Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

ILCA UK Chair Blog #92

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):

Race reports

A busy weekend at Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club with the North West Youth and Junior Travellers and a Laser / ILCA Open

UKLA ILCA/Laser Northern Grand Prix

GP at Bristol Corinthian

South area GP series

 

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog # 91

Nationals…..

UKLA Noble Marine Open & National Championships 2024 – WPNSA and other events

The Nationals takes place from 12th to 17th August and is based on the model promoted by Tony Woods as a “festival of ILCA sailing”. We aim to provide high-quality racing for sailors with a wide range of experience combined with onshore activities and socials. WPNSA was of course home to the 2012 Olympic sailing events, and we will be aiming to sail as much as possible in Weymouth Bay (weather dependent) with two racecourses. And with six days of racing, we schedule two races a day rather than three, allowing slightly later starts and more flexibility around the weather. As usual we will have three fleets with a mixture of club sailors all the way through to British Saling Team sailors, youths and masters. ILCA4 will be around 40% young women and is open to masters and is particularly attractive to sailors transitioning from other junior classes or just coming to sail as a “one-off”.

Ashore there will be daily talks from top ILCA sailors and a daily prize draw (that includes a brand new Ovington on one day – details nearer to the time). Included are two meals – a “pizza night” and a BBQ and DJ on the penultimate night with social events on each of the other evenings. We value regatta mentoring and will match up all sailors that sign up with an experienced sailor in their fleet, be it for their first Nationals, first sea event, first regatta in a new rig or for some top tips to improve.

I would like to say something about the entry fee which we have to raise this year. We try very hard to keep the entry fee as low as possible but the cost of the running the event is driven primarily by the host venues’ charges and like many things, they have all seen higher costs. We continue to have great support from our sponsors but even where most of the work is done by volunteers, we still run the event at a significant loss.

This year we will build on the sponsor hub we had at Hayling Island. Tideway Wealth have come in as a significant sponsor and will host our 'welcome day' and free pizza night. They say:

Tideway offers tailored wealth management and financial planning to individuals seeking to invest their savings wisely and grow their wealth. James Baxter, an avid racing sailor, founded Tideway in 2009 and since than Tideway has focussed ensuring that all of their clients receive the same passionate attention to retaining and growing their capital so they can live independently and pass wealth to their next generation. With an ethos of an active lifestyle and enjoying retirement, Tideway is honoured to sponsor the UKLA Open National Championships 2024.

Alongside Tideway Wealth, Rooster, Ovington, Sailingfast, Noble Marine and Southeast Sailboats return to the hub this year and continue as class sponsors. Each of the sponsor will host one of the days providing prizes and evening entertainment: Day1 - Tideway Wealth, Day 2 - Sailingfast, Day 3 - Rooster, Day 4 - Southeast Sailboats / Noble Marine, Day 5 - Ovington Boats, Day 6 Prize Giving.

Our sponsors provide significant cash and product benefit to the class in exchange for the promotion of their products and services. The more support you can give them, the better for the class.

 I hope to see many of you there.

 You can enter the UKLA Noble Marine Open & National Championships 2024 – WPNSA below.

 The next UKLA 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.

Over the next 6 weeks, I count almost 30 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 two replacement regattas on 22nd/23rd June for ILCA4s at 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):

 

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #90

PREMIER LEAGUE COMPARSION …

In 1990 I lived in San Francisco for the year and I was amazed by being able to go to watch the San Francisco Giants baseball team. Having grown up in Ireland in the eighties, there was virtually no professional sport with GAA and rugby both being strictly amateur. So getting a bus out to Candlestick Park on a Tuesday evening to see these pros I thought was a super experience. And it wasn’t just the game, it was the pre and post match coverage, mainly in newspapers in those days – who was our best pitcher, who would start in that role tonight, who would close out the game? There was just a great hype around the whole thing.

Back in Islington in1996, I started going to some football games, mainly Arsenal at Highbury and so when they moved to a new stadium a mere 20 minute walk from our house, I signed up on a waiting list of over 20,000 with little hope. But then Islington Council did an amazing thing – part of the planning permission was that half the new season tickets had to go to Islington residents and suddenly I had two season tickets. It brought me back to my SF days watching great professional footballers (mostly no longer English let alone local) but it also had community feel. It is extraordinary to leave the house and to be joined by more and more locals as you pass each street until it is a throng on the street to the stadium.

Now as we reach the finale of the Premier League season, I am drawn to some parallels with ILCA sailing at the top end. It is not an obvious connection and as you will know, football is usually not talked about much in the sailing community but there are many hidden fans. Winning the Premier League requires sustained performance over nine months, producing top performances, week in and week out. A twelve race ILCA regatta over 6 days is not dissimilar as it requires a top performance in each race but consistency as well – a couple of bad races knocks you out of contention. “Form” or confidence is also a major factor in winning the league, building momentum and perhaps more importantly recovering from an unexpected loss. It is the same in sailing, an under par performance needs to be set aside the same day or in the following days. Psychology is critical in both sports. Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, has a mantra around “taking each game in turn” and “managing the stuff we can control and avoiding the stuff we can’t”. It is the same in a race series, as avid readers of this blog will know, take each race in turn (the first race has the same points as the last race) and don’t sweat too much over the result, but rather performance as after all we can’t control elements outside our control (an unlucky shift) and even the superlative performance of another sailor.

Of course, the similarities between professional football and ILCA sailing have narrowed dramatically in some ways. Now top sailors are “pros”, they compete and train full-time with support teams that include technical coaches but also fitness coaches, psychologists, physiotherapists and meteorologists. I started to see this change in the run up to the 1996 Olympic Games where many of the Laser sailors were full-time with elements of this support. Post 1996 in the UK, National Lottery money has allowed “world class programs” to emerge in most sports, providing a framework of support but also decent payments to elite athletes and sailors. As an aside, there remains an massive funding gap in almost every Olympic sport between younger athletes with the desire and attitude to take it to the top and those at the top). Sailing has now developed to the point where it is possible to make a living as a professional sailor or coach outside the Olympic environment if that’s what you want.

Many of our Pro ILCA sailors compete regularly in UKLA events and give something back to the sport through coaching and lectures. As I have said many times, we are lucky to be able to line up alongside these sailors from time to time as it is unlikely I will be playing football with any Arsenal players any time soon.

Snippets

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #89

Masters in July

I have been out racing the last two Wednesday nights at Queen Mary. Conditions were far from promising and both evenings probably had an average of 5 knots. But I was reminded that while an ILCA is not high performing in those conditions, it can provide great racing in a fleet where the boats are all the same and getting the little puffs is the core skill.

