UKLA Chair blog #65
Sailing in waves
I went for a short sail in Portland Harbour on Sunday morning. My son was doing some UKLA training and I started thinking about sailing downwind in waves.
If you can surf or half-surf on a wave you get a speed surge and that is quite important if you are racing 😊. Unless it is quite windy, waves pass under the boat, so it is all about how to better catch the wave. Firstly, your fore and aft body position is important. If your weight is too far back in the boat, it stern digs in and the boat are less likely to skid down the wave, so getting the weight forward facilitates more surfing. Of course, in steeper waves and windier conditions, the bow of the boat is likely to bury itself, filling the cockpit with water (which is very slow) so moving back in the boat is important. Then in some conditions you will need to move forward and then back all on the same wave.
Moving on from that, the faster the boat is moving, the better the chance of catching a wave and this brings us to upturns, downturns and so-called S turns. An ILCA on a broad reach or sailing by the lee is quicker than running dead downwind, so setting either course with a bit of extra speed means as you turn dead downwind you are more likely to catch the wave. To facilitate the turning, you heel the boat – heeling the boat to leeward helps steer the upturn on to a broad reach and heeling to windward helps steer the downturn as far as sailing by the lee. Linking this steering together is where the term S turn comes from. Of course, it is not as easy as that.
There is Rule 42 – Propulsion which allows actions like rocking and pumping only in certain cases (Rule 42 is probably the subject on another blog). Specifically heeling to windward to facilitate bearing away and heeling to leeward to facilitate heading up are permitted but repeated rolling not linked to wave patterns is prohibited even if the boat changes course with each roll. This means that if you getting the timing of your rolling wrong, you are breaking the rules, which is difficult if you are still learning how to do it competently. Also if there are not waves (e.g. many inland venues) then repeated rolling to facilitate steering is not allowed.
It is also worth mentioning that the degree of turning is different in all three rigs and is probably least pronounced in an ILCA4 as the boat is relatively under-powered.
The description S turn is also not accurate as you have to steer a course that maximises catching the waves and this is likely to be fairly random, looking for the best waves to turn on. It is also complicated by different waves patterns (e.g. cross waves rather those aligned directly with wind), wind shifts and gusts (both of which may help surfing in one direction more than another). Choosing the best course to steer in the waves is something top sailors are continually striving for and not always getting right as it depends on both experience and skill.
And this relates to why Masters sailors are often not as quick in waves and I can relate this to my own experience. This type of sailing in waves started prior to the 1996 Olympics when shorter races with trapezoid courses were introduced. Running before this might have been in the second hour of a two-hour race when the fleet was already well spread out. Now the running downwind starts within 10 or 12 minutes of the start and so it becomes critical to be able run faster. It was in the years leading to 1996 that the core techniques emerged. If you were a Laser sailor in the eighties (as I was) you never learnt these techniques but the nineties we did. I remember being towed upwind for miles to allow long runs back down to develop those skills. By the time of the Games in 1996 I think my running speed was as fast as anyone – check this video from Race 3 (OK it has taken me 65 blogs to mention Race 3 😊) and see how close the fleet were at the windward mark and the end of the first run. I still vividly remember that run as every time I upturned, I saw boats out of the corner on my right eye and every time in downturned I saw boats out of the corner of my left eye – all you could think was don’t miss a wave.
So why am I not so quick running downwind now compared to the younger ILCA7 sailors? Well, I am probably slightly heavier and this does makes a big difference when trying to surf. You also need to be sailing a lot in different conditions to maintain or acquire those skills and I notice this particularly at the end of longer regatta that my downwind speed starts to improve as skills are re-acquired. Developing those skills means having to sail in lots of different waves conditions, and that’s what I was thinking about Sunday morning in Portland Harbour.
UKLA Training
Open Regional Training on 18/19 Nov closes on Wed. Also if 5 masters sign-up for the 9/10 Dec Regional training, they will have a dedicated coach
Winter open training dates released - UKLA Calendar
UKLA Announcements
Eurilca has announced details of the 2023 EurILCA Team Racing European Championship – it is open on a first come first served basis. Details here
UKLA core working hours over winter are Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 1-6pm
Upcoming open meetings and club events / news
Race reports
UKLA Chair blog #64
Inlands
At the weekend we had the last UKLA regatta of the year which was the Inland Championship at Draycote and it was a great weekend of racing.
With temperatures dropping, the Race Management team were very efficient in getting 3 races completed each day with minimum hanging around. I enjoyed my first racing in a month recovering from my back problem and as ever, it was difficult competing in the ILCA7 with many younger sailors. It was typical inland shifty conditions and my first thought afterwards was how hard it is to get the strategy and tactics correct. But on further reflection, I think boat speed is just as important in these conditions and it is often under-rated. The winners are undoubtedly getting the big decisions correct but here is also truth in the expression that a little boat speed makes you look like as tactical genius!
There is no doubt that you must get the shifts and no superior boat speed is going to overcome poor decisions. But consider the first tack off the start, a boat length or two advantage after a couple of minutes gives you the freedom to tack when you want as the shift appears. Without that you are often held by the boat on the weather quarter or will need to duck starboard tackers losing valuable ground. There is certainly a skill in trying to get through a closely bunched fleet while continuing to make the right tactical decisions and of course, once a little ahead, it is so much easier (though not easy) to make those decisions.
It is often worse if you lose your lane after the start and you need to tack. If you tack off a lift, you may end ducking quite a lot of boats heading right to get clear air, all the time being on a header. Once you get that clear air and tack, the chances are the wind shifts back and you have sailed two headers and are even further behind.
So rather than beating myself up for not getting the tactics, I need to focus a bit more on developing boat speed. In the meantime, compromises need to be made. Starting on the pin without superior boat speed in shifty conditions exposes you to missing the first shift with so many boats on the weather quarter. That’s why I started in the middle of the line to provide a bit more flexibility.
So that is more or less a wrap on the 2023 racing season. My thanks to all the super UKLA volunteers that have allowed us to have record (or at least close to record) numbers at our events.
UKLA Training
Winter open training dates released - UKLA Calendar
UKLA Announcements
Eurilca has announced details of the 2023 EurILCA Team Racing European Championship – it is open on a first come first served basis. Details here
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
UKLA Chair blog #63
Event locations and GP forum
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
UKLA Chair blog #62
ILCA4 girls, volunteers and injuries
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:
28-29/10/2023 - Masters Inalnds at Grafham SC. Inland Championships for sailors over 30 years old (entries close 25th October 2023)
4-5/11/2023 - Inland Championships at Draycote Water SC - (entries close 30th October 2023)
Winter open training dates released - UKLA Calendar
Two more GPs this year - Hunts on 28th Oct and Queen Mary on 12th Nov
UKLA Chair blog #61
Micky Beckett - a role model
Last week, Micky Beckett was announced as the TeamGB representative in the single-handed (ILCA7) sailing event at the Paris 24 Olympics. It reflects his superb performances this season - silver medal at both the Worlds and Paris test event, winner in Palma and 2nd place at Hyeres (behind his teammate Elliott Hanson). Of course, we know Micky well. He is a regular competitor at UKLA events, most recently in September in Paignton, always happy to share his knowledge and provide support. He has coached regularly for UKLA and even did some club training at Queen Mary a couple of weekends ago. He did one of our virtual training sessions last winter and is always ready to contribute. A group of seven ILCA7 Masters were lucky enough to be coached by Micky at the Master Worlds in Mexico, where we got to know him well and our consensus is that he is a super role model.
