Abbey & Evie’s Blog – 420 class training at WPNSA

This weekend (October 17-18) we attended our second 420 class training since lockdown eased, and for us it was an excellent weekend.

In the week leading up to the training our coaches sent out a video briefing for the weekend coming . On Saturday we went out on the water for a 5.5 hour session(!) where we did some warm ups in the harbour before heading out into the bay doing long tuning runs. The coaches helped us fine tune our trim and sail settings for different points of sail and took video that we watched later that evening. We then did some starting exercises and learnt how to scoop (which is a way to keep our position on the start line). We also got lots of tips from our coach Marcus who is in the GB 470 team and was also the previous owner of our boat. We then did some downwind runs into a leeward mark mayhem to improve our mark roundings whilst under pressure. We then finished off the day with a few short races in the harbour.

Due to us being unable to go into classrooms to do our debriefing the coaches held a Zoom meeting in the evening so we were able to watch the videos they had taken and listen to their feedback.

On Sunday we went out for another 4.5 hour session in light winds. We did more long tuning runs out into the bay and then did some big course races to prepare ourselves for the youth nationals next weekend.

Apart from getting changed in the boat park and the other usual Covid restrictions, it felt like we were nearly back to normal and we were both excited and feeling well prepared for the RYA Youth Nationals next week. However, as we found out last week, the combination of Covid restriction and the bad forecast meant that the event has been cancelled. So, we’re really disappointed about this, but as we know, there is nothing we can do about the weather!