UKLA Chair blog #62

Written By Mark Lyttle

This weekend at WPNSA, UKLA ran its first women/girls only racing in the ILCA4s at our Qualifier, with 19 competitors representing 33% of the total ILCA4 fleet. I know Fiona (as Chair of the Female ILCA Sailors group) will be reviewing the feedback she has collected and that will help us inform future direction. As I have consistently said, we trialled this because of our survey earlier in the year where we had 108 responses (with many detailed comments), mostly from sailors active at UKLA events. A small majority wanted to “sometimes” race on women only starts – until this weekend it has never happened. It is a subject with strong feelings on both sides of the argument, probably reflecting a broader debate in society. Many women want to race in bigger fleets against men to maximise the opportunity to improve although it is also pointed out that international events have women only starts. But many women also find men are too aggressive on the start line. I understand both sides of the argument and I am simply reflecting the messages we have received as a class. We remain committed to any initiatives that will help increase participation levels for women.

One of the things I often hear is about the high quality of race management at UKLA events and we should thank the volunteer teams that make this happen. As someone who has raced in most UKLA events in recent years and has for decades raced in all types of competition, all over the UK and on most continents of the world, I can vouch that this praise is both well-earned and very well-deserved. We have to remember that sailing conditions can be very difficult and are outside the control of the race management team. It is easy for sailors (or a supporter back ashore) to criticise individual decisions of the race officer without understanding the full context. The race officer has many sources of input from very experienced sailors to those with local knowledge and has to make the best judgements they can based on all that information. So, we all need to respect this. This of course applies to open meetings and club racing as well. We are lucky to have race management volunteers that run racing for us.

At the weekend, the racing took place in Weymouth Bay on Saturday and I walked up above Portland to look out over the harbour and bay. A northern westerly In Weymouth is always very gusty and shifty but this was made worse by the big rain clouds moving through the course during the day (and the ship anchored in the wrong place).  The race officer did a great job getting the races done in these conditions, but it made for a long day. In the last year or two we have made a real effort to race the Bay based on sailor feedback but of course the downside is the much longer sail in and out. On Sunday, racing was in the harbour in a south-westerly with the race officer (wisely in my view) concluding that conditions in the Bay would be no better and would have been followed by a very long sail in after racing. The result was great racing, according to those I talked to, with all fleets ashore by about 2pm.

On a slightly different note, I was unable to sail at the weekend because of a sore back and I was surprised I didn’t get the usual comment “what do you suspect from sailing an ILCA”. Yes, I recognise that the hiking position may not be ideal for backs and knees but I have never supported  the view that back pain (or other ailments) is caused by ILCA sailing. Before giving up my job to sail full time in the early nineties, I had my back checked out as I had had regular back pain in the previous decade. The finding was “wear and tear” but also that I had a weak “core” and back muscles. It was a big lesson and why I have worked to build and sustain back strength since then and it is probably something all of us should be doing to prevent injury. While visiting a consultant about my hip recently, we started talking about the impact on knees of continued running as we get older. To my surprise, he said he had done research on this and pointed me to his website. It turns out that running may be good for your knees, the hypotheses being that we evolved (as humans) to run and running builds strength in the bones and joints reducing the risk of injury. And it turns out that there is some research to indicate that 95% of people who don’t run (or exercise) at all have knees problems (some latent) that are clearly not caused by running. Most of the population, whether they exercise or not have back pain or injuries at some stage, and while I have not come across a research study on it, it appears support my hunch that back problems are generally not caused by ILCA sailing or sport in general and the best thing you can do to prevent these problems is exercise. (For the avoidance of doubt, I am not medically trained so consult your own doctor 😉).

Snippets:

Mark Lyttle
Previous

UKLA Chair blog #63
Next

UKLA Chair blog #61