell (Observer)
· Fiona Attwell - Safeguarding
· Andy Hutcheon - Measurer
· Adrian Lynham
· Guy Noble
· Brett Lewis
· Iain McLaverty
· Roger Hakes
Finance Sub-Committee
· Chair - Lorna Phipps
· Ellie Ratusniak
· Sarah Harding
· Fiona Grayton
Masters Sub-Committee
· Adrian Lynham
· Guy Noble
· Alan Davis
· Chris Ellyatt
Sailing Sub-Committee
· Chair- James Hynes
· Paul Rawlings
· Lisa Rawlings
· Paul Jackson
· Keith Videlo
· Jane Sunderland
· Andy Wyatt
· Deborah Waggett
· Guy Noble
· Brett Lewis
· Mark Lyttle
Training
· Chair -Tim Hulse
· Vice-chair Lisa Anderson
· Deborah Waggett
· Bev Bacon
· Rory Wilson
· Mark Lyttle
Youth
· Chair-Roger Hakes
· Mike Powell
· Deborah Waggett
· Andy Wyatt
· Lisa Anderson
· Fiona Attwell
Youth regional co-ordination
· Chair - Mike Powell
· Rene Sitton
· Rachel Jackson
· Lizzy Kingsford
· Kate Symons
· Cenan Chappell
· Iain McLaverty
· Fiona Attwell
· Deborah Waggett
WAG
· Chair - Fiona Attwell
GP National Co-ordinator
· John Ling
Snippets
ILCA UK Events
Volunteer at the Nationals - HERE
Skills Week South
You will see our calendar starting to fill up.
Other news
2025 Suzuki Master European Championship
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