As mentioned recently we have a UKLA Masters event at WPNSA on 6/7 July with all three fleets, which is now open. There’s a BBQ included in the entry on Saturday evening. In order to encourage and ddevleop the ILCA4 fleet at Masters level, the entry fee is £10 ! We welcome sailors with all levels of experience so if you are a regular club racer, this may be a great opportunity for racing at National level in the Olympic venue. With the Masters Europeans at Hayling Island in June 2025, this event would be a good place to start your preparation. UKLA is also recommending doing at least one of our Masters events in 2024 (ideally all three) to improve your chances of getting a place at the Euros if the event is oversubscribed (the other ones are the Masters Nationals at Hayling in Sept and the Inlands in Grafham in October).

Another event open is the Women’s ILCA Regatta at Rutland Sailing Club on 13/14 July. This event is open to all levels of experience including sailors thinking of transitioning to the ILCA.

I was asked about Masters training after my blog last week. Many Masters would prefer winter training in their own club or locally, rather than travelling and that’s why want to promote and support open club training, which can be any time of year. It is straightforward for your club to organise - for 6 to 8 sailors you will a coach and a RIB. If you want to open up to other local sailors, we will put it in our calendar.

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #88

winter training plans …..

Update on Winter Training Plans 2024/25

I know with the cold weather it seems strange to be discussing training plans for next winter, but with changes to the RYA Pathway coming down the line, I thought it worth sharing some of the principles.

UKLA ILCA4 RTGs with support of RYA

As you know for many years the RYA have run Regional Training Groups (RTGs) for the ILCA4s but as part of the Pathway Review they have decided not the run these from 2025/26 onwards. I am pleased to announce that with the support of the RYA, UKLA will run RTGs this coming winter. The plan is to run four regional weekends (in each of the three regions) and two “joint” weekends (ideally one on south coast and one in Midlands) starting in October and running through to March.

We plan for these RTGs to cater for a wide group of sailors including both those moving beyond club racing and those more experienced National racers. These will be open to U18 sailors. Like RTGs, sailors will need to commit to the full program. While we are finalising dates and venues, the plan is to go to clubs that can provide the resources to cater for our numbers (including ILCA6s).

 UKLA ILCA6 Open Regional training

Our plan is the run these alongside the ILCA4 RTGs above in the same venues and on the same dates. The booking process will be the same as currently.

 ILCA4 and ILCA6 National training

UKLA will continue to run National training during the winter, complementing our Regional training. Venues and dates are being finalised as are the specifics of qualification. However qualification will continue to be based on our events – the Nationals and the autumn qualifiers.

 ILCA7 U23 training

The feedback on this was very positive and it is our intention to run again this winter ideally in co-ordination with RYA

 Club Training

As I have mentioned before we want to promote club training and have started a coach register (please register if you are a coach) with the aim of providing members with access to coaches for this. We will also put training in our calendar if it open to non-club members - just let us know.

A bit of a plug for Weir Wood SC and Royal Lymington YC who have training scheduled in our calendar. There is also training in Plas Heli.

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog # 87

Race focus…..

A couple of weeks ago I watched Emma Raducanu come from a set down against France's Diane Parry to secure Great Britain's place in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. The final couple of games were tense as she had a 5-2 lead in the final set and had two match points on her own serve, only for the French woman to come back to 6-6 and bring the match to a tie break. Raducanu won that convincingly and it was reported “she held her nerve”.  It is a nice turn of phrase, but it is much more likely she kept her focus through many hours of mental preparation. All top sportspeople practice this – Michael Johnson (for younger readers, a sprinter who won four Olympic gold medals and held the world record in the 200m and 400m) says he has run world class 200 metres races thousands of times – in his mind.

Maintaining the right mental focus before and during races is critical. Every race needs to be approached with the same rigour in terms of the race strategy, assessing the conditions and planning the start regardless of the result of a previous race. Results come from a performance that has its basis in focussing on doing the right thing and maintaining proven procedures.

In Race 7 at the 2018 Master Worlds I lost focus. Having won both races the previous day, I was in a great position at the start of the 2nd beat as I headed left towards a dark cloud. As the advantage materialised, I would have been able to tack and cross ahead of two of my nearest competitors into 2nd place but instead I thought there was even more to be gained by heading further towards the cloud. I was fooled into thinking I had superior tactical awareness through over-confidence instead of doing the rational and usual thing. I bowed to irrational behaviour and as a result lost ground. Luckily, I recognised the behaviour soon enough, but it was a timely reminder to avoid that type of thinking for the remainder of the regatta.

Sailing strategy and tactics is not governed by rules that result in defined outcomes, but more about positioning that improves your chances and limits risks. As soon as I start to think that I can predict the outcome, I’m dead. I remember losing a J24 National Championship on the last leg of the last race with this behaviour. Well ahead of our nearest championship competitor and closer to the favoured left side of the course, we thought we were in full control of the conditions and the race. As we headed back towards the centre of course with our competitor, another boat approached on starboard and we had to decide whether to “duck” them and perhaps lose a couple of boat lengths or tack back out left away from our rival for the championship. We choose the latter, after all the left was favoured and we knew best. Shortly afterwards the wind started to back further through 120 degrees and we lost both the race and the championship.

Conditions are unpredictable and one needs to sail like they are.  Don’t do the obviously wrong thing. Doing the right thing often comes from experience and from practice but I do three things that help re-enforce the lessons learnt and ensure that mistakes are not made time and time again.

The first and most important is mental rehearsal or visualisation. Sail a race in your head, visualising starts, sailing fast and rounding marks, remembering the imagery, the sounds and the feelings.

The second is to talk to myself (sometimes out loud) and keep reminding myself what to do the “normal” or “routine” way. Under pressure one must perform the same routine in the same way. These are moments in which to do things the same way as normal because pressure has a habit of making you think a poor decision, is rational, rather than irrational.

My third technique to keep focus and avoid getting distracted, is to use the words “focus on next steps”. I use this anytime I feel my thoughts are starting to get distracted by events around me. When there is lots going on in a race and lots of scenarios, it is easy to think too far ahead rather than the next step.

These types of technique allow performances to be almost subconscious, despite distractions and immense pressure. And it is probable that in this way, Emma Raducanu closed out on her win.

Snippets

If you are a coach and would like to be part of the coaching team across the country, please register your details with us through a short form

Shustoke SC ILCA Midland Grand Prix, sponsored by Sailingfast.

Women ILCA Regatta - 12-14th July - entry open

Sailingfast Welsh ILCA Championships - 19-21st July - entry open

Last Chance for 2024 Olympic Qualification

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog # 86

ILCA4….

