UKLA Chair blog #63
Our class is booming at most levels. We have over 1,000 members and at least as many again who regularly sail ILCAs who are not members (it is £3.25 per month – please join here 😊). We get thousands of entries at our events and do over a thousand training days each year. There were over 75 Grands Prix on our calendar in 2023 in ten regions. We had hundreds competing internationally. All of this creates several challenges. Putting aside the shear amount of work for our volunteers (and ever-present need for more of them), we are bound to have diverse opinions across our ecosystem. It is the role of UKLA committee to manage this in the best interest of the class as a whole, which of course doesn’t mean (always) the majority. As a group we have broad experience, and while we do make mistakes, we strive to improve ILCA sailing in the UK. There are two challenges I would like to address this week – the location of our events and how we should support grassroots ILCA sailing.
Many of you will have seen the decision to move our 2024 Nationals from Paignton to WPNSA. As we said last week, while Torbay is a world class sailing area and we had super support and encouragement from Paignton S.C., we decided, after considerable discussion, that running an event with 250 boats in the way we have got used to, was just not practical. It is worth providing some background. Under Tony Woods’ leadership, pre-Covid the class started re-building numbers at our Nationals using the “festival of ILCA sailing” concept with high quality racing for club sailors and more activities and socials ashore. Like many sports and classes, in 2021 we saw an unexpected post-Covid spike in numbers at our Nationals in WPNSA but unlike others, our numbers have remained robust at around 250 entries. It is also worth mentioning the dynamic around venues in the post-Covid world. While many classes had no National championship in 2020, WPNSA stepped-up and hosted a super event for us, which meant we had the Nationals in consecutive years at WPNSA. In 2022, two venues in Wales (not Plas Heli) cancelled at relatively short notice and we were lucky to have Hayling Island SC to host us, even though we were booked to go there in 2023 as well. My point is that there was period when securing venues was difficult. The feedback from this year’s Nationals was very positive (see blog #59 where 93% of sailors thought the organisation very good or excellent), so the committee’s view is that we need to be able to sustain the same “festival of ILCA sailing” approach with 250 entries. Looking ahead, as we had already booked to go to WPNSA for the 2025 Nationals, we have swapped that for Plas Heli. We have also reconnected with Mounts Bay following their decision to cancel our Nationals a couple of years ago due to Covid and plan to visit in 2027. Looking at events further ahead, in 2029 East Lothian YC have agreed to host our UKLA Nationals.
We have also been looking at the venues of our six Qualifiers. It is true that 15 of the last 16 have been on the south coast, partly for the reasons mentioned above. I made a commitment shortly after becoming Chair 15 months ago to have more events away from the south coast, a commitment that the class reaffirmed at the AGM in Paignton last month – we are the UKLA after all ! This does give us a challenge as there remains a high desire from our sailors that all three rigs are at the same event most of the time, which means we need venues that can handle 150 entries in March or September/October.
So next year, we will be going back to Plas Heli for the first time in many years on 14th /15th September and to Brightlingsea on 2nd/3rd March for the ILCA6s and ILCA7s (it clashes with RYA RTGs so no ILCA4s). We also plan on going to East Lothian YC in Sept 2025. We remain interested in hearing from clubs across the country that can support 150 boats at the time of year mentioned.
Over the winter we plan to review our events asking whether we can run Qualifiers at different times of year but also reviewing our policy on when to flight fleets and what criteria to use when deciding to sail in Weymouth Bay. As ever, we are thankful to all our venues for their support and I would like to thank our Sailing Secretary, Keith Videlo, for his hard work and commitment.
On the second topic of supporting grassroots ILCA sailing, hundreds of ILCA sailors are doing club racing every week. Hundreds of you sailed in Grands Prix this year. This blog is emailed to 2,200 of you every week but I am sure many are not receiving it (please email around and suggest subscribing here). Our Facebook channel has 3,800 followers. Even with so much activity going on and despite our impressive reach, we are still not talking to many of you.
Why is this important? Because our members are telling us we should do more to support grassroots ILCA sailing across the country. For example, many believe we should do more to promote the ILCA4 as a great boat for lighter sailors, especially boys and girls. You also want us support women ILCA sailing at club level and to support club training. How do we in UKLA support, encourage and educate clubs when we have limited resources? How do we better promote Grands Prix?
We have scheduled a forum to get your input and to hear your views on Monday 6th Nov at 7pm. Click here to register.
UKLA Events
4-5/11/2023 - Inland Championships at Draycote Water SC - (entries close 31st October 2023)
UKLA Training
Winter open training dates released - UKLA Calendar
UKLA Announcements
GP and club on Monday 6th Nov at 7pm. Click here to register and give your views
Upcoming open meetings and club events
Thames Valley GP - Queen Mary on 12th Nov UKLA Calendar
Race reports