UKLA Chair blog#56

As ever at this time of year, we end the busy summer period with an even busier autumn period. See the Snippets below for more information. I have provided the annual UKLA Chair report below prior to the AGM this weekend in Paignton - it is open for last chance entries until midnight!

Later in the autmun I would like to have forum with regional co-ordinators of Grands Prix and anyone else interested to plan for next year and discuss suggestions and future ideas. Let me know if you are interested.

UKLA Chair report – July 22 to August 23

The class remains in robust health, attracting ILCA sailors across the rigs and age groups. Our inclusive approach is leading to growth in many areas. Let’s look at the numbers.

Our membership continues to be strong, ending 2022 with 1,027 members. Through to early September our 2023 membership total is 988 so with the autumn schedule attracting more new members we are likely to end up at around 1,050.

These figures though don’t tell the full story. Our weekly Chair blog goes to about 2,200 people and our main Facebook channel has 3,700 followers. Our three 2023 Winter virtual training sessions have had almost 15,000 views.

Around the country there are around 50 Grands Prix every year and our Super Sunday in June attracted over 500 participants from 42 clubs, despite the weather and probably a significant under-recording.

Looking at UKLA run event numbers, the Master Nationals had 130 entries compared to 102 in 2022 and the Nationals had around 245 entries despite a clash with Poole Week. Our Qualifiers and Inlands in the autumn attracted almost 700 entries while the three Qualifiers in Spring 2023 had almost 400 entries, this latter being down by about 20 on 2022 mainly because of a clash with the Senior Europeans.

UKLA Training continues to be popular. In 2022 we did almost 2,000 sailor training days and Spring 2023 continued to attract significant numbers, up 25% on the same period in 2022.

Below I have listed some of the initiatives and actions taken this year but I would like to mention our volunteers. Our activities need the support of volunteers both on the water and off the water and I would like to thank all of those that helped during the year. This includes our volunteer Race Management teams and Jury members as well as well parents and others attending events. We have had a thriving committee who have worked incredibly hard on your behalf during the year. We are also thankful for the commitment and passion of our part time class secretary Ellie.

UKLA Committee 22/23

·        Chair – Mark Lyttle

·        Vice-Chair /Youth Rep – Ben Nicholls

·        Sailing Sec – Keith Videlo

·        Training Officer – Tim Hulse

·        Treasurer – Steve Taylor

·        Measurer – Alan Davis

·        Media and Sponsorship – Guy Noble

·        Masters rep – Alison Stevens (finished in July)

·        ILCA7 – Sam Whaley

·        ILCA6- Jane Sunderland

·        ILC44 – Pamela Cross

·        Safeguarding and Female Rep – Fiona Attwell

·        Governance – Gary Finkelstein

·        Grand Prix co-ordinator – Richard Mason (finished in June)

·        Nationals co-ordinator – Tony Woods

Sailing

•             We produced a detailed survey on 2022 Nationals and implemented recommendations for the 2023 Nationals which was considered by many to be hugely successful and based on the proven model inspired by Tony Woods – Tony leaves the committee after the maximum six years with our thanks.

•             We ran 11 National events sustaining or increasing numbers and making improvements including:- - Addressing behaviour issues at our events (with a new Misconduct policy in operation)

- Standardising our safety protocols and procedures so that all UKLA major events are run in the same way. This consistent approach allows us to 

·        Safely run events in multiple locations

·        Integrate host club volunteers into our operation

·        Increase our operational window so that events can safety run in 25knots and no sailors who want to sail are left on the beach.

·        Encourage new volunteers to play an active role in UKLA events. 

- Refining our overall volunteering strategy for both our events and running UKLA including promotion of roles and rewarding volunteers (although more work is needed on this)

•             HISC and UKLA won a bid to host the 2025 Masters Europeans

•             We are encouraging more adult women and older teenagers to sail the ILCA4 – we introduced the ILCA4 at the Masters Nationals, promoted the main Nationals for ILCA4s as an open event and one of our Qualifiers in autumn 2023 will have a separate women start for ILCA4s. In the UK it is an open class while internationally it is mostly an U18 class.

•             We have also encouraged club ILCA7 sailors at our Qualifiers (with limited success so far) and Master events (with improved numbers)

•             Alison Stevens stepped down as Masters rep after a number of years of great effort – many thanks for her efforts.

Training

•             We have implemented and refined the National training programme for all rigs

•             We have provided more volunteer administration support for training (thanks to Lisa, Jo and Lorna) to allow massive increase in training capacity

•             We updated UKLA Training Terms and Conditions to address performance standards in National training, refunds and exclusions for poor behaviour

•             We have better numbers attending ILCA7s National training and are investigating National Development Group working collaboratively with the RYA, although progress has stalled with the RYA review of their Pathway

•             We implemented a UKLA led virtual winter education / training programme for club sailors – there were three sessions with Tim Hulse, Micky Beckett and Daisy Collingridge /Matilda Nicholls - these have had over 15,000 views in less than seven months!

Comms and Media

•             We communicated with over 2,200 ILCA sailors weekly with over 55 Chair blogs

•             We updated website ILCA.uk to improve access to information - underlying current views are up 26% on last year

•             We posted about the success of British Sailing Team and others at international competitions through Facebook to our 3,700 followers

•             We re-activated twitter feed for ILCA race reports on Y&Y

•             We created a WhatsApp group of club class captains female masters and implemented and setup and managed UKLA WhatsApp groups for each rig and training

Sponsors

•             We were delighted to add Rooster as a class sponsor to add to Ovington, Noble Marine, Sailingfast, Southeast sailboats, Harken, Fernhurst books.

•             For those sponsoring the Nationals, we had our first sponsors village and my thanks go to Propverse and David Surkov in stepping forward to fund pizza night. And of course thanks go  to Wildwind for the holiday at the Masters Nationals and Dinghy Show for Grand Prix participation.

Inclusivity

•             We conducted a Female participation survey and received 108 responses which were summarised in Blog #35. We have now formed new working group (FIS – females in ILCA sailing) headed by Fiona Attwell and Sarah Stephens to help implement some of the actions identified. Our female membership has increased from 19% to 22%.

Clubs and Open Meetings

•             For most of the year, our efforts were led by Richard Mason and I would like to thank him for his efforts and passion.

•             Our GP circuit was up and running once again and we continued to run a number of Super Grands Prix and Club training sessions

•             Our Super Sunday initiated by Richard had over 500 sailors on the water on 25th June despite near gale force conditions on the south coast

International

•             GBR sailors continue to attend international events, mainly Worlds and Europeans, in large numbers and we provide support to them. We believe attendance helps with the development of younger sailors in building independence and resilience

•             We updated our Senior Qualification document for international events  

•             We also participated in the RYA Pathway review that is currently underway

Snippets:

• AGM documents

• Last chance entries for Paignton here (to Monday evening). Please book Saturday meal in advance.

• There are 13 Grands Prix in 6 regions in Sept and Oct

• The second autumn Qualifer is at WPNSA whiich is also Masters event (entires will open soon)

• The final qualifer at WPNSA will feature a seprate series and start for girls/women in the ILCA4 - it is an open event (entires will open soon)

• There’s open training in Wales and WPNSA at Oct half term and then the Inlands at Draycote and the Masters Inland at Grafham

• Nationals Youtube report ILCA6 and ILCA4/ILCA7

• Club training in East this winter. If any clubs want their training posted please let me know (it should be open).