ILCA UK Chair Blog#154
The thing about a sports competition is that you don’t know the result until the competition is over! That’s the excitement and thrill and what makes it so brutal. Sometimes you think you know what is going to happen and you are wrong. For those that thought the European team romp to victory in the Ryder Cup on Sunday, they were wrong – it was beyond nervy. Maybe it is my many years of competing in dinghy races, where we know the weather and wind can be such a deciding factor, but I am always sceptical about the result until it is over. Even when miles ahead on the last leg!
I am sure as a teenager or in my early twenties, I rode my luck and won some championships or did better than expected but I also lost plenty too. Even as I write, I immediately think of two championships more than four decades ago where I "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory" – literally where the dying breeze allowed my competitors to come back with in the mostly unlikely of circumstances.
But this is sport, especially our sport, and those moments certainly made me stronger. They made me double-down on hard work, made me more resilient and certainly more wary of every flick of the wind until the race is over. No matter how brutal a result is, you can learn from it and use it to drive you on to better things.
As some of you will know, we cancelled the National Open at East Lothian because of forecast weather conditions and I thought I would make some comments on that.
Firstly, cancelling an event is not an easy decision and it is certainly not made casually. A significant amount of Ellie’s time and the time of key volunteers goes into planning and organising these events. The class made considerable efforts to promote the event as we wanted it to be successful. The volunteers at East Lothian had worked incredibly hard to ensure its success and were very supportive. In short, we all wanted the event to go ahead.
The decision to cancel is also one of judgement and in order to try and make the right decision all key volunteers in ILCA UK and East Lothian were involved in several meetings. The class took the advice of the club on local conditions and the likelihood of sailing. It is easy to criticise the decision with hindsight or without understanding the full context, but a very hard decision was carefully assessed and eventually made. On behalf of the class, I would like to once again thank East Lothian Yacht club.
I know Scottish based sailors will have been disappointed, but we are working with some of them to ensure we continue to support the development of the class in Scotland. I know the ILCA UK Youth Series continued last weekend at Dalgety Bay and I hope that series continues to evolve across all regions.
Snippets
ILCA Events
You will see our calendar starting to fill up
Other news
ILCA Women's Coaching day at Parkstone Yacht Club
ILCA Thames Valley Series Grand Prix at Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club
ILCA Northern Championship at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club
2025 ILCA UK National and Open Championships at Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy
Here is Nationals video
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