2020 420 WORLD CHAMPIONHIPS CELEBRATES 60TH ANNIVERSARY SINCE LAUNCH OF CLASS
As 2020 is the 60th Anniversary of the 420 Class, it was decided that the World Championships should return to France, the country in which the boat was designed.
The 2020 420, Women and U17 World Championship will be held in Crozon-Morgat, France, with dates proposed by the organisers as 3-11 July 2020.
Take a read of the bid document and find out more about the fantastic venue of Centre Nautique de Crozon Morgat, on the north-west point of France, just south of Brest.
Host to many world-class competitions, the racing here is superb.
Crozon Morgat will give teams and supporters an excellent welcome, and this small port town has all facilities in walking or cycling distance. Guarantee, this will make for a lively post-race atmosphere every evening as competitors enjoy the myriad of restaurants around the harbour.
Racing will take place a short 10 minute sail out of the harbour, with weather conditions during July likely to be reliable, with plenty of race track challenges under a blue sky.
History of the 420 Class
The 420 was designed by Christian Maury, in response to a specification drawn up by Aristide Lehoerrff and Pierre Latxague, chief sailing instructors at the Socoa sailing school at Saint Jean de Luz - Ciboure in south west France. It aimed to meet a need for a performance sail training boat.
The 420 was developed through a collaboration between Maury and the French industrialist, Lucien Lanaverre, a former cooper for the Bordeaux wine industry, who had converted to the then new process of GRP polyester moulding. Lanaverre, therefore, became the first builder of the 420, a strict One Design racing dinghy. Originally designed for advanced sailors looking to improve their sailing and racing skills, it was soon realized that this boat catered well to a wide variety of crew weights and abilities. The Class developed rapidly in France, being adopted nationally as the youth trainer for the Olympic class International 470, which was launched in 1964.
The 420 became increasingly popular world-wide. Despite the emergence of newer commercial driven classes and asymmetrics, the 420 is still the world’s top youth training boat. It was, and still is, much used in many countries for school and college competitive sailing, both fleet and team racing, as well as being the boat used for national youth race training around the world. The 420 was the equipment of choice at the very first ISAF Youth World Championships - now known as the World Sailing Youth Championships - held at Angelholm, Sweden in 1971 and has featured in the line-up at virtually every event since.
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Click here for links to all upcoming and past 420 Championships