Last week I also attended an event where Theodore Roosevelt was quoted "to educate a (person) in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society". I thought about this in the context of UKLA - is it our role to create brilliant sailors? The answer is clearly no. We support an inclusive class with a wide range of competencies and skills where each sailor is on their own journey, whether that is a youth sailor enjoying club racing or aspiring to an Olympic medal or a master returning to sailing or wanting to go the Masters Worlds. Yes we need to provide a supportive and encouraging environment at the high-performance end but also make club sailors welcome alongside this, giving them the opportunity to improve. Indeed there is more to do on inclusivity especially along gender, ethnicity and socio-economic lines, but that's another topic (see blog #59 on improving female participation).
But there is more than supporting and encouraging high-performance. We want to see our top sailors (whether youth, senior or master) to compete fairly and with integrity. We want them to be role models and give something back. We don't condone cheating and we challenge poor behaviour and foul language. This includes misogynistic behaviour (again blog #59 on calling out this behaviour). We also want a safe environment for all our participants - sailors, coaches, parents and volunteers. Don't get me wrong, top sailors often compete "with an edge" and I am certainly no angel in this regard, but we must stay the right side of the line.
We have seen a change in strategy from UK Sport, who provide the funding for most Olympic sports including sailing. After a series of controversies around athlete welfare and selection (not in sailing), possibly arising from a win at all costs approach, their updated strategy still has winning at its core alongside "winning well" or with integrity, using that to inspire the next generation of athletes. Our winners need to be capable of being admired.
This is what UKLA and all of us need to support. But it is why we should congratulate Micky, not just for his brilliant performances, but because he wins well.
Snippets:
21-22/10/2023 - The final qualifer at WPNSA will feature a separate series and start for girls/women in the ILCA4 - it is an open event (entries close 16th October 2023)
Half term UKLA open training - calendar
28-29/10/2023 - Masters Inalnds at Grafham SC. Inland Championships for sailors over 30 years old (entries close 25th October 2023)
4-5/11/2023 - Inland Championships at Draycote Water SC - entries are now open
November training sessions entries will open tonight
UKLA Chair blog #60
Gulfport and lessons learnt
40 years ago this month I went to the World Championships in Gulfport, Mississippi and it was only after this regatta that I would learn some important lessons for my future sailing and more broadly in life.
Firstly, a little bit of background. In 1983, I was a 20-year-old University student heading into a summer of non-stop sailing (and some instructing to help pay for it). As well as lots of domestic competitions, I went to the Europeans in Norway. I also won most of the big Irish regional regattas that summer and in the lead up to the Irish National championships in August, I felt I was in a good position to win that event for the first time.
As often happens in sailing, the weather didn't play ball and we had a very light wind regatta and in fact only had three races sailed up until the last day. But going into the fourth and final race I still had a good chance of becoming National Champion by finishing the race in first place with my nearest competitor in eighth place. The winds were very light and I led around the first triangle (as it was then) and on the final beat the wind started to die to nothing as a sea breeze filled slowly from behind. I drifted across the line in first place as did the next ten boats, however by then a couple of knots of wind had filled in in the opposite direction and the rest of the fleet ended up crossing the finishing line in a big bunch making it difficult for the race committee to record numbers. Having already taken the winning gun, the race committee abandoned the race. It meant that a few minutes earlier I had been National Champion and now this had been taken away.
I sought redress from the Protest Committee on the grounds that my finishing position had been materially prejudiced through no fault of my own and the Protest Committee found as fact that this was the case however they did not award any redress and the results stood. As you can imagine I was not happy with this, to put it lightly!
My subsequent appeal to the National Authority was unsuccessful and I then decided to write to Gerald Sambrooke Sturgess who was perhaps the leading rules authority at the time. He very kindly wrote back to me (sadly I can’t find the letter) and said that he thought I had been unfairly treated but that I needed to accept the result as a “rub of the green”, in other words sport sometimes throws up these unfair results.
Luckily fom me, the World Championships was taking place two months after this and I was able to spend the six weeks training in Dun Laoghaire with a great group of sailors including Frank Glynn (a future commodore of the California Yacht Club), Marshall King (a future Soling Olympian and team-mate who was racing last week at Queen Mary) and Bill O'Hara, who at the time was a real mentor for me as he had finished second in the 1982 European Championships (he then finished 13th in the Finn at the 1984 LA Games). It was first time perhaps that I could see the purity of a training camp, sailing daily, with few other distractions (in those days there wasn’t even a coach insight).
Those Worlds in Mississippi produced excellent sailing conditions with 12 to 15 knots of wind in the Gulf of Mexico and I sailed my boots off finishing 19th out of the fleet of 250.
After this regatta, I was able to reflect on the setback at the Irish Nationals in August. Firstly, it provided me with massive amount of motivation to do well at the World Championships. I learnt that it's not enough to turn up at a regatta even if you've done the training if you're not highly motivated to achieve your objectives (whatever they are). I know other people may be different but that's what I learned about myself at that regatta. The second thing was about building resilience. Two months before I was rock bottom and now I felt almost on top of the world. Sport has a habit of producing highlights and lowlights, often very close to each other and often out of your control and it’s something we need to accept and be able to rebound from the lowlights. Boucing back from setbacks is an important skill in sport and life.
Snippets:
14-15/10/2023 - The second autumn Qualifer is at WPNSA which is also Masters event (entries close TONIGHT 9th October 2023)
21-22/10/2023 - The final qualifer at WPNSA will feature a separate series and start for girls/women in the ILCA4 - it is an open event (entries close 16th October 2023)
Half term UKLA open training - calendar
28-29/10/2023 - Masters Inalnds at Grafham SC. Inland Championships for sailors over 30 years old (entries close 25th October 2023)
4-5/11/2023 - Inland Championships at Draycote Water SC - entries are now open
UKLA Chair blog #59
Women sailing
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:
14-15/10/2023 - The second autumn Qualifer is at WPNSA which is also Masters event (entries close 9th October 2023)
21-22/10/2023 - The final qualifer at WPNSA will feature a separate series and start for girls/women in the ILCA4 - it is an open event (entries close 16th October 2023)
27-28/10/2023 - North Region Open training at Plas Heli opens tonight at 8pm
28-29/10/2023 - Masters Inalnds at Grafham SC. Inland Championships for sailors over 30 years old (entries close 25th October 2023)
4-5/11/2023 - Inland Championships at Draycote Water SC - entries open soon
UKLA Chair blog #58
Masters sailing and schedule
Some years ago the Laser class (as it was then) ran some ads selling the virtues of Masters sailing. These emphasise the inclusivity and simplicity of ILCA sailing, attracting a wide range of experience and competency. Today masters or veterans sport is booming with older athletes coming back to sport or staying in it longer, whether running, cycling or a plethora of other sports. Sailing is no exception. While many masters are doing club racing or going to Grands Prix across the country, the numbers coming to UKLA events have been strong and growing. At the Masters Nationals we had 117 sailors sailing in at least one race (ILCA 6 – 53, ILCA 7 – 61 and 3 in the newly created ILCA4 division) although with 130 entries some were somewhat put off by the strong wind forecast. This made it the biggest event of the year of Euro Masters series. And of course we had almost 80 entries at Parkstone in late April. Over the last year we had over 200 different masters at our events.
