ILCA UK Chair Blog #92

Jun 3

After a rare week off last Monday, there’s a lot to cover this week including supporting our TeamGB sailors, our new brand, more on the Nationals and my thoughts of race series focus.

Hannah Snellgrove and Micky Beckett competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics are part of our ILCA community and are connected to us in ways that many other aren’t. There are thousands of ILCA sailors around the country that can relate directly to their competition as they sail exactly to same boat. That’s why I would like to ask you to send a message of support. We have pinned a post in our FB and Insta channels.

You will have also seen that we have made the transition from UKLA to ILCA UK, the final stage in the process of moving from Laser to ILCA. ILCA is the international class association of which we are members. While there is a long history associated with the move, which is for another day, we should reflect on the strength our class. It is truly international with world youth events get around 50 countries competing in identical boats. At home, there are 20-year-old Lasers racing with newer ILCAs in almost every club, with a sailor age span 70 years, with those just starting to race all the way through to Hannah and Micky. Over the next couple of weeks, we will complete the branding transition.

Just a follow-up on the Nationals 2024 (of which I mentioned details in my last blog #91) with entries continuing to come in. We are hoping for great event like last year where in our post-event survey 92% of sailors thought the organisation was very good or excellent. On-shore activities also got 92% and the race management 89%. I know the weather makes a big difference, but I also know the team are working hard to put on a great event again. To ensure value for sailors, we do run the event at a significant deficit and even then it is only possible with our great sponsors and time and effort committed by a volunteers.

Finally, on race series focus. In blog #87 I discussed race focus which was all about “in race” approach. But typically, a race series is over many days or a campaign is over a much longer period and maintaining momentum and confidence is critical. As early as blog #4 I said Perhaps the biggest benefit is building resilience through the ups and downs of sporting competition. After all, the essence of sport is winning some and losing some or not knowing the outcome in advance. Our racing has so many factors outside our control like wind, current and other boats and helping and supporting younger sailors build that resilience when results don't match their expectations is key. In my view, building that resilience is a great skill in life.

I said to one of my boys recently that the lowest point of my sailing career came with a big lesson. I had given up working for Apple Computer in Oct 1994 to sail full-time and as you can imagine it was a big decision. I headed off to a training camp in the Med and then in the early New Year headed down the Floride Keys for another one with Chis Gowers and an up and coming Laser sailor called Iain Percy. (Chris told me at the time that Iain would win an Olympic Gold medal which was quite prescient). We all headed then to the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, which back then was one of the top graded regattas along with Hyeres, “Spa” in Medemblik and Kiel Week. For me it was my first Olympic Qualification regatta and I had a really decent result finishing in the middle of the Gold fleet, which I was very happy with. I thought onwards and upwards. A couple of weeks later, I attend the Laser Midwinters East events, which is a U.S. domestic event, probably not even at the standard of one of our Qualifiers, in Sarasota, Florida. One the first day, we had a qualifying series for gold and silver but with light wind we only managed a single race in 5 knots with a big right shift – I was on the left! So, I ended up in the Silver fleet. All I could think, I have given up my job in Apple to sail full-time and here I am in the Silver fleet of this domestic event. I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Afterwards, I decided I need to work with psychologist to improve my resilience (I would not have called myself un-resilient😊). I worked with her mainly on sustaining the right mental state from one race to the next. It became quite useful. After the warning signal of the first race at the 1996 Olympics, I went upwind on starboard to check the latest wind and then bore away back to the start as I looked at my watch. Bang! My bow went through the side of the Fijian sailor’s boat as he came up on starboard. I quickly did a 720 and then looked across at the Fijian Laser barely floating with its deck awash. I knew the 720 was probably pointless as that evening I sat in the jury room with Bryan Willis as Chair. With some empathy he read out the rule which said I should be disqualified because of the serious damage. The Fijian sailor, who showed real class in the hearing got his “average” points although in fact he was given one place better than his afternoon race in the replacement boat which turned out to be his second-best finishing place of the regatta.

With my resilience training, I was quite neutral about this. After all, although it was 100% my fault, it was really just a bit of bad luck. Next morning, I won Race 3.

Snippets

Get ready for the summer – Chair’s playlist of three virtual training sessions on Youtube

ILCA UK events

You can enter the ILCA UK Noble Marine Open & National Championships 2024 – WPNSA here

The next ILCA UK event is the Masters weekend at WPNSA on 6th/7th July. Why not come and start your program for the Masters Europeans in Hayling Island next June? For those of you considering a return to competitive ILCA sailing after some years at this Masters event, remember you are not expected to perform at the same level as you did as a youth!

After that we also have the Women ILCA Regatta - Rutland Sailing Club on 13th/14th July. If you want to ask more about this, Fiona’s contact details are on the link. She would love to hear from those thinking of transitioning from junior classes and masters and anyone else.

Welsh Championships welcome sailors of all ages on 19/21st July and Youth is invited to sail at the Youth Open event at Royal Lymington YC 27/28th July.

Other ILCA events

Over the summer there are many open meetings and Grands Prix all over the country. See our calendar.

As some of you will have seen, the RYA Regional Junior championships have been cancelled. I am aware for three replacement regattas (click on venue for details) on 22nd/23rd June for ILCA4s at Queen Mary, WPNSA and Derwent.

In addition, for those youths looking for regional racing throughout the season, check out these (none of these are UKLA events so for details please see the organisers):