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28th January 2020

Abbey & Evie’s Blog #1

KSSA captains Abbey Mumford and Evie Herrington are stepping up their sailing. After sailing an RS Feva XL in 2018 they moved up to a 420 in 2019 and bravely competed for the first time in the 420 world championships (quite a step up from the regular KSSA events!), then went on to beat the whole medium handicap fleet at the NSSA ‘nationals’ at Weymouth.

This year they’re continuing their progression, mixing KSSA dates with 420 regattas. We thought it would be fun, and informative, for the girls to blog about their experiences, for the benefit of all members.

So, here’s Blog #1, and it explains why we didn’t see them at Dover on Saturday…

25-26 January 420 Open Class training and coached racing at Datchet Water

Two days of coached racing at Datchet with the 420 class – two very different days, starting with a light shifty day on Saturday (just like at Dover) and a breezy and gusty day on Sunday (as you probably saw).

Saturday, we focused on starts and decision making through the seven 30-minute races on four different courses. One of our main learning points was our positioning on the start line and being able to keep a leeward gap to enable us to be able to trigger at the start allowing us to cross the line with power. All of this took place over one long session lasting five hours! We finished off the day with a debrief during which we watched videos which the five coaches took through the day.

See how different the angle is on the spreaders between Abbey & Evie’s and the other boats – so they’re resetting them for heavy winds

Sunday started with a forecast of 15-20 knots, so we adjusted our rake and spreaders to better suit these conditions. Sunday’s focus was mainly on reach hoist. It was another day of 30-minute races on another four different courses doing two races on each course. We were able to improve our reach hoists due to the varied courses and many repetitions. It was a hard-working day after being on the water for four hours, but we were able to improve and practice through the day, even as the wind was building.

All of this was good preparation for the Tiger Trophy we are attending next weekend at Rutland Water where most of the 420 fleet will be racing against other classes in support of the John Merricks sailing trust – weather allowing, the forecast shows 45mph gusts at the moment…”

5th December 2019

Chipstead Autumn Training and AGM

Dispute the chill and light airs, it didn’t stop a great day at Chipstead on Saturday. Once the fog had burned off, 36 sailors took to the water in a variety of boats ranging from Oppies through to an RS200. The KSSA AGM and presentations took place afterwards in the club house. Some more great photos from our resident photographer, Jon Bentman, are now available in the gallery, for your enjoyment.

15th February 2019

We now accept PayPal payments

You can now pay for KSSA event entries and membership using PayPal. Just select PayPal as the payment method during the checkout process.

You can use most debit and credit cards. Please note, you don\’t need a PayPal account to do this.

We encourage all members to pre-enter for events as this helps with event organisation and safety cover. It is also cheaper than entering on the day. We also encourage our sailors to pay online at the same time that they pre-enter as this helps with admin at the Registration desk on the day of the event. We will refund entry fees if you are unable to attend an event. For full details please see our Refund Policy

28th December 2018

Welcome to our new website

The KSSA Committee are delighted to announce that our new website is now live at kssa.co.uk

The new look site is easy to navigate and will act as the KSSA’s Clubhouse for members and anyone wishing to find out more about the activities and opportunities the KSSA offers to young sailors in Kent.

Information relating to training events and regattas is easy to find. The new site incorporates an online membership and events entry system. You can now join KSSA, manage subscriptions, enter events and pay online if you wish.

As before, please continue to pre-enter for KSSA events as this helps the Committee organise coaches and safety cover. Pre-entry is not a commitment to attend. It will still be possible to enter/pay on the day, but if you choose the convenience of online pre-payment, refunds for non-attendance are possible (see Refund Policy).

Existing KSSA members will be sent an email soon with details of how to set up their online membership.

As the KSSA does not have a fixed venue or clubhouse the website is where you will find information about who we are and what we do. Results of our regattas and trophy winners can be found, together with reports and photos from our events.

Our ethos, To Promote Youth Sailing in Kent, underpins all that we do. As an RYA affiliated Club and RYA British Youth Recognised Club we work closely with the RYA to encourage all youth sailors, from novice to national squad standard, develop their skills and love of their sport through our training events, regattas supported by RYA recognised coaches and our own KSSA instructors.

Find out more about our events planned for 2019 at http://kssa.co.uk (If you have an existing KSSA bookmark/shortcut you will need to update it using this link).

Contact the committee via the Contact Us tab or pre-enter and join us at one of our events in the new year.