ILCA UK Chair Blog #150
Welcome to blog #150 ! It never ceases to amaze me how much is going on in our class. I am at the U21 Worlds in Dun Laoghaire with around 15 GBR men and women. At the same time, there are 120 sailors at our incredibly popular Skills Week in Weymouth. I also continue to get reports of the club racing at Queen Mary with decent fleets even in August - a reminder that ILCAs are racing at clubs around the country every weekend.
I put part of our strength down to the inclusive nature of our class. But what does that mean? Part of that is obvious as at our events we encourage a wide group of ages and experience but that needs to be backed up by actions - there must be tolerance and respect on the water of less experienced sailors. When I first started doing Qualifiers (as National Opens were called) as a mature master, I was shouted at quite bit by the younger “squadies” - this was a common refrain from masters - now we do not tolerate that. Of course, behaviour at the U21 Worlds is going to be different to our National events and sailors need to learn to moderate their actions accordingly. Another example is the number of races we sail in one day - I know many top sailors may want to maximise race time, but many in the fleet don’t want to do too much - it is a balance - we sailed one four race day at the Nationals (as we missed the two previous days) which seems reasonable to me but we don’t have to do that every day to catch up on the schedule.
Being inclusive also relates to volunteers - we want parents and non-parents to volunteer as well as those with sailing experience and none. Our events are very well run but mistakes are made. I would encourage all of us sailors to understand and respect that.
Finally entires are open for our National Open in East Lothian on 20/21 September. As I said last week, it is our first National event in Scotland for many years and we would really like to see as many entries as possible especially from the “north” and Scotland. These events are open to all competent club sailors - we would love to see as many as possible. If you are a parent sailor, come and race with your child ! Also if you are not a member, you can join for a reduced fee at this event for remainder of year.
Finally, finally one of our sailors, Tate, is attempting a solo, non-stop sail around the Isle of Wight in his ILCA dinghy. A journey of around 60 plus miles that is expected to take 12-14 hours. Depending on the weather and tides! By doing this challenge, he hopes to raise vital funds for cancer research. Our donations will help research better treatments and hopefully one day, a cure.
Snippets
ILCA UK Events
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