Club 420 Nationals

Day One
Club 420s are one of the most popular double handed designs for junior sailors throughout North America. This year the National Championship came to Newport, Rhode Island, and I was on the water for the first two days of competition. With 196 boats, three separate fleets, and a starting line with two mid-line committee boats, it was a busy day of racing out on Narragansett Bay!

Day One started with 2 hours of postponement, pushing the harbor start back until noon. With sunny, hot, and humid conditions, most everyone was thankful the sea breeze started to fill from the south, however lightly.

Once the course was set and the races were underway, the sea breeze was a steady 7-10 knots. Sailors from across the country competed on a trapezoid racecourse, and many faced ocean currents for the first time. The strong outgoing tide made for dozens of boats overstanding the windward mark by several boat lengths later in the afternoon.

Racing went well into the afternoon, past 4pm, as the sun began to sink and haze started to form on the horizon. Three races were completed for each fleet and hopefully most everyone had a good first day of Nationals!

Day Two
As Day 2 of Club 420 Nationals got underway in Newport Harbor; the sun was bright but a cool morning breeze was on the air providing crisp clear summer conditions. The light wind was unsettled with it’s typical morning direction from the north.

The fleet was able to launch on time and get about one race for all divisions completed until the wind died around 1:30-2pm. Race Committee made adjustments for the flukey breezes, but with no thermal clouds over land there was little hope a true seabreeze would settle in. It just wasn’t a scorcher that day, and the breeze remained around 5 knots. It continued to shift, somewhat west, but almost always returning to a northerly direction. These conditions continued for most of the day, and luckily a little more breeze filled to about 10-12 knots for one good breezy reach leg, until it died back down again.

While I was not on the water for Day 3 of racing - with champion divisions of Gold, Silver and Bronze determined for more competitive racing divisions - it was truly a beautiful sunny summer week for a regatta. Sailors from across the country and beyond hopefully enjoyed their week of racing on Narragansett Bay!

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