ILCA UK Chair Blog #163

Jan 26

I would not call myself a prophet but sometimes the direction of travel is clear. In Nov 2024 I wrote in Blog #114 “And this is the challenge for the sport at Olympic level – how to attract a big audience, especially non-sailors, without different formats (like short races / racing on a reach / winner takes all races) that move away from the essence of the sailboat racing we know? The debate is at the centre of our sport today – of course you need the “eyeballs” but how much do you change to get them.”

I was of course referring to media broadcast coverage of our sport and this of course took on a much higher profile nine months later when World Sailing led a review of the format for Olympic Sailing LA2028.

While that debate is not finalised, I will instead focus on other aspects of the digitisation of our racing especially in ILCAs. Last year ILCA UK made extensive use of trackers to both provide live and recorded coverage of our races with our partner TracTrac. We did this at seven events last year, mostly funded out of class reserves as your committee felt it was important for the biggest dinghy class to be leading the way. TracTrac have written a nice piece here and most of those races are still available to replay on their app with an exmple here on their website. Showing many of these races live on TracTrac is a big step forward but how to make the next step ?

The costs of live drone broadcast have decreased significantly in the last few years. The quality is much better and as a sport we are learning what is attractive to show and what isn’t. Drones can provide great snapshots of racing (think leeward gate in 25 knots) but it is harder to provide full race coverage that resonates. An ILCA race with 60 boats spreads out quickly to the corners so you lose perspective on the fleet as a whole. It is also hard to see who is ahead without GPS tracking linked to on-screen graphics (like SailGP). To do this you need to move to multiple drones and cameras at marks and this then requires a production studio to move between different live views. Interestedly ILCA ran a test event for the assessing proposed Olympic formats in October and a single drone was able to cover a full 20 minute race with 10 boats very effectively - and this is of course one of the reasons for having smaller fleets in the final stages of regattas like the Olympics - it is easier to tell a story.

Within a few years, costs will lower further and our experience will grow and I have no doubt we will see further improvements. This is happening with robotic marks, used extensively in many big events and each year there are less and less issues being reported. Same is true of information from the race management team on the water, providing information on wind conditions, race status and OCS starters and we will see these grow further so you know exactly when the live TracTrac coverage will start.

There is also a significant push to use technology for OCS detection and this is now highly likely in LA2028. We know these are used extensively in some classes like the J70 and the main suppliers are now launching highly accurate versions that would be acceptable for the Olympic Games. While this will start at the top level of ILCA racing, it will move quickly to other fleets as the cost of the technology drops. We have a particular challenge with ILCAs to ensure we don’t drive up costs - on the other hand, who wants to spend extra hours on the water as a result of general recalls?

So while progress on all these fronts will be erratic, the direction of travel remains clear - reducing technology costs will make running racing more efficient while providing increased media coverage for our sport. You don’t need to be a prophent to see this.

The ILCA UK calendar is starting to take shape so you can start planning the season ahead.

Winter training 2025/2026

Most of our remaining winter programme is available for booking - look through the training calendar and find something for your self in your region

Events 2026

National Opens

National Open 1 - Warsash SC - 14/15 March 2026

National Open 2 - WPNSA - 21/22 March 2026

National Open 3 - WPNSA 28/29 March 2026

Skills Week

ILCA Skills Week 2026 WPNSA - 15/20 August 2026 (Provisional - may move by one day)

National & Open Championships

Unfortunately, due to clashes with international regattas, we could not accept dates offered by the Hayling Island Sailing Club to host our nationals in 2026. We therefore confirmed that the 2026 Nationals will be held in JULY at WPNSA. He hope to go back to HISC soon!

ILCA UK Open & National Championships 2026 WPNSA - 23-29th July 2026

Masters events (over 30)

Introduction to Masters sailing - ILCA UK NEW Masters rep Gareth Humphrey

Master Series WPNSA - 23-24th May 2026

Masters National Championships Parkstone YC - 3-5 July 2026

Masters Inland Championships Draycote Water SC - 7-8 November 2026

Snippets

Youth World Championships 2026 - Notice of Selection

In case you are interested, here is a link to my 2nd message as ILCA President.

Mark Lyttle