Are you thinking of transitioning this summer from an Optimist, Tera or Topper or do you know someone who might be interested?  The ILCA4 may be the boat for you! It is the smallest rig of the ILCA boat that is seen in clubs around the country and it is easy to sail for those coming from Junior classes as well as having an active racing and training circuit.

The UKLA is offering three easy options to help with transitioning.

Firstly our Skills Weeks in July in Plas Heli and August in WPNSA. While the latter sold in 30 minutes, we have held back places for those transitioning from other classes. There is much more information in UKLA Chair Blog # 85.

Secondly there is Women’s ILCA Regatta at Rutland Sailing Club on 13/14 July. The ILCA4 is almost 40% young women, so why not come and join them? We can help you source a rig (see details on the website)

Thirdly, the UKLA National Championships is a festival of sailing with brilliant racing in Weymouth and with only two races a day, time for socialising, race clinics, a mentor/mentee scheme and daily prize draws.

As the ILCA4 is the same boat as other ILCAs (or Lasers as they were known), getting hold of a second-hand boat is easy and relatively cheap compared to other classes. This winter we will have a regional training program over 6 weekends and 6 national events as well as the Nationals.

The other great thing about the ILCA4 is that there are loads of international events in Europe that can be combined with a family holiday. There is a European and World Championship each year, and almost every year every GBR sailor who wants to attend is able to get a place – that meant 25 GBR sailors were amongst 436 sailors from 50 countries at the Worlds in Greece. While it is competitive it is also a unique experience for young sailors!

There will lots for information on our website including:

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #85

Masters event, Women’s ILCA Regatta and Skills Week

As we enter a quieter period for UKLA organised activities, there’s still lots going on and to look forward to. Firstly please check out the calendar for lots of upcoming Grands Prix and Open meetings.

We have a UKLA Masters event at WPNSA on 6/7 July with all three fleets. We welcome sailors with all levels of experience so if you are a regular club racer, this may be a great opportunity for racing at National level in the Olympic venue. With the Masters Europeans at Hayling Island in June 2025, this event would be a good place to start your preparation. UKLA is also recommending doing at least one of our Masters events in 2024 (ideally all three) to improve your chances of getting a place at the Euros if the event is oversubscribed (the other ones are the Masters Nationals at Hayling in Sept and the Inlands in Grafham in October). More information when this opens in next few weeks.

One event open is the Women’s ILCA Regatta at Rutland Sailing Club on 13/14 July. This event is open to all levels of experience including sailors thinking of transitioning to the ILCA. If you are a regular at UKLA Nationals events and training, please come along and support this event.

Finally, Skills Week in both Plas Heli and WPNSA opens tomorrow. Below is the information already sent by email to members. This year we planning to return somewhat to our roots by providing as many places as possible to those coming the class for he first time

What is this SKILLS WEEK you may ask?

Skills week was born in 2021 as a Transition Week. Due to covid and ILCA U21 World Championships being cancelled at WPNSA, we grabbed dates set aside for this event to run a 5 days training event.

It started as training offered to newcomers to the ILCA class and those moving to another ILCA fleet. In 2022 we opened this event to all class members and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

To keep in line with the original intention of giving new members of the class a boost to start to racing an ILCA, we offered a percentage of available spaces to that group of members, whilst catering for all our members.

Transition sailors are those who have not at the time of application raced in a UKLA regatta (such as Nationals/Qualifiers/Inlands/Youth Winters) or trained in a UKLA event. They can book a space in the general release or apply to attend Skills Week up to the end of June by sending an email to events@ilca.uk setting out their sailing experience - please put Transition Sailor in the email subject so we can easily identify it.

Objective of the week is to support any sailor transitioning into the ICA from another class, support and develop any sailor moving between/new to ILCA rigs and offer an opportunity to train at a world class venue with fantastic coaches to all class members, of any experience, any ability and any age!

This year we offer an opportunity to train at TWO different locations:

  • Plas Heli 22-26th July

  • WPNSA (Weymouth & Portland) 26-30th August

You may have already trained or raced at WPNSA, so we encourage you to try another location. Don't forget that one of the qualifiers this Autumn will be held at Plas Heli as well as the Nationals next year so why not get ahead of the game and get to know the location?

Entries to both events open next week (Tuesday, 9th April 2024 at 6pm BST).

We strongly recommend that you get your profile in order ahead of the release times. Tickets are likely to sell in under 1/2 hour.

Practical advice:

  • Become a member ahead of the release date (Join UKLA, Renew membership)

  • Complete your profile (address, DOB, emergency and medical information etc)

  • Add a boat to your profile (You MUST have a boat listed in your profile to enter. If you don't know details of a boat yet, you still need to add something we can amend it later).

  • Do it all in good time before release time to speed up your booking process.

PLEASE READ INFORMATION ON ENTRY PAGES

SKILLS WEEK PLAS HELI

SKILLS WEEK WPNSA

 If you are a coach and would like to be part of the coaching team across the country, please register your details with us through a short form

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #84

ILCA Technical group…..

As part of the transition to ILCA, there are now nine builders approved by ILCA and World Sailing to manufacture class-legal equipment, including hulls, and are licensed to sell ILCA-labeled equipment anywhere in the world. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of ILCA’s technical team and these builders, boat and equipment quality and consistency has improved significantly. Here we look behind the scenes.

An Inside Look at the ILCA Technical Team

PRODUCTION AUDITS

The goal of the ILCA Technical Team is to maintain the ILCA dinghy as the premiere one-design sailboat in the world. We want all ILCA dinghies to be built to the same high standards so that sailors can have confidence in the equipment that they purchase.

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Introducing Chris Tunstall, ILCA Chief Technical Officer

I thought I was approaching retirement when I was made aware that the ILCA Chief Technical Officer role was being advertised. After a 40-year career in the marine industry and five years in automotive, I joined ILCA in October 2022. 

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Introducing the ILCA Technical Team

The ILCA Technical team is responsible for protecting the one design of the class. They audit boat production on-site to ensure builder compliance and quality, and they develop tools for continuous improvement.

 Read Article

Snippets

Women ILCA Regatta - Rutland Sailing Club - 13th - 14 July open this evening

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #83

Racing Movitation…………

We all have different reasons for wanting to race and it is important we respect those.

I was talking with Guy Noble at breakfast on the Sunday of the recent Qualifier at WPSNA and he said he had listened to a sailing podcast in the car on the way to the event. His motivation is to continually improve with a goal of getting better results over time, which fascinated me as we had both competed in the Worlds in Adelaide a few weeks prior and here he was still super motivated. I had a clear goal in Adelaide, but I had not yet taken the time to readjust or adapt to the “flat time” after the event.

