UKLA Chair blog #48

Written By Mark Lyttle

courtesy Peter Hickson

Wow – what a weekend we had at the Masters Nationals in Hayling Island Sailing Club! There were over 130 entries in a superbly organised event - remember this was a Masters only event!  Even with challenging conditions at times, the Race Officer, Mark Woods and his team of volunteers did a great job keeping the racing on track. Onshore, HISC were excellent hosts and my thanks go to them AND also Alison, Guy and Ellie for their hard work.

The overwhelming sensation today is tiredness which hides a plethora of other sensations I got from talking to many of you. Almost everyone has a sense of satisfaction that we survived the conditions and many of US were exhilarated by the brilliant downwind surfing conditions. For some this was the first time in those conditions, especially those from lake venues who can reasonably describe the weekend’s sailing as a different sport (we have an Inland Masters in October). No doubt some of us were even frightened at times especially on the last downwind sail back to the club! As far as I could see there was good camaraderie and sportsmanship on show (not always evident in every sport). Anyway the point is we were there, making the most of it. Well done to everyone.

It may be worthwhile giving an ILCA7 perspective on the racing. To my mind there were three big factors – boat speed, fitness and avoid major mistakes. It was a weekend for depowering upwind – a very tight cunningham but keeping some power in the foot (a hand-width) and tons of kicker (I had to let mine off the tack). Then steering up the wave to near the top and then hiking hard over the top, often releasing some mainsheet. Interestingly Orlando and I have a similar technique but Brett is brilliant at keeping the boat really steady and maintaining a high speed which translates into a high course made good. Of course downwind speed could be a blog in its own right. On fitness, while it is clearly important, it does not translate into less pain – everyone feels that.

I made some big mistakes in Race5 demonstrating where it can go wrong. Downwind there seemed more pressure (or gusts) on the right, the opposite of Saturday and I don’t think I spotted in time to avoid losing ground on the first run. Then on the second beat, I think the strategy changed subtly from mainly oscillating to a more persistent left shift and I got stuck on the right. Finally capsizing is definitely not quick 😊

See results here

On to Super Sunday. So far we have returns from 30 clubs / open meetings with 350 ILCAs – isn’t that amazing? But I think there must be at least 50 clubs out there and I think we can get past 500. Here is the list of clubs but there are some missing, where are you – Parkstone, Poole, West Kirby, Leigh and Lowton, Lymington, Rutland? Please make sure you club is listed. If you don’t have a class captain on the UKLA Whatsapp group, just reply to me on the blog email.

  • Graham water sc

  • West Riding Sailing club

  • Castle Cove Sailing Club

  • Felpham Sailing Club

  • Olton Mere Sailing Club

  • Notts County Sailing Club

  • Spinnaker Sailing Club

  • Queen Mary SC

  • King George sailing club

  • HISC

  • Delph SC

  • Weir Wood

  • Bartley SC

  • Pennine Sailing Club

  • Draycote Water Sailing Club

  • Locks Sailing Club

  • Derwent Reservoir SC

  • Lancing SC

  • Deben YC

  • Bowmoor

  • Seafarers Sailing Club

  • Budworth SC

  • Glossop

  • Hill ahead Sailing Club

  • Maidenhead Sailing Club

  • Wembley Sailing Club

  • Pevensey Bay Sailing Club

Snippet:

Mark Lyttle
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