The benefits of masters sailing whether at club level or beyond are obvious – the physical exercise, the mental stimulation of competition and trying to improve and perhaps most importantly the opportunity to socialise. Recently at Queen Mary we had Ninian Eadie “retire” from ILCA sailing in his mid-eighties and it was pleasing and maybe surprising how many of us took him as a role model or inspiration to keep racing ILCAs.
So this is a call out of all sailors over 30, whether you have raced an ILCA or not, to consider a return to club sailing this winter. Or perhaps you want a bit of a challenge - Hayling Island are hosting the 2025 Masters Europeans – why not start a campaign with autumn? Or just come and have some good racing. UKLA can offer a number of opportunities to get started.
14th/15th Oct at WPNSA - a Masters event combined with a main Qualifier
28th/29th Oct at Grafham is the Masters inlands (this opens on Wed 27th Sept). This is a great venue for everyone – no big waves to deal with and the opportunity to enter one of three rigs – ILCA7, ILCA6 and ILCA4. Further, there will be an opportunity downsize or upsize your rig up to the Saturday morning based on the forecast (this may be limited in numbers and there may be a small admin fee).
Remember these events are open to any competent club sailors - it is not all ex-Olympian trialists or ex-Youth Squad sailors!
Next year we already have Masters events scheduled at Rutland, Hayling Island and Weymouth – three super venues.
I look forward to seeing you on the water.
Snippets:
The RYA and British Sailing Team are looking for an ILCA6 coach. See here for more information
There are 13 Grands Prix in 6 regions in Sept and Oct
The second autumn Qualifer is at WPNSA which is also Masters event (entries will open 20th September 2023)
The final qualifer at WPNSA will feature a separate series and start for girls/women in the ILCA4 - it is an open event (entries will open 20th September 2023)
There’s open training in Wales and WPNSA at Oct half term and then the Inlands at Draycote and the Masters Inlands at Grafham.
Nationals Youtube report ILCA6 and ILCA4/ILCA7
UKLA Chair blog #57
Distraction management with Micky and Hannah ………..
A couple of things to call out at the start. First for ILCA4s, there are two open meetings this weekend that are part of the RYA RTG selection process – a two-day event at Carsington for the North and Midlands RTGs and a one day event at Datchet for the East, South East and London regions. UKLA calendar
Secondly, would you like to see British Sailing Team and Squad sailors racing at your club? Well more than 10 of them were racing last weekend at Paignton Sailing Club in the ILCA6 and ILCA7. Now the UKLA is looking for venues for our weekend national events (Qualifiers) in 2024 and beyond. These should be sea venues anywhere in UK but we would like to hear from more away from the south coast. You will need to be able to cater for 150 to 200 sailors both on the racecourse and the boat park. We can support and compliment you with UKLA race management and safety as well as a great team of volunteers. These events normally take place in March and September/October. We would love to hear from you.
Talking about Paignton, we had a great Q&A with Micky Beckett and Hannah Snellgrove on the Saturday evening. These are two of the top sailors in the world talking openly about their highlights and lowlights from the season. It was fascinating to hear from them about their processes when things don’t go perfectly. One theme was around refocussing on “little” successes, for instance getting a good start in the next race, and then building on those successes. Hannah talked about the need to keep doing the “right” things as you can’t control what you can’t control including what other competitors do and routines have a big role to play in this. Micky talked about how he learns from mistakes by talking in depth with his coaches about situations on the water.
Sailing is such a multi-faceted sports with the need for, among other things, boat handling and boat speed, fitness and skills in strategy and tactics, but mental preparation and training is often underrated. After a poor start, it is easy to get distracted and as we all know, often it is difficult to recover especially in certain conditions (a 10 knot non-shifting sea-breeze?), but thinking about how you blew the start or losing your cool will certainly not help. Our response to these situations is a learned one that needs practising – it doesn’t happen automatically (at least for most of us). As well as distraction management during a race, we need to manage expectations between races. Most top athletes will try to focus on performance rather results, but we need to know ourselves. For me, I know I have a natural tendency to do well after a poor performance, but less well after a good performance and I need to manage that. Others derive confidence from a good performance, finding it easier to replicate it.
Snippets:
The RYA and British Sailing Team are looking for an ILCA6 coach. See here for more information
There are 13 Grands Prix in 6 regions in Sept and Oct
The second autumn Qualifer is at WPNSA which is also Masters event (entries will open 20th September 2023)
The final qualifer at WPNSA will feature a separate series and start for girls/women in the ILCA4 - it is an open event (entries will open 20th September 2023)
There’s open training in Wales and WPNSA at Oct half term and then the Inlands at Draycote and the Masters Inlands at Grafham.
Nationals Youtube report ILCA6 and ILCA4/ILCA7
UKLA Chair blog#56
Annual report………
As ever at this time of year, we end the busy summer period with an even busier autumn period. See the Snippets below for more information. I have provided the annual UKLA Chair report below prior to the AGM this weekend in Paignton - it is open for last chance entries until midnight!
Later in the autmun I would like to have forum with regional co-ordinators of Grands Prix and anyone else interested to plan for next year and discuss suggestions and future ideas. Let me know if you are interested.
UKLA Chair report – July 22 to August 23
The class remains in robust health, attracting ILCA sailors across the rigs and age groups. Our inclusive approach is leading to growth in many areas. Let’s look at the numbers.
Our membership continues to be strong, ending 2022 with 1,027 members. Through to early September our 2023 membership total is 988 so with the autumn schedule attracting more new members we are likely to end up at around 1,050.
These figures though don’t tell the full story. Our weekly Chair blog goes to about 2,200 people and our main Facebook channel has 3,700 followers. Our three 2023 Winter virtual training sessions have had almost 15,000 views.
Around the country there are around 50 Grands Prix every year and our Super Sunday in June attracted over 500 participants from 42 clubs, despite the weather and probably a significant under-recording.
Looking at UKLA run event numbers, the Master Nationals had 130 entries compared to 102 in 2022 and the Nationals had around 245 entries despite a clash with Poole Week. Our Qualifiers and Inlands in the autumn attracted almost 700 entries while the three Qualifiers in Spring 2023 had almost 400 entries, this latter being down by about 20 on 2022 mainly because of a clash with the Senior Europeans.
