ILCA Women's Coaching Programme goes international with a week at Wildwind
by Sarah Harding 16 May 2025 08:47 BST
ILCA Women's Coaching Programme goes international with a week at Wildwind © Sarah Harding
Wildwind held the first Women's ILCA Clinic at the start of May which attracted sailors from across Britain as well as Leeuwarden in the Netherlands.
Maartje van Dam, Chief Instructor at Wildwind explained, "We have sponsored the ILCA Women's Coaching Programme in the UK from the beginning and saw the opportunity to offer a whole week of coaching with our first Women's ILCA Clinic at Wildwind.
"The ladies were very keen and eager to learn but perhaps a bit more collaborative than some of our mixed clinics. We had a good range of sailors from experienced club racers to newcomers to ILCA sailing, but this group notably supported each other and took the time to discuss and answer questions. Many, many questions!
"We spent lots of time on the water putting theory into practice, helping each other and doing plenty of training in pairs.
"We put a lot of emphasis on use of controls to make the boats easy to sail and could see the benefits as even tired sailors became more consistent.
"Besides all the sailing chat, everyone got to know each other well and formed a real bond on the water and enjoying Vassiliki evenings - laughter ringing through the village
This clinic sold out so next year, we'll be expanding the two clinics at the beginning of the season and I hope to inspire more women to compete in the ILCA!"
I've enjoyed attending excellent coaching in the UK - ILCA Skills Week and the ILCA Women's Coaching at Queen Mary - but I'd always thought Greece was for 'holiday sailing' only. Happily, this Clinic came through on the ILCA socials and Wildwind proved a revelation. No worn-out beach boats here but brand new ILCAs with crispy new sails. And Maartje's coaching is as good as it gets drawing on her experience in the USA and with the Netherlands team.
We were a group of ten females, ranging in age from 14 - 60+ (including two sets of mum and daughters) with varying levels of experience but all wanting to improve. The all-women environment helped us quickly become friends overcoming the variations in age and experience. Collaborative but still hugely competitive!
The first morning saw a relaxed 10am start (much needed after the 5am airport check in the previous day) down on the beach, in sight of my accommodation. We had a comprehensive but relaxed safety briefing from Aaron, the Centre Manager. He showed us the sailing area - which is huge! - and then said, if weather conditions were safe, we could sail anytime from 10am until the sun set behind the mountain. In other words, pretty much unlimited sailing.
There was an advanced catamaran course running at the same time, so a wide group of people around. Our all female group split off with Maartje for a comprehensive discussion of where we were all at and what we hoped for. With five days of unlimited sailing in store, we could aim at some real improvements. Each day had a similar format, meeting at 10am on the beach for a briefing and plan for the morning, followed by a long on the water session, with Maartje coming alongside every sailor to give personalised coaching advice.
Then a long (much needed) lunch break, with another slightly shorter session in the afternoon. Finally, around 6pm we met in the beach bar for a constructive and thoughtful debrief with plenty of video footage from the day to watch and pick out the good, the excellent and the 'room for improvement' as it was delicately referred to.
This format allowed Maartje to make sure everyone's goals were met during the week of coaching. Her coaching was brilliant - very clear, positive, patient and pitched at just the right level to make sure that we all improved. And we will all remember some of her idiosyncratic tips - with "no meatball hiking" and "be a shark not a marshmallow" amongst our favourites.
The final course day was race day, with the ILCA women competing against all the other guests and taking 2 out of the top 3 spots overall. Proof that coaching delivers.
The final day of the week gave us the opportunity to free sail - to practice what we had learnt earlier in the week in the ILCA, try a completely different boat, or go "joy riding" in the strong winds on a catamaran with an instructor. Blasting across the bay in 30+ knot winds was a pretty exhilarating way to end a fantastic week!
We're all hoping to be back for more next year - and now as sharks rather than marshmallows!
The ILCA Women's Coaching Programme continues in the UK with dates at King George SC with Ellie Cumpsty on 17th May, WPNSA with Georgina Povall hosted by Andrew Simpson Performance Academy on 31st May and Stokes Bay SC with Georgina on 26th July, before returning to Queen Mary SC in September.
Further venues and dates are being added so look at the ILCA Calendar to see what's coming up.