Nacra 15 UK Class Association Transition Weekend at Weston Sailing Club
by Roger Cerrato 19 Jun 2025 20:28 BST
14-15 June 2025
Nacra 15 UK Class Association Transition Weekend at Weston © Roger Cerrato
Following a successful Demo Day at WPNSA earlier in the year, the UK Nacra 15 Class Association welcomed six sailors to Weston SC over the weekend of June 14/15 for a Transition Weekend. By working closely with UKCRA (UK Catamaran Racing Association) and Weston SC we were able to offer confidence building time in the more basic Topaz 14 Cat as well as plenty of Nacra 15 sailing.
Saturday dawned with bright sunshine and "plenty" of wind! The morning was spent ashore learning some key aspects of catamaran sailing in general and about the Nacra 15 in particular under the watchful eye of coach (and past top Nacra 15 racer) Izzy Smith. After some shore drills including learning about capsize recovery and a quick lunch it was time to get changed and launch onto a moody looking Southampton Water.
With gusts regularly reaching 25 knots plus it was going to be a baptism of fire for our new sailors! Current Nacra 15 sailors Matt and Ffion soon had the newcomers working hard on an upwind/downwind course with plenty of blistering downwind fun under spinnaker and the odd capsize for good measure! All returned ashore at the end of the session tired but with big smiles after a great day!
Thankfully on Sunday we had a bit less breeze, in fact the 10 to 15 knots felt positively pedestrian after Saturday's adventures. All Transition sailors were again able to sail a 15 with an experienced class sailor aboard but this time the new sailors could also team up together in a Topaz 14 to further develop their catamaran skills.
New Nacra 15 sailor Lewis (16) summed up the weekend as follows: "We had a relatively windy weekend in the Nacra 15s at Weston SC, learning how to sail them. We began by learning how to rig and handle the boat. later out on the water we took turns with experienced Nacra sailors and had a very enjoyable time on the trapeze despite multiple sailors ending up in the water due to the difficult conditions".
All the sailors left with smiles at the end of the weekend and we're looking forward to further supporting them as they continue their Nacra 15 journey.
To learn more about the class please contact us via
Otherwise if you're interested in getting aboard the fastest Youth sailboat class please head to our website and fill in our taster sail request form: www.nacra15.co.uk/getting-started/transition