ITCA Invitational Training at Grafham Water Sailing Club

ITCA Invitational Training at Grafham © Citra Susanto

The Topper Invitational training at Grafham Water Sailing Club was a training event on 25th and 26th April for more experienced sailors in the top bracket of the national fleet. The fleet was fairly balanced in ability which made for very useful training.

The standard age was around fourteen. This training was very important for everyone with Topper national series event 4 just a few weeks away and after that the National and World Championships).

We had an expert team of highly skilled coaches, being Tim Hulse (Tim Hulse competed at the highest level within the British Sailing Team pathway, achieving top-10 results at major international competitions after progressing through the junior and youth Topper and ILCA classes. He has since built a strong coaching reputation as former National Coach for Toppers and Youth ILCAs, and now serves as Training Officer for ILCA UK) and Steve Irish (a former 420 World Champion and multiple RS800 National Champion with extensive experience in elite racing and coaching. He is a former British Sailing Team coach who has helped develop Olympic and world-class sailors across youth and high-performance programs).

We focused on light wind rig setups by doing exercises like rabbit runs and short races to tune are sails for a balance of speed and pointing ability. Races in the shifty and patchy wind were very difficult to master but we all came away with new knowledge on maximising sail efficiency The first day was extremely light winds (around 1-4 kts) so it was gone 2 o'clock by the time we got onto the water, once we got out we warmed up by doing some windward leeward courses to get a feel for the conditions. We then moved onto some races and after a good two hours on the water we returned to shore.

The second day was much more sailable with winds of around 5-8 kts allowing for a more productive session. We again began with a windward leeward warmup before moving into rabbit run exercises. In which we tuned our rigs for optimal performance. We then moved on to some short races to test out the setups we had previously come up with. After 5 hours or so on the water we came back in for a debrief.

Typical conditions over the weekend were an average wind was around 5-6 kts with the occasional gust of up to around 8 kts. We adapted by managing our sails for the varying wind strengths, a deeper sail for more angle in the higher end and a flatter sail for more speed and flow over the sail in lower winds.

The organisation was top notch from ITCA, with the whole weekend running smoothly for a fleet size of around 20 boats.

This training fits very well into the coming racing season, as the world championships will be held in Quiberon France which is known for its light summer winds so this training will real help all of us in the coming championships and also transitioning into other boat classes.