GBR 420s at the Palamos Christmas Race in Spain - Overall
by John Meadowcroft 23 Dec 2021 06:24 UTC
19-22 December 2021
Palamos Christmas Race © Alfred Farre /
www.alfredfarre.com
There were two races for the gold and one race completed for the silver fleet in tricky conditions once again on the final day of the the 2021 Christmas race. After seven races Barcelo and Villanueva of Spain were declared the overall winners.
For the Brits it is packing up time and a mad dash to pass a fit to travel test and then get home in order to start a two-day isolation period and then enjoy the Christmas holidays.
We did not have too much luck after a pretty good first day. Wednesday's racing saw big shifts on the first beat of both gold races, big enough for the starts of the silver race just behind to get postponed but not big enough for the races already started to be abandoned. It was good news for some but very bad news for others, overall harming the prospects in particular of our leading boats.
The value of sailing a clean qualifying series was also apparent as that enabled some of these sailors to take discards today and protect their overall rankings. Overall Henry Heathcote and Hector Bennett had a disappointing day but held onto their position of top British boat in 15th place ahead of Ollie Meadowcroft and Oscar Cawthorne who climbed to 19th and Alice Davis & Oliver Rayner in 24th.
Highlight of the day was top 10 finishes in gold fleet races for Matthias Potter & Ellie Thomas. This week everyone has got it right at some point, but high scores at other times have hurt the results.
Tim Rush stepped into the breach to coach and support all of the UK sailors for the regatta and pre event preparation after our original plans became complicated by Omicron and fell apart at the last moment. Tim did a great job. It was a really good development regatta for everyone looking forwards to 2022.
Full results at www.christmasrace.org/en/default/races/race-resultsall
Looking forward to 2022, the UK January programme is very busy as we look build towards the Youth Nationals in Pwllheli at Easter.
- 15/16 Jan Coached Racing @ Datchet
- 22/23 Jan Winter Champs @ Portland
- 29/30 Jan Class Open Training @ Portland
And then 2022 Inland Championships at Draycote on 12/13 February followed by more class coaching events and then Team selection events inMarch at Rutland and Hayling.
If you are not yet in the 420 class now is the time to join. A number of sailors ar getting new boats in the coming weeks and there will be boats on the market to buy. Our transition programme takes junior sailors on a rapid conversion to being able to sail the 420 across the wind range. Come and find out!