I have known Guy since 2017 and back then he was super keen to learn and improve. He raced most Sundays at Queen Mary as well as all the UK Masters events and many of the Masters Worlds and Europeans. I know he reads a lot of sailing books . It has not been a short commitment – not a couple of weekends training and racing with the expectation of immediate improvement - learning takes much longer than this. But over those years, he has improved dramatically, and so have the results (with the ups and downs of competition along the way. What’s also interesting is that Guy is not a teenager – he has just joined the Great Grand Master fleet (aged 65). His motivation has been around wanting to continually improve.

I think back to myself as a teenager and that’s exactly how I thought, but since coming back to Masters sailing in 2017, I have realised I think less like that now. For me now the motivation is around short “projects” targeting results in specific events. Prior to the 2018 Masters Worlds, I did 40 days sailing, where it was all about “relearning” or remembering how to do things. It was also around a fitness program. And after that event it took me some years (partly due to Covid) to target another event in the same way and four years before I really felt motivated to do another Worlds (in Mexico in 2022). Don’t get me wrong I still enjoyed racing but to be really motivated and get the adrenaline going, I need a clear target. That provides the motivation rather than aspiring to learn more. It also has a downside, in that it comes to end with the resulting flat or down time. So that Sunday talking to Guy, I realised it was too soon after Adelaide to be racing.

Another issue with an outcome focus is that you can only assume responsibility for things in your direct control and you should not assess your performance based on things you can’t control. For the avoidance of doubt, once you get near the start, no focus should be on outcomes, but rather tasks or routines (or to use the well-known quote “at critical moments in sport there was absolutely nothing going through my mind”)

 No matter what age we are, we all have different reasons for racing. Some enjoy being out there free and independent, others just love racing and the competitive angle, many just want to acquire new skills and keep improving. A small number are incredibly passionate and given the opportunity want to train and race non-stop. Talking to Guy at breakfast allowed me to reflect on that.

Snippets

There are some spaces let at open club training at Queen Mary on 6th April - https://www.queenmary.org.uk/book/add/p/409

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog # 82

What tribe are you in ?

What tribe are you in?  If a tribe is a community which has shared interests and provides support to its members and you are getting this email, then you are probably in the tribe of ILCA sailors in the UK. Or it could also be club-based tribe or even a group of ex-university sailing friends.

I wrote some weeks go about the selection of Micky Beckett and Hannah Snellgrove as the men’s and women’s single-handed sailing representatives of TeamGB at the Paris Olympics this summer. I said of course, their selection is mostly down to individual dedication with the support of their coaches, but we all have had a part to play. These sailors have come up through our class over many years and competed and trained in many of our clubs around the country and many of us will have raced against them. We should consider ourselves part of their team and we need to think how we can support them at the Games. So we are all in this same tribe – we have some common interests, we try to share those through the umbrella of the UKLA and also provide support to those just joining to the tribe.

The way ILCA sailing works is that you become a member of the District where you normally sail (in our case the District is Great Britain) but this has nothing to do with nationality or residency and in fact some Districts are not based on country boundaries at all. In essence we are all one community that sails together. This came to a head for me at the 2018 Masters Worlds in Dun Laoghaire. In the previous 15 years, almost all my sailing was club based at Queen Mary (in fact my Laser never left the club for 13 years) until I went to Hayling Island for the Masters Nationals in 2017 and started doing some UKLA events in the build up to 2018. Then off I went to the Worlds in Dublin with a bunch of friends and fellow sailors from Queen Mary and around the UK. As a member of UKLA, I had GBR on my sail (they are the rules) and that’s when the fun started, after all there I was racing on the waters where I had spent the first 25 years of my sailing and where many of the volunteers at the event were people I knew – why was I sailing under GBR?  Of course, my UKLA friends couldn’t understand why I was being claimed by the Irish as I was entered under GBR. Luckily at the prizing-giving Jeff Martin has the sense to announce the results as “Mark Lyttle – GBR…and Ireland” otherwise there might have been a riot! The reality is that I happen to be in both tribes.

Our UKLA community is bound by who normally sails here and we have diaspora from around the world. Last weekend David Surkov was racing, and he is well known for his Ukrainian heritage but off the top of head we have sailors from Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Canada, Ireland, Thailand amongst others who sail regularly with us. In the nineties, Nik Burfoot entered and won the World Championship in New Zealand as a GBR sailor as he was living and sailing in our fleet but he is most definitely a New Zealander (he also won the Nationals) – subsequently he won the Worlds again with NZL on his sail after he returned to New Zealand! We welcome sailors who come to work or study here as it adds to the inclusive nature of our class but of course they need to conform to the rules of the tribe!

While entry to international ILCA events is really based on District membership (where you normally sail) rather than country representation (i.e. there is no nationality check), many sports wrestle with this the issue, rugby being one example. At the 2015 World Cup, it was reported, Argentina was the only team where the full squad was born in Argentina. Rules on representing your country in sport can be complex and vary by sport. Your nationality, where you were born, where you live and whether you have represented another country before are often factors. Indeed, rules may even differ by competition with the Olympic Games often have different criteria than for example the World Championship in a sport – this is certainly true of ILCA racing.

Some say your right to represent your country should be driven by your nationality. But that’s not so easy – does it also apply if you were born somewhere else and have gained nationality by living in that country for a long time? Or what if you are a national of one country but emigrated to another country when you were a baby or even born in another country but entitled to nationality because of your parents or even grandparents, when you may never have even visited that country? Or are we really saying you must be born and bred in a country and be a national to “qualify”?  Nationality, it seems, is a course criterion.

But so is residency. For example, if you have lived in a country for a long time and are a permanent resident, surely you should be allowed represent your country. But how long is a long time? 10 years or 3 years? Any length of time you pick is going to have people on the wrong side of threshold.

Luckily for ILCA sailing in the UK we don’t need to wrestle with this, but in any case, for me what really defines your identity is (guess what) what you identify with. So I have (at least) two tribes, one associated with the group of sailors I grew up with and represented at the Olympics but another tribe around ILCA sailing in the UK and the UKLA where I have been for 25 years. And as part of that community where Micky and Hannah have grown and developed, we will all be doing our best to support them at Paris 24.

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #81

just observations…..

A quick blog this week with some observations from the weekend that I hope are relevant to all ILCA sailors, whether you were at the Qualifier in WPNSA or not (entry closes today for the last spring Q).

 

  • It was great to see Elliot Hanson, TeamGB in Tokyo, racing (and winning quite easily) at the weekend. At the short Q&A at the prize-giving, commenting on windy conditions on Saturday he said sailing conservatively is sometimes needed.