UKLA Training continues to be popular. In 2022 we did almost 2,000 sailor training days and Spring 2023 continued to attract significant numbers, up 25% on the same period in 2022.
Below I have listed some of the initiatives and actions taken this year but I would like to mention our volunteers. Our activities need the support of volunteers both on the water and off the water and I would like to thank all of those that helped during the year. This includes our volunteer Race Management teams and Jury members as well as well parents and others attending events. We have had a thriving committee who have worked incredibly hard on your behalf during the year. We are also thankful for the commitment and passion of our part time class secretary Ellie.
UKLA Committee 22/23
· Chair – Mark Lyttle
· Vice-Chair /Youth Rep – Ben Nicholls
· Sailing Sec – Keith Videlo
· Training Officer – Tim Hulse
· Treasurer – Steve Taylor
· Measurer – Alan Davis
· Media and Sponsorship – Guy Noble
· Masters rep – Alison Stevens (finished in July)
· ILCA7 – Sam Whaley
· ILCA6- Jane Sunderland
· ILC44 – Pamela Cross
· Safeguarding and Female Rep – Fiona Attwell
· Governance – Gary Finkelstein
· Grand Prix co-ordinator – Richard Mason (finished in June)
· Nationals co-ordinator – Tony Woods
Sailing
• We produced a detailed survey on 2022 Nationals and implemented recommendations for the 2023 Nationals which was considered by many to be hugely successful and based on the proven model inspired by Tony Woods – Tony leaves the committee after the maximum six years with our thanks.
• We ran 11 National events sustaining or increasing numbers and making improvements including:- - Addressing behaviour issues at our events (with a new Misconduct policy in operation)
- Standardising our safety protocols and procedures so that all UKLA major events are run in the same way. This consistent approach allows us to
· Safely run events in multiple locations
· Integrate host club volunteers into our operation
· Increase our operational window so that events can safety run in 25knots and no sailors who want to sail are left on the beach.
· Encourage new volunteers to play an active role in UKLA events.
- Refining our overall volunteering strategy for both our events and running UKLA including promotion of roles and rewarding volunteers (although more work is needed on this)
• HISC and UKLA won a bid to host the 2025 Masters Europeans
• We are encouraging more adult women and older teenagers to sail the ILCA4 – we introduced the ILCA4 at the Masters Nationals, promoted the main Nationals for ILCA4s as an open event and one of our Qualifiers in autumn 2023 will have a separate women start for ILCA4s. In the UK it is an open class while internationally it is mostly an U18 class.
• We have also encouraged club ILCA7 sailors at our Qualifiers (with limited success so far) and Master events (with improved numbers)
• Alison Stevens stepped down as Masters rep after a number of years of great effort – many thanks for her efforts.
Training
• We have implemented and refined the National training programme for all rigs
• We have provided more volunteer administration support for training (thanks to Lisa, Jo and Lorna) to allow massive increase in training capacity
• We updated UKLA Training Terms and Conditions to address performance standards in National training, refunds and exclusions for poor behaviour
• We have better numbers attending ILCA7s National training and are investigating National Development Group working collaboratively with the RYA, although progress has stalled with the RYA review of their Pathway
• We implemented a UKLA led virtual winter education / training programme for club sailors – there were three sessions with Tim Hulse, Micky Beckett and Daisy Collingridge /Matilda Nicholls - these have had over 15,000 views in less than seven months!
Comms and Media
• We communicated with over 2,200 ILCA sailors weekly with over 55 Chair blogs
• We updated website ILCA.uk to improve access to information - underlying current views are up 26% on last year
• We posted about the success of British Sailing Team and others at international competitions through Facebook to our 3,700 followers
• We re-activated twitter feed for ILCA race reports on Y&Y
• We created a WhatsApp group of club class captains female masters and implemented and setup and managed UKLA WhatsApp groups for each rig and training
Sponsors
• We were delighted to add Rooster as a class sponsor to add to Ovington, Noble Marine, Sailingfast, Southeast sailboats, Harken, Fernhurst books.
• For those sponsoring the Nationals, we had our first sponsors village and my thanks go to Propverse and David Surkov in stepping forward to fund pizza night. And of course thanks go to Wildwind for the holiday at the Masters Nationals and Dinghy Show for Grand Prix participation.
Inclusivity
• We conducted a Female participation survey and received 108 responses which were summarised in Blog #35. We have now formed new working group (FIS – females in ILCA sailing) headed by Fiona Attwell and Sarah Stephens to help implement some of the actions identified. Our female membership has increased from 19% to 22%.
Clubs and Open Meetings
• For most of the year, our efforts were led by Richard Mason and I would like to thank him for his efforts and passion.
• Our GP circuit was up and running once again and we continued to run a number of Super Grands Prix and Club training sessions
• Our Super Sunday initiated by Richard had over 500 sailors on the water on 25th June despite near gale force conditions on the south coast
International
• GBR sailors continue to attend international events, mainly Worlds and Europeans, in large numbers and we provide support to them. We believe attendance helps with the development of younger sailors in building independence and resilience
• We updated our Senior Qualification document for international events
• We also participated in the RYA Pathway review that is currently underway
Snippets:
Last chance entries for Paignton here (to Monday evening). Please book Saturday meal in advance.
There are 13 Grands Prix in 6 regions in Sept and Oct
The second autumn Qualifer is at WPNSA whiich is also Masters event (entires will open soon)
The final qualifer at WPNSA will feature a seprate series and start for girls/women in the ILCA4 - it is an open event (entires will open soon)
There’s open training in Wales and WPNSA at Oct half term and then the Inlands at Draycote and the Masters Inland at Grafham
Nationals Youtube report ILCA6 and ILCA4/ILCA7
Club training in East this winter. If any clubs want their training posted please let me know (it should be open).
UKLA Chair blog #55
Post summer sailing …………
As many readers of this blog know, ILCA sailing in the UK is a broad church and one that I support wholeheartedly. I try to write things that appeal to many sailors so last week when I wrote about my exploits at the Nationals, it was not to report on that event (see Y&Y and FB for the event reports) but to relate to sailors across the country doing club racing and Grands Prix.
There’s a back to school feeling around sailing at this time of year where we have a couple of months before the winter closes in. It is a time of year to reconnect with club racing with the summer holidays over and our Nationals finished. Our calendar also shows many open meetings in that period – so why not re-energise your racing by going along to one of them? I can see Grands Prix in six regions in Sept and Oct and these provide the perfect opportunity for club sailors to head further afield. If you look back at previous blogs I have tried to provide a template for improving your ILCA sailing, in particular blog#37 and some follow-up ones.
I know many of you are Masters – so why not build up to the Masters Inlands at the end of Oct in Grafham? We welcome competent club sailors and of course it is an inland venue so a bit easier on the body than sea sailing! That event will feature ILCA4s again so we encourage lighter sailors to come along in that rig.
