UKLA Chair blog #17
Just a couple of quick thoughts this week as I am away.
Some great news from the weekend - UKLA and Hayling Island Sailing Club have been awarded the 2025 European Masters event.
We have added a one-day Youth event to our calendar on 30th Dec – UKLA Winter Youth Champs. The event is being organised and run by Draycote Water Sailing Club with support from UKLA.
Having recently completed our annual return to the RYA, there were some interesting numbers. Entries at our events in 2022 are way up, in fact 31% on a comparable basis with the Inlands alone having 65 more entries. I have mentioned before that we will do close 2,000 sailor training days in 2022 – that’s roughly 20 sailors doing UKLA training every weekend of the year! So the class is doing well but despite this there are areas to improve.
The Grand Prix circuit is one (Blog#16), but also our Masters participation. This is one of the fastest growing parts in many sports, sailing included, providing physical and mental benefits for participants. UKLA has a great record in this area, and we have some plans to promote further. We also need to promote greater female participation. Sarah Stephens has agreed to identify a programme of activities to this area in our class – in fact, she has already started. In due course we may be looking for some input and extra help.
I also wanted to mention some of the great resources on our website – I know these can be a little difficult to find at times (another project to review and refine!).
There are 36 podcasts in our series Meet the Sailors – An hour with Flower.
There is our super 50th Anniversary Yearbook produced by Guy Noble with many interesting and timeless articles.
There is an article of choosing your best ILCA rig by Ben Nicholls, our Vice-Chair. If you are thinking on transitioning to an ILCA, there is an article here. Please send on to anyone thinking of joining us or changing rig.
Finally an article on What is class legal equipment?
All the best
Mark
Check our UKLA website and calendar of events