 

  • In talking to a younger ILCA4 sailor at the event, I said that sometimes it was better to sail safe on the run in over 20knots, rather than working the boat hard. You can do this by only letting the boom out three-quarters way (the leech of the sail will be at 90 degrees) and sail slightly by the lee.

 

  • Same at the gate in those conditions, why not luff up around the right mark rather than try to gybe at the left mark?

 

  • In the ILCA7 in the windy races on Saturday, on the water first to fourth was the same in all three races – while major mistakes like capsizing, early starts (me again !) or tactical blunders were to be avoided, it is safe to say that boat speed was key. Sailing fast in windy conditions is often a better guarantee of results than light winds, which are often shiftier and gustier.

 

  • But not on Sunday which produced a fairly steady 5knots where steering was critical (like a sea breeze).  Winners get good lanes and sail fast(er), and as high as possible without losing speed. Tactics won’t make up for slow boat speed in these conditions (better boat speed makes sailors look like tactical geniuses),  unlike like lake sailing with big shifts and gusts.

 

  • It is sometimes hard to see the wind pressure. One way of judging it is by the speed of other boats - above you, below you and on the run by looking behind

 

  • Setting your expectations before racing or an event can be important – are you there for fun, experience or results?  Are you proud to get around the course in windy weather or getting a great start? Everyone is there for the own reasons!

 

  • We don’t always get champagne conditions in the UK – we are dependant on the weather – that’s just the way it is. With patience we got some fair races on Sunday.

 Snippets

UKLA Events

  • Q3 WPNSA - entry open

  • ILCA 4 International Event Support - open

UKLA Training

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #80

Volunteering…..

How often do we consider – who is organising and running racing today? Who answers my email query on training or membership? Most often the answer is a volunteer. Modern society is most definitely a service-provider culture. We expect our services promptly and accurately, often online from our desks. And complaining is now so easy – send an email and you don’t even have to deal with an issue face to face. While not quite keyboard warrior territory where identities are kept hidden, it does see us sometimes send messages which are more aggressive or abusive then they should be. Volunteers do not work full-time and are not available 7 days a week. They are giving up some of their valuable time to help us.

It is important that people are prepared give something back, otherwise one of the consequences in the long run is higher prices and the exclusion of some who can’t afford it (or in society in general some people just don’t get the services they need).

But studies also show that there is a correlation between those who volunteer and their mental well-being.

I think we all recognise that volunteers are the lifeblood of our sport (most sports in fact) in clubs and classes up and down the country. UKLA is not a service-provider but an association of members that have come together to provide services to their members. Of course, we want to provide those services competently and efficiently, but it is mostly members doing that on behalf of members. I certainly appreciate all the time our volunteers commit to the UKLA, and there are very many of them. As well as the UKLA Committee of fifteen members, we have five sub-committees with additional members and many of us on those committees are helped, supported and advised by others who give up their time.  And this is all before the volunteers on and off water at our events and training.

It goes without saying that our volunteers should be treated with respect (and mostly they are) and good relationships between volunteers matters a lot. Providing two-way feedback in the right way both helps to achieve this, while improving the way we do things.  Race officers and Jury members don’t always get it right and it is reasonable to provide this feedback in a respectful way, bearing in mind that emotions often run high amongst us competitors when results have not gone the way we want!

Of course, there is no expectation that everyone will agree with all of our policies, whether they are a volunteer or not, but it is important to stress that policy comes from the UKLA Committee and its sub-committees not individual volunteers. Where there are concerns about policy these should be raised with UKLA committee members. We are always open to refining our policies in the interests of the class as a whole.  

NOW for the ask - we need a volunteer to help organise our next Masters event at WPNSA in July. The race management documents and prize-giving are already accounted for (my thanks to Alan Davis and Guy Noble) so the effort is not significant and it is a one-off. I look forward to hearing for you.

Snippets

UKLA Events

  • Q2 - closes tonight (4th March)

  • Q3 WPNSA - entry open

  • ILCA 4 International Event Support - open

UKLA Training

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #79

Hannah, Dinghy Show and Behaviour

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

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

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

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

We also mentioned rules observance in a recent blog:

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

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

Snippets

UKLA Events

UKLA Training

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #78

Master Worlds ……

I was in Weymouth this weekend for some UKLA training with my son and while the weather was perhaps unseasonably warm, I didn’t really compare with my racing the previous Saturday in Adelaide on the last day of the Masters World Championship. Let me share some thoughts on the event.

222 masters from 20 countries gathered a couple of days after the Seniors finished at the same venue and my overall feeling was one of privilege. Of course, having the opportunity to do an event like this is super but it is mostly the opportunity to compete against sailors of a similar age on the world stage in my fifth decade of sailing. When I tell that the ILCA6 Legends (that’s 75 and older) had a fleet of 19 of whom around ten were 80 or older, it is really amazing. Of course there is a mental and physical benefit of racing at those ages especially given the conditions. We may not get there but we can aspire to it!

And the conditions were brilliant with a strong sea breeze getting up to 25 knots most days combined with steep waves, making for exhilarating conditions. There were plenty of capsizes in those conditions and one of my abiding memories will be approaching the last leeward gate in fourth but vying for second. As I was on the outside I knew a good gybe would take me past the other two but that’s not easy in 30knots. As I went for it, I stared down the face of a monster wave and while the surfing speed means hardly any pressure on the sail, turning sidewards on a steep wave just flips the boat over. So I had to surf down the wave and execute the gybe once it was a bit flatter. I was proud of what I had done until I realised I had surfed 10 boat lengths past the gate and was consigned to fourth. I think we will all keep memories of those downwinds for years to come.

In a six day regatta in those conditions is it also a game managing the attrition. I was nursing a back strain during the regatta and had to visit a chiropractor twice during the event. For me, there was lots of stretching early and late in the day and before and after sailing. Surprisingly, My back, along with my results (not necessarily connected) improved as the week went on but it needed constant attention. Even without that, recovery when you combine the wind with the sun is key. Arriving in the boat park at 11am, allows for maximum recovery in an air-conditioned room before that, followed by minimal time in the boat park. After racing it is about quick food and drink and some socialising, followed by a quick nap, before dinner with fellow sailors and in bed well before 10pm – it makes for quite a therapeutic week – sail, eat, sleep, repeat with some social activities thrown in. But it is needed as it is impossible to recover fully each day and it is about slowing the decline during the week as much as possible.