We will also be shortly publishing our open training schedule. We also have three Qualifiers (basically high quality open meetings) in the autumn and the Inlands in Draycote. I see most of the British Sailing Team have entered the Sept event in Paignton – why not come and sail against them?
We also have an exciting trial in the final Qualifier at WPNSA. The following feedback from the Female Participation survey (blogs #26 and #35), we plan separate starts for boys and girls in the ILCA4 fleet. So we want to encourage as many girls /women to come a race, remembering that the 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?
Finally following success of Super Sunday in June, what about a Super Sunday at the start of the frostbite season in November?
UKLA Chair blog #54
Thoughts on the Nationals
What a great week we had at the Nationals in Hayling Island !
It was sunny most of the week with decent light to moderate winds giving some glamorous days on the water (even though we lost one day). These events do not happen without super volunteering at the event both on and off the water and my thanks to everyone that helped both from HISC and UKLA. Not all participants fully understand the planning and complexity of almost 250 competitors and their supporters across two race courses and three fleets and I appreciate the efforts of those of you assisting for many months in the preparation of the event.
It is worth appreciating the diversity of our fleet. We have an age range from young teenagers to those in their seventies. We have club sailors to full time British sailing squad members. We had 60 female sailors including 42% of the ILCA4 fleet that also included some masters sailors. We had sailors from Scotland to Cornwall as well as a bunch of international visitors In the ILCA7 and we had 6 parents racing who had children in one of the fleets. That’s what makes our class so strong.
The standard seemed so much higher this year racing in the ILCA7 fleet (and I am sure in others) with an influx of experienced younger sailors and some of the elite sailors. So I thought I would share a couple personal observations on my racing.
I managed to get to the first mark in or around the top 10 in half the races. Why these and not more ? Well getting off the line and holding a lane was very hard and apart from a small number of the very fast sailors, a fluffed start meant even a top 20 at the first mark was hard. Boat handling to protect your position on the line is a core skill. I did notice a couple of other master sailors getting excellent top 3 first mark roundings - Nick Harrison won the pin in the light air race (although a foot over the line in the end) and he did it again at the Committee Boat in another race as did Stuart Hudson both heading right on the beat and holding off most of the fleet. They certainly showed what was possible with a good start.
However a good start was not sufficient ! As Ben Elvin said at one of the daily prize givings, boat speed was probably the main determinant especially in the first half of the regatta. The top sailors are able to keep the boat moving quickly upwind in the gusts and lulls, steering high in the flat bits and sustaining speed a bit lower on the bigger waves that can slow you down. This marginal speed difference over several minutes is enough to free them to make their own tactical decisions - the old adage that a bit of boat speed makes you look like a tactical genius !
For me the biggest speed difference was downwind in marginal surfing conditions - mastering the techniques requires lots of practice and time on the water and this is where the top sailors come into their own. I did find though that their advantage narrows once it is possible to surf most the waves and link them together.
After some good starts and some decent boat speed, avoiding major mistakes is imperative and I made a certainly made fair number of them ! First race, first mark, on port tack crossing the starboard lay line, I hailed to go past two starboard tackers (by calling me through they round the mark ahead) but failed to do the same with a third on starboard - result was a 720 and 15 or more places lost. I put this down to a lack of recent racing in a big fleet. Worse was to follow …. third race of the day in 13 to 15 knots, feeling tired but strong on the second beat and in the top 10, I dropped the mainsheet ducking a port tacker, capsizing to windward. I struggled to pull myself up inside the cockpit and then get my leg over the hull on to the daggerboard. When the boat did come up, I went over again and I found myself in the water a second time. A minute later I was back upright in the cockpit totally out of breathe having lost all will to continue. For us masters of a certain age staying in the boat rather than the water is essential as it was amazing to go from total control to zero control in a few minutes. (Talking about this afterwards it was suggested that it is best to release the kicker straightaway as it avoids a further capsize and this seems to me to be correct).
Of course, even with a good start and decent speed, heading the wrong way is certainly a major mistake! It happened to many of us who kept going left after the start of the second last race. The difference was profound as heading hard right out of the tide was way better.
Even though some of these lessons have been learnt before I have resolved to try and avoid making the same mistakes for the rest of this season!
Visit the event website to access all results and write ups which include all media content
Snippets:
Youth Open 2-3rd September (Royal Lymington YC)
This event is part of the Youth Ladder.
Available until Wednsday, 30/08/2023
UKLA Qualifier 4 - 16-17th September (Paignton SC)
Available until 11/09/2023
UKLA Chair blog #53
This week’s blog is fully dedicated to highlighting events that are happening in the next few months
ILCA SKILLS WEEK - 14-18th August (WPNSA)
All training places are sold out, but we have spaces left on Power Boat, Safety Boat and Mark Laying courses. BBQ tickets for sailors are included, but supporters/parents need to pre-book and pay online.
PB2, SB & ML - available until Saturday 12/08/2023
BBQ - available until Saturday 12/08/2023
Open and National Championships - 20 - 26th August (HISC)
Available until TOMORROW - Wednesday 09/08/2023 - No entries will be accept after the closing date.
We need more volunteers on shore and on water to make things run smoothly. Please contribute to the success of this event
Super Grand Prix - 12 - 13th August (Castle Cove SC)
Training is now sold out, but you can still join the social event on Saturday evening and racing on Sunday
Racing tickets - available until Thursday 10/08/2023
Youth Open 2-3rd September (Royal Lymington YC)
This event is part of the Youth Ladder.
Available until Wednsday, 30/08/2023
Super Grand Prix - 2-3rd September (Plas Heli SC)
Open to all - Available until 30/08/2023
UKLA Qualifier 4 - 16-17th September (Paignton SC)
Available until 11/09/2023
UKLA AGM 2023 - 16th September (Paignton SC)
Nominations to be sent by 19/08/2023
There are also many Grand Prix events happening across the country almost every week and we are slowly releasing dates for Autumn training.
UKLA Chair blog #52
It is amazing how many races are lost before they start! We have all done it – not launching in time to make the start, missing or broken equipment (even a back bung), not understanding the start process (Black, U and P flag), sailing the wrong course or perhaps worst arriving at the start line well in time to assess the wind and then getting stranded too far upwind of the line in a dying breeze. Most of this can be mitigated with a well-practised pre-start routine.
It starts before launching with reading the Sailing Instructions (or least the important bits). Then my simple rule is to fully rig the boat before changing (and I mean every bowline tied 😊) and then running through a simple checklist of possible gear failures. Once done, I know that the boat is 100% ready even if I must launch in a hurry or something unexpected happens. Once changed, I bring my water bottle and food to the boat. Same process every time ensuring I don’t launch with an empty water bottle!
