ILCA UK set for the 2026 RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show
by ILCA UK 19 Feb 15:09 GMT
Stand M20, 21-22 February 2026
ILCA UK 2026 Regional Youth Series © ILCA UK
There will be plenty to talk about on the ILCA stand (M20) at this weekend's Dinghy Show.
2026 sees the launch of the new 2026 Regional Youth Series kindly sponsored by Rooster. This is a series for all 3 rig sizes - 20 individual events across 5 regions - and designed to sit alongside/underneath our National Opens with the aim of attracting more sailors from their local regions who perhaps prefer to travel a little less. There will be a presentation to prizewinners of the 2025 Youth Series (250 entries across 8 events) by our 2024 ILCA7 Olympian Micky Beckett on Saturday at 12:00.
ILCA UK's National Opens (6 of them in 2026) kick off at Warsash Sailing Club in March. This is a new venue for the Class, at least for those without very long memories, and we have been impressed by the huge energy and enthusiasm shown by volunteers from Warsash. Entries have already sold out at 180 boats well ahead of the closing date. It's always a struggle to find venues which can accommodate the 180plus boats we regularly see at our National Opens but as well as our regular attendance at WPNSA in Portland we are also going up to Scotland to East Lothian in the Autumn. Our Nationals where we typically get to around 250 boats will this year be at WPNSA.
The Masters events always get great support both in the UK and overseas. Highlights here will be an open at WPNSA in May, the Masters Nationals at Parkstone Yacht Club in July and Masters Inlands at Draycote in November.
Our National Opens, Nationals and Masters events will have boats tracked by TracTrac with post race analysis available which will give sailors data on their own sailing but also help them see where races are won or lost.
Underneath our National events, ILCA UK has the Grand Prix events run by local sailing clubs around the various regions of the UK. To date over 75 events have signed up as Grand Prix events in 2026 so there will definitely be an ILCA open locally that any sailor in the UK can get to relatively easily. One lucky participant will win a free Wildwind holiday in 2026.
Recent growth in Class numbers has become very evident in the numbers of entries we are seeing for our events and whilst we believe not all of this is down to the efforts of the Class Association, we do think our first class Regional and National Training programme has helped drive participation. Since September 2025 we have seen 350 participants across 19 Regional Training weekends in 4 different regions and 4 National Training Weekends. Alongside that a number of Womens training weekends have taken place and its particularly encouraging to see a really healthy gender split coming through in the ILCA4 fleet. More to do for sure but heading in a good direction. We are very grateful to the team who do so much to organise these and to the coaches who work so hard to transfer their skills and experience to our up and coming sailors.
There has been plenty of interest in the newly developed Mark2 ILCA4 sail which has been developed by the International Class as the maker of the previously used sail cloth is ceasing production. The sail won't be Class Legal until later this year - expected August - but is already attracting attention of the growing ILCA4 fleet in the UK and it can be seen on Sailingfast's stand at the Show.
So wherever you race your ILCA in the UK and whichever fleet you sail in there are plenty of things to keep you busy through 2026. If that weren't reason in itself to join ILCA UK, at the Show the first 50 NEW memberships signed up will receive a goodie bag which is easily worth more than the cost of a year's membership. When they're gone, they're gone so don't delay!
Of course, we could not do all of this without the huge army of volunteers who work hard for the Class - thankyou to them and to our Class Administrators Ellie and Claire. But also to our many Class Sponsors - in no particular order Fernhurst Books, Noble Marine, Ovington, Rooster, Sailingfast, Tideway Wealth Management, Wildwind. Their continuing support for the Class helps to enable so much of what we do for ILCA sailors around the UK.