As for the racing, it is hard against southern hemisphere sailors at the end of their summer and we are just not race fit in the same way. As the start OF the week my starting was awful, second row on the first day and then first row on second day but no lane. At 85kg or so, I am normally as quick as any master upwind in a breeze, but a lot of the ILCA7 sailors were 90kg and more which meant they were very quick off the line (quite of few of the ILCA6 sailors were over 80kg anticipating the strong winds) and once you lose your line, the flexibility to tack on shifts goes too. So I started adjusting my starting strategy to start nearer the committee boat so making it easier to tack on the first shift even if I lost my lane. Also that speed off the line is essential in a southern hemisphere sea breeze that clocks left later in the day (the opposite to us). My downwind speed keep me competitive as in the first eight races, I didn’t have a first mark rounding in the top six yet had seven top six finishes (lucky for those big waves 😉). Generally though that sort of starting and first beats will limit your results.

Although I would say it wasn’t a hugely tactical regatta (more boat speed) , the sea breeze was very interesting. You could not see land to upwind but 20km or more away, there was land which caused shifts in the sea breeze you would not normally see. On one of the windy sea-breeze days when it blew 25 knots all day, you didn’t expect regular shifts but on the second beat I was tacking perhaps 5 or 6 times in response to shifts. Other beats you could head hard left and not worry about shifts.

Brett Bayer, who some of you will remember from our Master Nationals in Hayling Island last summer, won easily (much more easily than last summer). Why? He was just a bit quicker upwind and very fast downwind. I got close to him at the end of the first downwind of the last race after I managed to get to the windward mark in second but he generally used his boat speed very wisely – conservative starts in the middle, tacking ahead and to leeward of the fleet, never in a corner. Here are some quotes in the blog from last summer.

Anyway that’s a snapshot of the event for you. We were also lucky to be there for the medal race in the seniors where Micky was third overall. That race was in 25 knots too and those sailors are true athletes!

 To close out though I did talk to some of you younger masters in Weymouth this weekend, with the Europeans in Hayling Island in June 2025, it is time to start planning and getting on the water. What could be better than a European Championship in home waters.

Snippets

UKLA Events

UKLA Training

 RYA Dinghy Show 2024 (24-25th February)

Dinghy Show is coming up at the end of this month. As every year, there are some great talks and events lined up for the the weekend.

Need some downwind speed tips? You can find British Sailing Team Sam Whaley in the knowledge zone talking about this very subject on both days (15:30).

Stick Daring will be talking about his round Britain adventure in a £50 laser at a main stage (14:15) followed by book signing at our stand afterwards. You will have an opportunity to buy his book at a show or you can get it ahead of the show here.

Our stand will be located near “the clubhouse” and immediately next to Sailingfast. Pop in to see us! Come to find out more about our world class racing and training events, Grand Prix circuit & club training, get tips on what to look for when buying a new or second-hand boat and how to rig it for speed and performance.

Several of our sponsors will also be at the show - be sure to visit them and grab a bargain or two. Visit Sailingfast, Ovington, Rooster & Fernhurst Books stands and see us to see Southeast Sailboats rigging up close and find out more about Wildwind Holidays.

Buy Tickets HERE

Full Schedule HERE

See you there

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Ellie Ratusniak Ellie Ratusniak

UKLA Chair Blog # 77

Dinghy show….

ILCA Masters World Championships

Whilst Mark is enjoying his time in Australia, I hijacked his blog this week.

Mark, along with several of our masters ventured out to Adelaide to compete at the ILCA Masters Worlds. It was a tough event with big swells and strong winds, however our masters did quite well - let me mention a few of them:

In ILCA 6 Jon Emmett came 3rd in the Master category whilst Terry Scutcher was 2nd in Great Grand Master fleet with Jeff Loosemore in 4th. Jeff is a regular visitor to the UK and competes in the UK and European circuit.

In ILCA 7 Tim Law was 2nd in Great Grand Master category and Mark Lyttle bagged 3rd in Grand Masters category.

19 amazing legends (age 75+) entered the event! WOW!

You can check all results here

RYA Dinghy Show 2024 (24-25th February)

Dinghy Show is coming up at the end of this month. As every year, there are some great talks and events lined up for the the weekend.

Need some downwind speed tips? You can find British Sailing Team Sam Whaley in the knowledge zone talking about this very subject on both days (15:30).

Stick Daring will be talking about his round Britain adventure in a £50 laser at a main stage (14:15) followed by book signing at our stand afterwards. You will have an opportunity to buy his book at a show or you can get it ahead of the show here.

Our stand will be located near “the clubhouse” and immediately next to Sailingfast. Pop in to see us! Come to find out more about our world class racing and training events, Grand Prix circuit & club training, get tips on what to look for when buying a new or second-hand boat and how to rig it for speed and performance.

Several of our sponsors will also be at the show - be sure to visit them and grab a bargain or two. Visit Sailingfast, Ovington, Rooster & Fernhurst Books stands and see us to see Southeast Sailboats rigging up close and find out more about Wildwind Holidays.

Buy Tickets HERE

Full Schedule HERE

See you there

Ellie

Snippets

UKLA Events

  • Queen Mary on 3rd/4th February - Results

  • Q1 Brightlingsea SC 2nd/3rd March - entry open - book now to help us manage planning

  • Q2 & Q3 WPNSA - entry opens 19:00hrs 14/02/2024

  • ILCA 4 International Event Support - opens tonight 20:00hrs 12/02/2024

UKLA Training

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog # 76

Calling all females sailors ….

Calling female ILCA sailors of all ages

Just over a year ago we launched our survey on female participation in the ILCA (blog #26) and I have provided various updates since then (blog #59 as an example). Our working group led by Fiona Atwell continues to plan for the year ahead and specifically the Female ILCA Regatta on 13/14th July at Rutland. We are welcoming female sailors in all rigs, no matter their experience – new to the class, those transitioning from junior / youth classes like the Optimist, Tera or Topper and Masters coming back to the sport.

The plan is to provide a day of training on the Saturday with female coaches, followed by racing on Sunday with a female race management team. Sailing will be combined with fun activities and socials.

 ILCA4 is the ideal single-hander for those transitioning that I have written about before (of course we welcome those transitioning directly into the ILCA4 as well 😉):

  • Have you been looking for single hander to suit a lighter sailor with a National circuit of events? 

  • Do you feel the ILCA6 is a bit too powerful for you or you are not quite a competitive size for it? 

  • Are you a Masters sailor looking for a smaller rig than the ILCA6? 

  • Are you under 18 and want to go to a Worlds or Europeans with over 400 other sailors?

If the answer to any of these is yes, then read on…..

The ILCA4 (formerly 4.7) provides super racing for those boys and girls wishing to transition out of other junior classes like the Optimist or Topper. There is a ready supply of affordable second-hand boats and of course many sailors (and their parents) love the easy logistics and ease of access of single-hander sailing. Of course there a ready movement in time to the ILCA6 and ILCA7 as well if that what a sailor wants.