Once ready, I can judge my launch time on both the scheduled start time AND when the fleet is launching. If I think the fleet is launching late, I am first to go. On the way to start, the focus is on collecting data points on wind and conditions (see Blog #51). Once at the Committee Boat I go upwind, ideally on both sides of the beat BUT I always aim to arrive back at the Committee Boat at the scheduled start time. If a start is postponed I am never more than 5 minutes sailing from the start line so I can be there at the warning signal. Many sailors will have a detailed routine or process to determine strategy, tactics and start bias but while at the Committee Boat at the warning signal a couple of checks are key - what course is displayed? have I seen all the marks? can I get a start transit? is the Committee boat lying in a current?
These routines are personal to each sailor, but developing one that you can use repeatedly will avoid major mistakes before you even start.
Snippets:
ILCA Welsh Championships - 28-30th July - report
Open and National Championships - 20 - 26th August
VOLUNTEER at the nationals
Super Grand Prix at Castle Cove - 12 - 13th August
Youth Open at Royal Lymington YC - 2 - 3rd September - entries open 7pm today
AGM 2023 - Notice
UKLA Chair blog #51
I am at the ILCA4 Worlds in Greece this week and it is super to see so many sailors from so many countries - 440 sailors from 50 counties. It is a great experience, not just the sailing but operating in such a diverse environment. Although it is a restricted entry event, for GBR sailors it is pretty open to those who have competed in one of our Qualifiers - Portugal in 2024
Today I am writing about Race Strategy. As you may remember previous blogs have discussed Series Strategy (Blog #36) and improving your ILCA sailing through that hard work (Blog #37). We also discussed event preparation (blog #39).
To my mind, race strategy is about determining what you think are the over-riding factors on the race course. It starts by collecting as much evidence and data points as possible. Getting the weather forecast and tidal information, checking the actual weather, understanding the impact of geographic features at the edge of the race course, then on the way to the race course and in the prestart observing the wind and all the time watching - why is the windward mark moving 10 degrees right or why is the committee boat not lying into the wind? All of this feeds into a plan or strategy for the race and first beat in particular, which in turn determines where to start to execute the strategy.
There’s plenty of great books on understanding these factors on race strategy, but it is important to say that no one gets the strategy right all the time and in fact, in choosing one side of the beat or the other, luck gives you a 50% chance of getting it correct! To me, what’s most important is to continually re-assess the strategy at every stage of the race. Are the up-to-date data points re-enforcing the strategy? Changing strategy mid-race should not be taken lightly as making cool decisions under pressure (or when tired) is not easy, but you must keep asking if the strategy working.
To give an example from club racing at Queen Mary a couple of Wednesday ago, wind was a fairly steady 10 to 12 knots, full hiking with fairly regular shifts that seems to appear 2 or 3 times per beat. My assessment of the strategy – take the lifts! There was a pin bias so I started there and went off on a nice lift on starboard and waited for the header. When it came a few of us tacked onto a long port tack with some small lifts and headers and while it looked good at first, it did feel like mostly small headers and sure enough some boats that had tacked right earlier came back into contention at the windward mark. Although the leader came from the left, I felt this disguised the underlying strategy of a more persistent wind bend heading right. I was re-assessing the strategy throughout the first beat and by the end of I had updated it.
So my strategy changed for the next two beats - taking the lifts but protect the right of the course by tacking under others when heading right and above when heading back to the centre.
Another example was at he recent Masters Nationals in Hayling Island. The first three races on Saturday were a fairly steady 20 knots or so with some long slow shifts often resulting in a two (or four) tack beat. Sunday morning looked the same – same direction, but maybe a little lighter at 15 knots so I set myself up for a similar strategy. But as we approached (with a minute to go) the first re-start after a general recall, it became apparent there was a big left shift (it was hard to lay the line on starboard) beyond previous observations. Red flag – what’s happening? The wind had gone unstable. Re-assess the strategy! We probably had ten 20 degree shifts, one every minute or two on the first beat. The strategy shifted to tacking immediately on each shift even to the extent of not having clear air. By start of next beat on the outer loop, slightly further from the land, the wind became more stable and the oscillations less frequent. By the following race, the strategy returned to that seen on Saturday (I only realised after the race!).
My point is that you execute tactics based on your overall strategy, but you must be paranoid in thinking the strategy may have changed. The “best” data points are those that happen during the racing itself.
Snippets:
Open and National Championships - 20 - 26th August
VOLUNTEER at the nationals
AGM 2023 - 16th September
Super Grand Prix at Castle Cove - 12 - 13th August
UKLA Chair blog #50
Paris Test event, Nationals 2023, Ben Elvin on Masters Nationals
Like many of you, I followed the World Sailing Paris Test event in Marseille where we had Micky and Hannah competing. These two world class sailors performed brilliantly with both making the Medal Race (top ten) and Micky taking the Silver medal after a close fought battle for Gold.
Apart from their performances, what struck me was the number of countries competing in the two ILCA events with 42 and 38 countries participating. While I acknowledge the attractiveness of skiff sailing and foiling, isn’t it wonderful that the ILCA remains the “universal” class, so accessible to sailors from across the world? We have something other classes just can’t offer.
Paris 2024 will see twice as many countries represented in the ILCAs as any other dinghy with 43 in both the men’s and women’s events but I would love to see these numbers increase further (there were 56 in the ILCA class in Atlanta). Why do I think it is important? There are thousands of sailors in the UK alone that can relate to ILCA sailing in the Olympics. They sail their ILCAs in clubs around the country, participating in club racing and traveling to open meetings. They know what it is like sailing an ILCA on a broad reach in 20 knots or how fit you need to be to sail upwind. Many of them get a chance to line up along side British Sailing Team sailors at UKLA events, inspiring young and old. It is that link that it is created between the Olympics and grassroot sailing that is not replicated anywhere else in the UK.
The second factor is accessibility of the ILCA. While I know a new ILCA capable of competing internationally isn’t cheap, you can pick-up second-hand ILCAs at very reasonable prices and still compete successfully at club level (even in a ILCA/Laser that is over 20 years old). I know ILCAs are not high-performance dinghies (unlike us sailors) and a 50 year old design but they are one-design and still provide the competitive racing environment where the sailor wins, not the boat.
Preparations continue for the UKLA National Championships are in August in Hayling Island – see the dedicated news post. Reduced entry fee remains in place until Wednesday so please Enter the Nationals:
We are also delighted to have a new sponsor in PropVerse run by active ILCA sailor David Surkov. This means Pizza night on Sunday will now be included free of charge in your entry along with the BBQ and disco with DJ Mark Covell.
Ben Elvin, ILCA6 Masters National Champion, offers some insights on the event below:
After what felt like months of Northerlies and North Easterlies some more normal UK Sailing conditions (ok, the upper end of normal!) finally broke through, just in time for a scheduled 3 days of racing at Hayling Island. Hayling Bay is hard work in everything other than benign conditions, so I will admit I was feeling a little apprehensive about how it was going to feel after months of flat water and offshore wind.
Although it was disappointing that we weren’t able to sail on the Friday due to the conditions, there was a small part of me that was relieved. Only 2 days of this to survive then, not 3! Although at the front of the fleet it might look like the fastest boats are able to cruise through the biggest conditions, the reality is this: It never gets easier, you just go faster (credit: Greg LeMond). True in all sports I think.
