Itchenor School's Week - Day 3
by Alastair Pusinelli 26 Jun 2014 11:12 BST
23-27 June 2014
Itchenor Schools' Week, supported by Mind The Gap Year, continued on Wednesday with the arrival of 43 Fireflys and 17 420 sailors, comprising of 24 participating schools.
The second half of the week is where the sailing really steps up a gear. The 420s and Fireflies, consisting of sailors aged 14-18, were in action on an official training day.
The Firefly sailors were instructed by past Schools' Championship winner Arthur Henderson and National Youth Development coach Izzy Fitgerald, who put the boats through their paces in a series of training drills.
The 420s class sailors were introduced to the worlds number 2 ranked nacra 17 sailor Ben Saxton, who is currently training with his team in Weymouth. He spent some time coaching the young 420 sailors during the day and gave a talk on "the road to rio" to a packed room of competitors in the evening.
After some tacking on the whistle, the coaches dissected the race start. They emphasised the importance of clean air, but also making sure they had room to manoeuvre, whilst bearing in mind the tidal movements.
The 420s also concentrated on race starts, after taking part in some windward leeward drills.
The day finished with some practice racing in which the American school of Ransom Everglades and the local Royal Grammar School Guildford both looked equally impressive.