The ILCA4 has 7 or 8 UKLA National events each year that are open to sailors of any age and all are welcome. That means our Qualifiers (really high-quality open meetings) and Inland championship are open to anyone. Our National Championship attracted over 100 in 2022.

I know many people consider the ILCA4 to be a “transition” class but it doesn’t have to be. If you are getting great racing and you are not big enough for a ILCA6 then why move? I know in the past women /girls in particular have been encouraged to move to the ILCA6 but if it doesn’t suit you, UKLA is quite happy to support that. While I know many of sailors are around 15 or 16 there is no reason why you can’t stay in the class with your friends. Internationally the Worlds and Europeans are U18 so you can still go to these events until the year you turn 18. And remember there is no selection for these events and GBR usually have more than enough places to have all entries accepted.

We also want to encourage more women masters back into the sport or single-handed sailing in either with ILCA6 or the ILCA4 (last year we added the ILCA4 to the Masters Nationals with a separate start). Isn’t it time for a weekend away with the girls? There’s a WhatsApp group – see email. The masters fleet is a mixed fleet with club sailors as well former international sailors coming back after decades.

The women’s single-handed event has been in the Olympics for over 30 years now (four times in the Europe class and five times in the ILCA6 at Paris) and in that time, many women raced those boats or indeed campaigned them and we would love to see some of them come back and sail our masters events. Why not come to Rutland in July as a starter and the masters nationals in Hayling Island in September?  Who knows then on to the Europeans in Hayling Island in June 2025?

Snippets

UKLA Events

UKLA Training

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog # 75

Rules ……

What is it about competitive sport that is so attractive?

Some would say it is the winning, others the taking part. But I am not so sure it is that simple as I think it is more about the uncertainty of the outcome, the risk and reward, the putting yourself on trial to be judged by yourself and others. For this we need rules for conducting ourselves so that we all start equal and complete on equal terms.  Winning, losing or taking part, whatever it is, we want everyone to play within the rules that we all know and understand. You have to sail an ILCA not something that looks like one, you can’t start early and must sail around the course and you have to manoeuvre against other boats according to the rules. This is the essence of competitive sport.

As a self-policing sport, there is no referees and no VAR! It is up to us to ensure that the sport is played by the rules. And sometimes that means protesting.

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

It is worth reflecting on how we conduct ourselves on the racecourse as there’s a distinction between being “ruthless” and being “hostile”. Sometimes to win you must do what is right for you. For example, tacking exactly when it suits you to get the right lane upwind, even it is means tacking on your best mate. Experienced racers understand this. It is not an action against another sailor but making the best decision for you. This also sometimes means taking calculated risks in boat-to-boat situations – coming in on port at crowded mark, carries those risks. The downside is that you must take your penalty if it doesn’t work. And indeed, when another boat in that port tack approach fails and doesn’t take the penalty, they gain an advantage from the risk. But they aren’t playing by the rules and should be protested.  (As an aside you allowed to approach on port inside three boat lengths and indeed tack underneath a starboard tacker, but you mustn’t force them above close hauled). This is all about racing hard.

On the other hand,  hostility gets you into trouble. ILCA racing is often a game of small margins and boat to boat situation arise all the time. I find the best approach is a bit of “give and take”, creating some goodwill for the future. Port and starboard crossing up the first beat is a great example. If you are on starboard and don’t want a port tacker to cross (for tactical reasons) then hail. If they want to cross and it makes no difference to you, let them go. I don’t want someone to take advantage but I am happy to forgive minor misjudgements that have no real effect on anyone (by avoiding contact for example). In reality, to a greater or lesser extent, this is how ILCA sailing works at every level of the sport (and I include the Olympics). No one wants a hostile approach nor a pedantic or purist implementation of the rules as a method of winning. But we want people to win without breaking the rules to their advantage.

 Snippets

UKLA Events

UKLA Training

Winter training dates for Jan, Feb and Mar - UKLA Calendar 

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog # 74

Open training, GP series ………

Several pieces of information to share this week….

ILCA Open Club training

Today we are opening access to ILCA Open Club training to allow clubs to promote ILCA training in their clubs that is open to ILCA sailors from other clubs. This training is organised and managed locally by the club who set their own pricing and conditions. So long as the training is open to non-club members, we will promote in our UKLA calendar. Later in the year, as UKLA develops a coach register, this can be used to help club organisers. Beyond the calendar and register, UKLA is not involved in any way. This replaces the UKLA program of supported club training that become too time complex to run from the centre. You will see some examples of this in our Calendar.

So if you want your ILCA Open Club training in our calendar, simply send the date and club website (anything else you want to add) to the address in the email and we will get it live within one week.

RYA Dinghy Show

Show and see us at the RYA Dinghy Show on 24th/25th Feb at Farnborough!

UKLA Youth Event at Queen Mary for ILCA4s and ILCA6s

There are 40 entries for this with entry still open for another 8 days.

Master volunteer

Since Alison retired in July, we have a masters sub-committee of Alan Davis, Guy Noble, Peter Young, Keith Videlo, Ellie and myself sharing the workload but many of us are already doing other UKLA work and we need some additional help. It is not a matter of taking on a big role, just helping out.  In particular there are no ILCA6 volunteers! Please help us.

UKLA Grand Prix Series

Some of you will recall that we had an open forum late year to discuss the GP series with the aim of improving co-ordination and building on the successful platform that we already have. As a result, John Ling has stepped forward to co-ordinate this. The UKLA’s objective is the encourage and increase participation in club racing and open meetings to the extent we can influence this. In particular, we would like to see more youth activity, more racing in ILCA4s and ILCA6s and more women. There are 10 regions and we would like each of these to have a strong GP series and John has prepared updated guidelines to help support this.

We would like all ILCA sailors to be UKLA members and would certainly encourage that as the membership, at just over £3 per month, is a small part of each sailor’s annual budget. While we are working to increase the tangible benefits for UKLA members, we all benefit indirectly by ensuring the class remains strictly one-design. With nine builders across the globe the measurement differences between boats is negligible but the effort is sustaining this is not free and membership fees help fund this, both here in the UK and in the international class. Of course, individual open meetings are run by local clubs and while membership is a class rule, UKLA don’t enforce this at these open meetings as our primary focus is the encourage participation.

As similar argument can be applied to class legal equipment where there is a strict rule at National events. For club racing and open meetings, there tends to be a more relaxed approach, driven by improving participation, but most clubs seem to operate an informal approach where those at the front or in the top half of the fleet are expected to sail with class legal equipment. Winning with replica kits underlines the whole ethos of the ILCA class!

