UKLA Chair Blog #79

Feb 26

Quite a lot to cover today but first the news that Hannah Snellgrove has been selected for TeamGB in the Paris Olympics this summer. Congratulations to her on behalf of all ILCA sailors in the UK. The journey to get there is never easy so it is great for her to see all the hard work over many years pay off. Her results last summer and this winter in the two World Championships and the Paris Test event showed consistent, world class performances and she can now focus on the Games this summer. Now that both ILCA7 and ILCA6 reps have been selected, I have been reflecting on what that means for us. Of course, their selection is mostly down to individual dedication with the support of their coaches, but we all have had a part to play. These sailors have come up through our class over many years and competed and trained in many of our clubs around the country and many of us will have raced against them. We should consider ourselves part of their team and we need to think how we can support them at the Games.

We had the Dinghy Show at the weekend and our stand was very busy all weekend. There is a “buzz” around the class and I would like to thank everyone who helped out, led by Ellie, including the Youth sailors. Super work – thank you ! I picked out several themes that epitomise our class. Firstly our increased focus on the GP circuit in around 70 clubs across 10 regions, led by John Ling – we will continue to develop and refine over the next few years (see poster above). We also have our Women’s ILCA regatta in July, led by Fiona Atwell. Finally we had the incomparable Stick Daring talking at the show and promoting his book.

With our first Qualifiers in Brightingsea this coming weekend (entries close this evening) and the season upcoming, I wanted to emphasize the need for good behaviour from all our sailors and their supporters. Last year I brought attention to our Misconduct policy and I repeat what I said then

UKLA members want our class to be a welcoming place for all involved with UKLA events, no matter their age or level of experience. We want to encourage a culture where we can all enjoy the sport and display sportsmanship on and off the water. We should show each other respect. Happily, misconduct at UKLA events is rare. But examples have arisen. UKLA hopes, by publicising the expected standards of behaviour and the applicable rules, to further improve standards of behaviour in relation to our events and in our sport more widely.

We also mentioned rules observance in a recent blog:

At most of our national events, UKLA appoint a jury that acts independently of the class. On the water, the main role of jury is to police rule 42 (illegal pumping, rocking etc) and they use a yellow flag and whistle when indicating to a sailor that they have broken rule 42. It is not usual for the jury to protest for boat-on-boat incidents as sailors are expected to do this and the same applies to mark-hitting. There is an exception to this where the jury feels a sailor has broken rule 2 – sportsmanship and fair sailing. This could apply when a sailor knowingly hits a mark and then does not take a penalty and it often results in a non-discardable disqualification. This coming season expect our juries to act a lot tougher on this – if you hit a mark, take your penalty turn.

Whether you are planning coming to Nationals events, our flagship Nationals at WPNSA, our Masters events, our GPs, our training (see calendar below for all of these) or sailing your ILCA at your club, I wish you an enjoyable season.

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