All
The clocks have changed and the nights are already drawing in meaning the weather is changing and winter sailing is nearly upon us, might even put heating on in the motorhome soon. We saw at Itchenor last weekend a change in conditions showing the lack of windy sailing many of the boats have done. This really shows the need to attend the class training with our coaches to work on your processes and skills to really hone those windy skills. I'm sure you’ll admit the leading boats were in a different league, and well done to all those medallists at Itchenor some great tidal sailing. We also saw many crews spending some time in the water and getting cold, so we need to take note that our kit needs to be good enough for cold weather sailing whilst as an organising committee we must ensure people aren’t spending too much time in the water before being rescued.
I want to say a big thank you to all the parents who put themselves forward to support the weekend, a really great team effort who got to see some spectacular sailing. I asked previously about parents offering themselves to support the class organisation and I really need people to come forward to support their sailors - In whatever capacity. Email me at GBR420Vicechair@gmail.com
Rachel Bailey has been doing a great job getting her head around the rolling ranking spreadsheet but also then updating it following the last few events - many thanks to her. The post Itchenor rolling ranking will be out shortly on the website.
We have two class training events now open for sailors to enter. Grafham on 12th/13th November the week before the End of Seasons so fantastic opportunity for practice on the same waters. This is also the first outing of the Performance group so I'm sure they will be keen to get out there alongside others. Then on the 10th / 11th of December we are at WPNSA for class training alongside the performance group and with the Youth squad training also so there could be potential for some practice racing against the top GBR sailors. We are also using this weekend to allow us to pack up boats on trailers ready for Palamos Xmas regatta.
On a final note, I met with the global 420 class association last week where it was announced that the World Sailing Youth World championships will be in Brazil in December 2023 and then followed in January 2024 by the 420 Class World Championships. There will then be an Open European Championships in Slovenia in summer 2024 with a Junior European Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece in July 2024.
So we've all got some big events to aim for this year or next......Happy Sailing.
Gareth
