Success at the 420 Championships! 17 Jan 2011

While most of us were getting ready for Christmas, struggling with the snow, Henriette Brand was all set to represent her Club and Country at the 420 World Championships at the Yacht Club Argentina in Buenos Aries. Together with partner Eleni Morus from Wales, she was part of a seven boat Ladies’ Team and a seven boat Open Team, competing in the famous sailing waters of the River Plate.

They travelled out on 20th December as a team together with two coaches, a bosun and house mother one week ahead of racing to get some training in ahead of the championship. Going from -5 to 35 degrees was going to be tough- even the locals were complaining about the high teperatures which combined with the strong -up to 28 knot winds and waves were going to provide really tough conditions for racing.

These conditions meant that over the course of the championship there were countless broken parts including over 30 broken masts.

Given the standard of competition with the best youth sailors from over 20 countries and our girls relative light weight, they returned a very respectable overall 22nd place.

GBR team also returned with the silverware which declared them Ladies Champions, Best Performing Nation, Youth Girls Prize with four Open Boats in the top ten.