Whether at the front, middle or back, it looked like everyone had a great time. Those at the back, elated to have survived some big days, and those at the front enjoying the tight competition and reawakening the hiking legs.
I’ve been reflecting on what matters most in the conditions we had and based on what happened over the six races the answer isn’t obvious but I am pretty sure of it. There was a clear speed difference between the top 3 and the next tier in the fleet. Maura Dewey, Ross Harvey and myself were all pretty evenly matched for upwind speed, with Ross being slightly quicker with his super smooth wave technique, and downwind I had the edge and was able to either extend (good first beat) or close up the gap (bad first beat) on the other two. That said, in race 6 when Ross and I were in a “beat the other boat to take the title situation” and we were less focused on taking the right route up the racecourse, Steve Cockerill called us out on our shenanigans and was able to overcome the speed difference by taking a better route to the mark on both beats.
Nevertheless, for consistent results in big fleets, I believe more speed generally beats better decision making. Your boatspeed is guaranteed and it’s something that you can fully control. Even the best decision makers get it wrong a large percentage of the time (that’s just sailing!) and there’s always a couple of other people there with you when you nail it just right. When the wind is up in a big fleet you’ll normally place roughly where you rank in speed unless you make some really big errors. Without speed it’s also very hard to work on and improve your decision making. Did that boat cross ahead because you sailed the wrong shift, or are they just quicker than you? It’s impossible to unpick unless you’ve got consistent speed. Until I’d spent a long time working on my speed, I found it quite difficult to make sense of what was happening on the racecourse.
The great thing about training speed is that it all you have to do to improve it is get out there and sail your boat! You can’t think your way to better speed, you have to learn it by doing, by feeling how your boat behaves and constantly testing it: “could I have popped over that wave a bit better”, or “what happens if I do it like this rather than like that”. As long as your basic technique is roughly right, it’s just a matter of time. If you enjoy sailing your boat, then sail it more and the speed will come!
Snippets
Updated 2024 UKLA Senior Qualifiaction document (draft)
Welsh Open on 28th to 30th July
Super Grand Prix at Lancing on 29th and 30th July
UKLA Chair blog #49
Nationals 2023, Super Sunday and Brett Bayer
This week we have the Nationals coming up in August, more on Super Sunday and some words of wisdom from Brett Bayer (Olympic coach and 15 times Master Worlds Champion).
The UKLA National Championships are in August in Hayling Island! Several years ago Tony Woods morphed this event into a festival of ILCA sailing to attract club sailors from across the country and this year we continue with that theme. It is superb venue on and off the water and the planned schedule is not too intensive with two races per day allowing for slightly later starts and earlier finishes (wind permitting). There will be daily race clinics each morning and prize draws after racing each day including a fully rigged Ovington ILCA - yes! (thanks to their generous sponsorship, someone will walk away with a band new Ovington ILCA). Thursday night there is a BBQ included in the entry fee with renowned sailor and DJ Mark Covell. We have revamped mentoring scheme and there is also after racing entertainment every evening.
Having successfully introduced the ILCA4s to the Masters Nationals, remember that the ILCA4s at the Nationals are open – there is no age limit. It is great class and venue for borrowing a boat and bringing a friend.
Super Sunday on 25th June has attracted 508 ILCAs on the water from 42 sailing clubs, open meetings and venues despite a particularly windy day especially on the south coast. We now have a target – could we beat this on a Sunday during the winter? It does show the widespread attraction of the class and its inclusive nature. Well done and thanks to everyone who responded. Clubs are listed below.
Finally here is what Brett Bayer said about his winning performance in the ILCA7s at the UK Masters Nationals:
“It fitted in nicely with my coaching in Europe this year and was an opportunity for me to swap from my coaching hat over to my sun faded sailors hat.
I had raced the 2010 Masters Worlds in Hayling and still recall the fantastic downwinds, as well as the physically tough upwinds.
So the regatta brought similar conditions, albeit shiftier than I was expecting. My upwind and downwind speed in these conditions is always pretty good and I try to strip my technique back to a few fundamentals. One of which is, "don't go slow" which goes a long way to producing a good average speed. Sailing upwind through waves is the main thing that kills speed so as soon as the boat feels slow and sticky, I inject some hiking and some ease of sheet to quickly recover. This way, I'm dedicating my hiking only to keeping the boat moving at a constant speed, instead of wasting hiking fitness for heel, which isn't effective.
The downwinds were a great ride. Not always easy to catch every single wave during the lulls, but just another skill set of maintaining a high average speed like upwinds. The wave train direction was generally moving left of the mark so holding Starboard By the Lee proved best. This does leave a little challenge of HOW and WHEN to move right back towards the mark, but as usual, it's these more challenging times in racing that yield the greatest gains and losses within the fleet. I am ever aware of when these challenging moments appear when racing and try to sail these moments better than the competition.
I was most impressed with overall fleet quality and rarely was I first around the top mark. Generally, the most left or right boat won the beat, but not by much. And if you have that focus of sailing the critical moments well, you can keep chipping away through the fleet and find yourself sailing with consistency and low risk. I still finished the regatta with plenty of learnings. It never stops.”
I love the "don't go slow" comment which is so much deeper than first impression. It is one thing keeping up with Brett 95% of the time, but it’s the other 5% when you are slow and he isn’t, whether that is in a gust, lull or strange wave pattern. For the inland sailors in waves, it is the course made good that is critical. On flat water, staying block to block, hiking out and pinching works but it doesn’t in waves.
Super Sunday clubs, open meetings and venues
Graham water SC
West Riding Sailing club
Castle Cove Sailing Club
Felpham Sailing Club
Olton Mere Sailing Club
Notts County Sailing Club
Spinnaker Sailing Club
Queen Mary SC
King George sailing club
HISC
Delph SC
Weir Wood
Bartley SC
Pennine Sailing Club
Draycote Water Sailing Club
Locks Sailing Club
Derwent Reservoir SC
Lancing SC
Deben YC
Bowmoor
Seafarers Sailing Club
Budworth SC
Glossop
Hill ahead Sailing Club
Maidenhead Sailing Club
Wembley Sailing Club
Pevensey Bay Sailing Club
Stokes Bay Sailing Club
Chew Valley Sailing Club
Frensham Pond Sailing Club
Poole Yacht Club
Parkstone Yacht Club
Royal Harwich Yacht Club
Oxford Sailing Club
WPNSA
Starcross Sailing Club
Mounts Bay Sailing Club
Rutland Water Sailing Club
Dabchicks
Wadringfield Sailing Club
Island Champs @ Guernsey
ASC Portsmouth
Llandegfedd Sailing Club
Snippets
Welsh Open on 28th to 30th July already has 21 entries
Super Grand Prix at Lancing on 29th and 30th July
UKLA Chair blog #48
Masters Nationals and Super Sunday!
courtesy Peter Hickson
Wow – what a weekend we had at the Masters Nationals in Hayling Island Sailing Club! There were over 130 entries in a superbly organised event - remember this was a Masters only event! Even with challenging conditions at times, the Race Officer, Mark Woods and his team of volunteers did a great job keeping the racing on track. Onshore, HISC were excellent hosts and my thanks go to them AND also Alison, Guy and Ellie for their hard work.
