Dear ILCA sailors,
I find it hard to believe I only took over as President 12 weeks ago but with so much going on, time flies. I was lucky to have sailed in Malta in the first Euro Masters of 2026 and while it is not a big event, it was lovely to get some southern European sunshine with one super day in the bay with large waves and ferocious 30 knot gusts and a second day in the beautiful Valetta harbour with massive shifts. It was great to sail in my first event as President and talk to many in the ILCA community.
Under-21 Worlds in Lanzarote
I then had a couple of days in Lanzarote at U21 Worlds and what an event it was – plenty of wind, some sun, a super host at Marina Rubicon and 148 sailors from 36 countries. This has become an important event in the pathway for sailors moving into the Olympic fleets. While most previous U21 events have been run in Europe, it is being held for the first time in the southern hemisphere, in Melbourne, Australia in January 2027 and we encourage all U21 sailors to consider taking up the fantastic opportunity offered by the event and the series of Australian lead up regattas. Again, Lanzarote was chance for me to meet sailors and coaches, including an “ILCA forum” attended by some of the coaches. I thought the media very good – here is the Photo gallery, Video playlist and a link to the final report. Well done to the Champions and many thanks to all involved.
ILCA 4 MkII Sail and Build Tolerances
You will have seen the announcement about the ILCA 4 MkII sail (see here) and I wanted to share some additional comments. As stated in the announcement, the sail was developed because we had increasing warnings and concerns about the medium-term reliability and availability of the sail cloth and because many felt that the sail should be more durable – that it ought to last longer. The new sail certainly looks better. Launching a new sail in a global Class is complex and no matter how it is managed there is a transition period. The class legal date for use of the sail that we have set of 1 August 2026 was decided upon after balancing all of the issues, and importantly to ensure that the sail is widely available in all ILCA Regions ahead of it official launch date.
The Class has a long history of making improvements – I am glad we have moved on from wooden foils and tillers – and in many ways that is why we have survived for 54 years. While the hull shape remains the same, we have evolved and improved other aspects of the boat, for example, the ILCA 7 sail – it is now more durable than the old. It is the same with the composite upper sections and lower sections for the ILCA 6. These changes are made to reduce the ownership cost of boats over the medium term. The old equipment always remains class legal and it often equipment that is replaced regularly so over period of time it permeates the fleet as a whole.
Talking of sails, it is worth mentioning the digital master files used for ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 sails – 2D digital files to replace legacy physical master patterns. These are a great improvement and have helped tighten manufacturing tolerances in the last couple of years. Sail panels are now very accurately machine cut and while there may be some variations in manually sewing them together, our evidence from sailmakers and from sailors is that the sails are much more uniform. These are the sort of building improvements made in ILCAs that were undreamt of some years ago. We recently checked our database of hull weights and mast rakes – we have a database of every ILCA built since 2020 and with a scan of the QR code can get this information at any time – and some of the reported tolerances are very impressive:
On mast rakes:
- 56% of all ILCAs built are +/- 1 mm of target rake,
- 90% are within +/- 3 mm, and
- Virtually none over +/- 5mm
On hull weights:
- 98% are within 200 grams of minimum weight
With a QR code we can always go back and check at any time and is why we will see increase in “post production monitoring”, working with World Sailing, at major regattas.
This is where we will continue to go as a Class – helping our builders build ILCAs that are increasingly identical. This is not about design changes but improving manufacturing. It seems to me that the Class has come a long way in just six years – since we became ILCA – and my aim in the next five years is to continue our path of developing a professional licensing operation working in partnership with our builders.
Athlete panel
We announced nominations for our athlete panel (see here). The role of the ILCA Athlete Panel is to act as a link between sailors and the World Council. While the focus is initially on Olympic-level sailors, panel members are expected to represent the interests of both Olympic and non-Olympic sailors, encourage open communication, and provide structured feedback to the World Council.
Treasurer
The ILCA World Council is seeking a volunteer Treasurer to provide independent financial oversight and governance support. Our long-standing Treasurer, Nick Page, will step down at the end of 2026, and ILCA is recruiting now to ensure a structured handover and continuity of strong financial oversight.
All the best,
Mark