UKLA Chair blog #59

Written By Mark Lyttle

Calling all women interested in single-handed sailing. UKLA have an exciting trial at our open meeting / Qualifier on 21st/22nd Oct at WPNSA (calendar) with a separate start and race series for ILCA4 women / girls. ILCA4 is an open age class in the UK. Even if you are over 18 come and join us or if you race an ILCA6, why not drop down for the weekend?

This trial follows feedback from the Female Participation survey earlier in 2023. When introducing the survey in the blog (read it again here) I mentioned that lots of progress had been made around female participation but there was also a lot more to do. The women’s single-handed event at the Olympics in ILCA6s is highly competitive and contributes to a high standard of racing our mixed ILCA6 fleet in the UK. In the ILCA4 we also have a highly competitive fleet where the smaller rig opens the opportunity to a wider group of sailors. But as I said back in January surely we should be aspiring to having equal numbers of boys and girls in this fleet?

The same can be said of our Masters events. While these are super events that we aim to make as inclusive as possible, it is glaring how few female masters we have.

The survey provided some excellent feedback and I reported on this at the time (read it again here) but it is worth emphasizing some of the main points and the progress we have made. We have now formed a sub-committee called FIS (Female ILCA Sailiors), headed by Fiona Atwell,  that is now meeting regularly (my thanks to Sarah Stephens who co-chaired its start-up and drove the initial survey activities with others).

A sizable number in the survey, although a minority, reported direct unfavourable gender-based discrimination (through words or actions) with plenty of examples reported. This includes misogynistic and derogatory comments. I said at the time that this has no place in our class or sport. As we head into a busy period of regattas, winter training and frostbiting, we need to reflect on this as a community and call out this behaviour. I know the FIS is looking at some “education” to help get this message out but we can all do our bit.

A small majority said they would support separate racing and regattas “sometimes”, with comments stressing the value of females racing together from time to time. That’s why we are trialling the separate ILCA4 start in Oct. We have also introduced an ILCA4 masters category that should encourage more women sailors. There is also a Whatapp group run by Jo West for women masters. You can join though the ILCA UK whatsapp group (link in the mailing).

Also Save the date for Female ILCA Regatta on 13-14 July 2024 at Rutland Sailing Club. It will feature a female race team, training on Saturday, racing on Sunday with all fleets, all ages, all abilities, lots of fun! Camping available and Saturday night social.

The FIS team is also moving thy towards ILCA 4 and 6 results being published three ways as overall, then split out to females and males for each event and the ladders. Thanks to the volunteers who are helping with extra work. We are also creating a media guide for our volunteers to ensure Yachts and Yachting reports have the right balance.

Some of you will be interested in the results of our survey from the Nationals , the summary of which is very pleasing. Overall 93% of respondents felt the organisation was excellent or very good versus 74% last year, race management was 89% (excellent or very good) and onshore activities was also 93% versus 63% last year. Overall, 80% thought HISC was a very good or excellent venue. We are reviewing the detailed comments to extract themes. Our updated mentoring programme worked well with some suggestions for improvements. Fiona and the rest of UKLA would like to thank all mentors who did a superb job in any way they helped, encouraged or even coached their mentees; it is very much appreciated and all ongoing support across the year to each other or others only strengthens the class and our enjoyment of all events.

Just to mention another great initiative from Brett Lewis - National Mark Layers Course on 20th October. It is an innovative and unique new course run for UKLA for Mark Layers designed by Mark Layers. The course consists of a work book and a one day practical session to consolidate the work book theory. No previous mark laying experience required but candidates must be either PB2 qualified or have relevant experience.

Snippets:

Mark Lyttle
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