NZ 420 Girls- Reflections on the Worlds at Haifa

by Vicky Francis on 9 Aug 2010
The New Zealand 420 Girls crew of Erica Dawson and Vicky Francis give a overview of their six week trip overseas including competition at the 2010 Worlds in Israel:

We have just come back from the 420 worlds in Haifa, Israel where we finished a relatively disappointing 32nd over all. The highlight of the regatta was in the qualifying series where we had exceptional speed above 15knots and in the 6 race series we had results of a 1, 2, 28, 14, 6, and 1 (OCS).

This followed on from the great speed we had in the breeze at the ISAF Youth Worlds where we got a second in the practice race and a first during the series. While we also had some reasonable scores to give us a 16th over all. Such as the calibre of the fleet in the 420 the crew who finished 15th in the youth worlds went onto win the 420 worlds a couple weeks later

While we could often compete in the lighter conditions this was clearly an area of weakness and we have much to improve on to become competitive in all conditions internationally

Overall the trip has been a fantastic learning experience and we certainly has encouraged us to focus on improving in all areas of our sailing, impartially the light to moderate breezes

Congratulations to Tom, Alex and Sam for their success at the Youth Worlds

We would like to thank the following people and organisations that has greatly supported us over the
last 10 months:

Pack n Save
SPARK
Ocean Bridge
Southern Trust
Kristin School
New Zealand Yachting Trust


We would also like to thank the following coaches, especially Grant Beck for his encouragement and direction, Shelly Hesson, Scott Illingworth, Ian Neely, Paul Snow-Hansen

Also a special thanks to the:
Murray Jones, Mike Drummond, Mark Orams for their fantastic discussion on Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing

Also to the New Zealand 420 Association, Murray's Bay Sailing Club and Yachting New Zealand

Thanks to everyone that helped out

Erica Dawson and Vicky Francis