The overwhelming sensation today is tiredness which hides a plethora of other sensations I got from talking to many of you. Almost everyone has a sense of satisfaction that we survived the conditions and many of US were exhilarated by the brilliant downwind surfing conditions. For some this was the first time in those conditions, especially those from lake venues who can reasonably describe the weekend’s sailing as a different sport (we have an Inland Masters in October). No doubt some of us were even frightened at times especially on the last downwind sail back to the club! As far as I could see there was good camaraderie and sportsmanship on show (not always evident in every sport). Anyway the point is we were there, making the most of it. Well done to everyone.
It may be worthwhile giving an ILCA7 perspective on the racing. To my mind there were three big factors – boat speed, fitness and avoid major mistakes. It was a weekend for depowering upwind – a very tight cunningham but keeping some power in the foot (a hand-width) and tons of kicker (I had to let mine off the tack). Then steering up the wave to near the top and then hiking hard over the top, often releasing some mainsheet. Interestingly Orlando and I have a similar technique but Brett is brilliant at keeping the boat really steady and maintaining a high speed which translates into a high course made good. Of course downwind speed could be a blog in its own right. On fitness, while it is clearly important, it does not translate into less pain – everyone feels that.
I made some big mistakes in Race5 demonstrating where it can go wrong. Downwind there seemed more pressure (or gusts) on the right, the opposite of Saturday and I don’t think I spotted in time to avoid losing ground on the first run. Then on the second beat, I think the strategy changed subtly from mainly oscillating to a more persistent left shift and I got stuck on the right. Finally capsizing is definitely not quick 😊
See results here
On to Super Sunday. So far we have returns from 30 clubs / open meetings with 350 ILCAs – isn’t that amazing? But I think there must be at least 50 clubs out there and I think we can get past 500. Here is the list of clubs but there are some missing, where are you – Parkstone, Poole, West Kirby, Leigh and Lowton, Lymington, Rutland? Please make sure you club is listed. If you don’t have a class captain on the UKLA Whatsapp group, just reply to me on the blog email.
Graham water sc
West Riding Sailing club
Castle Cove Sailing Club
Felpham Sailing Club
Olton Mere Sailing Club
Notts County Sailing Club
Spinnaker Sailing Club
Queen Mary SC
King George sailing club
HISC
Delph SC
Weir Wood
Bartley SC
Pennine Sailing Club
Draycote Water Sailing Club
Locks Sailing Club
Derwent Reservoir SC
Lancing SC
Deben YC
Bowmoor
Seafarers Sailing Club
Budworth SC
Glossop
Hill ahead Sailing Club
Maidenhead Sailing Club
Wembley Sailing Club
Pevensey Bay Sailing Club
Snippet:
Late entry fee to the UKLA Open & National Championships 2023 - Hayling Island SC 20-26th August kicks in on 19th July 2023
Entries to UKLA Noble Marine & Rooster ILCA 4, 6 & 7 Qualifier - Paignton SC 16-17th September 2023 open tonight at 7pm
UKLA Chair blog # 47
Super sunday and performance not results!
Well Super Sunday was yesterday ! Please let us know how you got on – we have a link here class captains or anyone who wants to make a submission. I see Notts Country SC had 24 ILCAs out and Seafarers had 26 ILCAs at their open. First thing this morning we already had 7 club returns. Keep them coming and let’s get a record ! I look forward to hearing more…
I started sailing 50 years ago this month with my brother at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire and we had a celebration back there on Saturday night. It was great to see so many “old” friends who I grew up sailing with. I spent some time looking for a quote to reflect the occasion and ended up mashing up one from a famous athlete (Jessie Owens) – friendships formed and developed in the cut and thrust of the racecourse are the pure gold of competition. The accolades and awards tarnish but the friendships gather no dust. Ultimately looking back, this is essence of what I have described many times – a sport for life and a passion that keeps on giving.
Of course, the thrill of competition is important to many of us. In many ways it is the journey or indeed the mini-campaigns we put together – I am going to get fit for such and such an event or improve my boat handling. Or sometimes it is just being out on the water. I think many of us have found the mental health benefits of sailing, of just being able to switch off or into a different mode.
Then there is the great performance versus results debate. Many (or most) great athletes do not focus directly on results but performance. Rory McIlroy is not thinking of a hole in one but a great golf swing. It is about visualising and executing a great performance or even a great recovery. And at critical moments these athletes will often say there was absolutely nothing going through my mind- they are in the zone. Results follow performance, which is why many don’t set results-based targets. I think this is especially true in a regatta over many days where staying focussed is important and you don’t want early mishaps to ruin your whole week. I prefer to be able to discard from my mind those results and think about performance. I know that isn’t true of everyone – I am sure Robert Scheidt always had a target of gold!
UKLA Chair blog #46
Tactics are tricky
Racing my ILCA7 last Wednesday, I was reminded how tricky our sport can be. Tactics should be an easy thing. #1 sail in more pressure and it makes you go faster. Except often the gusts appear and disappear as drafts of wind that are hard to see on the water. #2 tack on headers and stay on lifts. Except when it is a progressive shift you need to stay on the header long. And of course, while in a truly oscillating wind the next shift is always a predictable, we hardly ever sail in those conditions and especially inland, the wind is often just somewhat random. Combining all these factors with their risk and reward weightings would require a degree in game theory. Instead, we reply on experience and with that comes a built-in sense of intuition. So it is hardly surprising that we don’t always get it right!
Of course that is the essence of sport. We put ourselves on the line, exposed to the risks and challenges of competition, not knowing the result in advance. But in sailing in particular we have the ever changing environment over which we have no control. We can just try and bank the experience and hope we recognise the patterns better next time.
At this time of year the calendar is full of events:
Super Sunday is next Sunday 25th June! We want to get as many ILCAs/Lasers on the water as possible and see if we can set a record! (see blog #41).
First two Super Grand Prix can be booked online - One in the South (Lancing) and one in the Midlands (Hollowell). And if you are looking for something further West, Sailingfast Welsh Championships will open tomorrow.
Don’t forget the Masters Nationals closes in 23rd June - can we get close to 150 entries? You must be UKLA member to see tickets and be able to book. JOIN UKLA HERE And don’t forget you can enter an ILCA4 (See blog#40).
This year the Nationals are again at Hayling Island Sailing Club in August providing a great sailing venue and super onshore facilities. We will have daily race clinics, a mentoring program and full social program so it is ideal for anyone wanting to come and race an ILCA4. As the boat is so easy to sail, why not bring a friend as it is quite easy to borrow an ILCA (only the sail and bottom mast section are different to the other rigs) and enjoy the week! And remember this is open to all ages. You will find loads of information here on our website.