UKLA Chair blog #30

@Gearogie Altham

Lots to talk about this week…

  • #1 in World

  • #2 A snapshot on UKLA finances

  • #3 Three volunteers wanted?

  • #4 Behaviour at our events

It has taken 30 blogs for me to mention individual performances and results, but I must make an exception this week. Micky Beckett is #1 in the single-handed (ILCA7) World rankings. What an achievement! And he is joined by Elliot Hanson and Sam Whaley in #2 and #3! It is super for UKLA members to have the opportunity to race against the best in the world on a regular basis on home waters. Of course, a couple of weeks ago, we had Daisy and Matilda, two of the top women sailors in the world, give their insights in our virtual training. We are lucky that all members of the British Sailing Team in the ILCA6 and ILCA7 give back so much to us.

With the UKLA 2022 finances almost finalised, I wanted to share a couple of comments with you. Across all our events and training, we had a deficit of almost £20,000. That means we took in £20,000 less income than costs for our regattas and training (with including support for club training and Super Grands Prix), ensuring we provided the best possible value to members. Our treasurer, Steve Taylor (many thanks), calls this an investment in our sport and I think he is right.

In addition to this, we had direct costs in running UKLA covered by income from member subscriptions, our sponsor Noble Marine and grant support from the RYA. Overall, that meant we had a deficit for the year of about £10,000. This was only possible due to the surplus we made during two years of Covid. In 2023 we plan to run a smaller deficit, but we will still run our events and training at a discount to full costs and we will be doing our best to contain costs in a difficult environment.

One of the reasons that we can provide excellent value to our members is the amount of time volunteers give to UKLA. We are now looking to fill three roles:

Team-racing co-ordinator - As part of series being organised by the European class, UKLA is considering running a one-day team racing event at Datchet in June. It would be 4 boat team racing in ILCA6s with a mixed 2 person team, probably restricted to 24 teams, bringing their own boats. To get this off the ground, we are looking for lead volunteer.

Virtual training administrator – following the success of virtual winter training, we would like to run several more sessions before the summer. We will provide the hosts but we need a volunteer to setup the Zoom meetings, prepare email communications with members and then upload the video. It is probably 3 hours work per session and you would need to be somewhat tech savvy.

Masters sub-committee – Alison Stevens is retiring for the committee in the summer after much tireless work (again many thanks). To make the role manageable, we hope to set-up a sub-committee where the role can be shared out. Let us know if you would like to be involved.

Contact-Chair — UKLA (ilca.uk) if interested.

Finally, you will remember we had a focus in the autumn on behaviour at our events, so at the start of the season we are publishing our Misconduct policy. Many thanks to those that have helped in preparing it, and I hope to cover in more detail when there is more space but here is the preamble.

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.

Snippets:

march23Mark Lyttle