Introduction

In the rest of the World, when competitve young sailors finish their time in Optimist, they usually move onto another international class.  The main choices are single-handed sailing (e.g. Laser 4.7), boards (e.g. Techno) and two-handed sailing (e.g. 420).  It is normal in Europe for sailors to start sailing 420 between 13-15yrs old.

The 420 is an established worldwide performance two person trapeze and spinnaker racing dinghy.  There are 56,000 worldwide and the larger, European, regattas often attract around 100 entries in each fleet (boys and girls usually race in separate fleets internationally, with mixed gender crews taking part in the “Open”, or men’s, fleet).

The 420 is the youth development boat in 43 countries around the world and is an ISAF Youth World Championship boat.  The ideal competitive combined crew weight is 110-135Kg and usually the skipper is lighter than the crew.