420 South American Development Clinic comes to an end
Thursday 10 October was the final day of the four-day Development Clinic held at the Yacht Club Argentino in Argentina. Led by 420 Class appointed coach Nikos Drougkas (GRE), the morning started with a theory session on the definitions of the Racing Rules of Sailing, looking at examples in order to better understand the rules.
After racing, 420 appointed coach Nikos Drougkas gave teams a two hour debrief to review the day’s racing and analyse the videos from the race track. The most important focus was on steering and crewing, with less emphasis on tactics, as boat handling came up as the most important issue. With teams taking a toll from gear failure, discussion explored how to minimise breakage wrapping up with a look at starts and mark roundings.
The teams then moved to the water, starting with some warm-up exercises, then moving on to focus on boat handling and mark rounding by hoisting the spinnaker on the windward side on the downwind and reaching. Multiple gybes from reach to reach put teams through their paces, as they worked their way through the manoeuvre to ensure each action was correct. Staying on downwind boathandling, the next exercise looked at steering downwind through waves.
It was then time to put all they had learnt into practice with some races on a windward/leeward course.
The Clinic debrief was then followed up with a few teams spending a some more hours on boatwork.
Racing continues at the 420 South Americans on 12-13 October.