We want to improve the promotion of the GP series’ this year and John would like to get a full list of GPs by the end of the month – details to the address in the email.

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Winter training dates for Jan, Feb and Mar - UKLA Calendar

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Mark Lyttle Mark Lyttle

UKLA Chair Blog #73

Busy January and Mike Kinnear

It is amazing how much is going on in January, which is hopefully a sign of a booming class. Last night I got the race report from Queen Mary where, according to Marshall King, they had a cracking morning of winter racing followed by a nice hot shower and a good chin wag and I am sure this was repeated in many clubs over the weekend. There was UKLA training at WPNSA with over 30 ILCAs and a very active schedule over the coming weeks in all regions. I have also been reading reports from the British Sailing Team in Argentina at the ILCA6 Women’s World Championship while the men at warming up for their Worlds in Adeliade. The ILCA6 Youth Worlds are underway now (also in Argentina) and I was lucky enough to continue my preparation for the Masters Worlds in Adelaide in early February with six days in Malta with a healthy contingent of 11 other GBR Masters. And it’s only January.

At the Masters Nationals in 2021 at Pevensey I talked with Mike Kinnear, a very active ILCA Legend (over 75) who was returning following a heart procedure, and I thought his story was inspiring but also indicative of the inclusive nature of our class. I asked him to share his thoughts below. I will try and repeat from the youth end of the fleet in coming blogs.

 

Ancient Mariner

 Mike Kinnear ‘Legend’

So how did I get started Sailing?

I blame Ruth, my girlfriend at the time and now my wife of some fifty-four years.  Her brother James was building an Enterprise in his father’s garage and persuaded me to crew for him when it was ready for the water.  I had never been in a sailing dinghy before, so joined the local Newtownards Sailing Club (that’s in N. Ireland) and was offered a trial crewing in a GP 14 - I was immediately ‘hooked’. I was a relatively late starter to sailing, being in my early 20’s, so it was a steep learning curve.

James and I took this sailing business quite seriously because neither of us were interested in just mucking about in boats, we wanted competition and to win. We quickly got started racing the Enterprise at the Club and took part in as many Regattas as possible.  We divided up helming and crewing taking turn and turnabout.  There was also a great traveller circuit in Ireland for Enterprises which we made use of to hone our skills and soon became a very competent team.  This naturally led to taking part in Enterprise World Championships, mostly held in England and Scotland but with the odd one held at home in Ireland.

This partnership wasn’t to last as James disappeared to university, so I was crew less and my wife Ruth refused to show that burning desire to win at any cost.  Trevor Millar (Mark – Trevor’s Sailcoach was hosting us in Malta last week) came to my rescue, and we had a couple of years doing the circuit.  If my memory serves me right, it was Trevor who directed me to this ‘new Racing Dinghy on the block’ – “The Laser”.  He seemed quite keen to get a Laser so, as I was in the process of losing my crew, I purchased my first Laser.  This was in the early 1970’s so it heralded in an era of worldwide ownership of an affordable racing machine. Yes, it had all the original wooden foils and tiller and the minimum of controllable tackle.  It even had a central mainsheet block jammer which could be a source of numerous capsizes.  It was a racing machine that didn’t suffer fools gladly and you either quickly learned how to control it or you did a lot of swimming.  The Laser had to go through several iterations in the form of control systems and the modern systems now in vogue make sailing the Laser (sorry, the ILCA - still can’t get used to the new name) so much easier to sail.  In the old days you had to develop the technique of bringing the boat head to wind and leaning down on the boom to tighten the kicker, as the old kicker format had the minimum purchases. I sailed my ILCA in numerous events around Ireland with some success and eventually changed my allegiance in sailing clubs to Ballyholme.  Being a much larger club with a sizeable ILCA fleet there was greater competition which I thrived on, competing against sailors like a young bloke called Bill O’Hara (I like to pretend that I taught him all he knew!). I worked for British Petroleum at the time and got the opportunity to transfer from Belfast Refinery to the Shetland Islands where they were constructing the large Oil Terminal.  My pal from Ballyholme, Ron Hutchinson, managed to get my ILCA transferred on a construction material supply ship to the Oil Terminal.  I like to think that I introduced the ILCA to the Shetland Islands (Mark – are there any ILCAs there now?) as it was the first one to make an appearance there and it has grown from strength to strength since then.  Whilst on Shetland I missed out on the mainstream ILCA activities on the mainland, namely, the Master category.

It wasn’t until I got back to working in England in 1984 that I got involved with this form of competition.  This format is not only very competitive but is also very socially minded and you get to travel extensively.  I’ve lost count of the number of different countries I have visited taking part in European and World Championships, with the added bonus of taking my wife with me to enjoy the company of sailors and spouses from all over the world and who we still keep in touch with on a regular basis.

Of course, as I get older (80 this month) the body starts to wear out and one tends to end up swopping updates on our ailments.  About 7 years ago I started to experience a tightening in my chest, and this seemed to happen during racing and training I suppose because I was exerting myself excessively.  After various checks on my heart, I was packed off to hospital and had open heart surgery to renew my Aortic valve and an additional single bypass.  I think because I was quite fit to start off with, that I made a rapid recovery and was back sailing 6 months later with no adverse effects.  That is until about a year later when I was diagnosed with late onset type 1 diabetes.  I thought that this must herald the end of my sailing mania, but the diabetes team at the Kings Lynn hospital worked with me on dietary matters and introduced me to a new constant glucose monitoring system.  It consisted of a sensor I attached to my arm and a reader that I could put into a phone waterproof pouch.  I could then swipe the sensor at any time on the water, usually between races, and give me the confidence that my blood sugars were within the limits to ensure I didn’t suffer a hypo (dangerously low blood sugar levels).  The diabetes team was thrilled when I came back from the European Masters with a GGM Gold medal. Of course, that wasn’t the end of my health problems.  One evening at home I started to pass-out several times and stopped breathing.  This turned out to be a heart block called Bradycardia where the heart stops beating for a few seconds at a time.  Back to hospital to have a Pacemaker fitted.  I lost another 6 weeks sailing as I was not allowed to drive for that period.

 How much longer am I going to keep racing?

I still get a great buzz from racing and I shall keep going as long as my health lets me and as long as I am still competitive. I don’t believe in just taking part, I am still driven to win and that is my drug of choice.

Snippets

UKLA Events

UKLA Training

Winter training dates for Jan, Feb and Mar - UKLA Calendar

UKLA Announcements

  • UKLA core working hours over winter are Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 1-6pm

Read More