There is a great year ahead for the UK D-One Class!
2022 is shaping up as a strong one for the UK D-One fleet with an open event calendar comprising an exciting mix of inland, sea and foreign venues.
The UK circuit kicks off in early April at Oxford Sailing Club before moving on to Burghfield Sailing Club in late April. The National Championship will return to the heart of UK D-One sailing at Lymington Town Sailing Club in July. For the Inland Championship, the Class heads north to Leigh and Lowton Sailing Club in September. The ever popular, Warsash Sailing Club will again bookend the season in October.
A UK circuit travellers series will include the Nationals, Inlands plus one other open event.
For those wishing to travel further afield, the European circuit includes the Gold Cup at Gravedona, Lake Como, Italy in May with the European Championship at Lake Balaton Hungary in September.
More details of the events can be found on our website www.d-oneassociation.org Other events may be added as they are confirmed. If anyone would like to add an event, please let us know.
There is plenty to prepare for as we look forward to welcoming the back the travelling fleet for some great competition at fantastic venues.
UPDATE 2020-05-03
Due to the continuing difficulties of organising group events, AVAL-CDV have asked the Classe Italiane D-One to postpone this event to 2022.
We very much hope to hold this event 23-26 June 2022, and to enjoy this wonderful location with our friends in easier times.
Thank you to everyone who showed their enthusiasm to enter this event. All fees received will be refunded shortly.
It was a welcome return to Lake Lipno in the Czech Republic for the D One fleet, this time competing for the Gold Cup, again at Kemp Jestrabi venue for the European Championships back in 2016. The event superbly conceived and managed by Victor Teply and generously sponsored by Devoti and Harken.
Lake Lipno’s sub-alpine setting provided a stunning backdrop for the event and is so remote that we had more chance of catching a sheep than the corona virus despite Czechia recently moving onto the red list.
With travel restrictions etc in place the fleet of 15 was not unexpectedly smaller than usual, but made up for this with some high quality sailors including 4 Czechs (two from the Olympic squad) and 11 visitors from all corners of Europe, one representing Argentina as befitting the nearly world championship status of the event. The competitors weighed in with a range between 65kg and 100kg with the boats dual wing settings providing equal racing across all conditions.
There have not been many racing events in 2020, so we were very grateful in the UK to be able to gather for some informal racing and training in July, in place of the cancelled Lymington Regatta.
We are also very grateful to Liam Willis for capturing some high quality footage of key moments, and have spliced this into a video which we hope will provide long enough shots of all the key parts of a race to be useful to new sailors in the class.
The event covered a range of wind and tide conditions, and it is also clear that different sailors sail ...differently, so remember that you will need to adapt your technique to your own conditions, weight and fitness. Best of all, come and sail with D-Ones near you!
Our next event is the Gold Cup at Lipno (CZE), preceded by the open event at Wolfgangsee (AUT). Both wonderful places, and both actively sailing already after the lockdown earlier this year. Our next UK event is at Warsash in October.
Comments are welcome. If anyone has better video editing skills then I have please feel free to get in touch and improve on this, but I hope it is is interesting, and in places, amusing....
Click 'Read more' for the video, which is also on Youtube at https://youtu.be/wTdj-qsaZ5k
The D-One fleet were treated to a Gallic Regatta for the 2019 Champagne Gold Cup organized by Emmanuel Abord and Etienne Lobert and hosted by Ligue de l’Enseignement Giffaucourt at Lac du Der 7 to 10 June 2019.
The rest of the French fleet, Marie Benoit, Thierry D'Allance and David Bremond did a fantastic job assisting with all the background tasks that made such a great regatta. A big thank you from all the competitors, especially the Czech-Italians who were politely allowed to beat the French in the international boules contest. Or so the hosts said.
As sailors and support teams arrived from 7 nations on the Thursday everyone was enjoying the sunshine and light winds. Unfortunately the weather was not going to last. Friday dawned with a forecast of 23-30 kts with a storm with a name moving across Europe. The intrepid race management team set off ready to start at 1500. Launching in to the shelter of the club house seemed OK but a short sail later it was clear the fleet were in for a wild ride. A couple of keen racers headed up wind to check out the windward leg, but even the best did not make it back downwind without a swim.
The Swiss D-One fleet hosted this championship in the hamlet of Wingreis in the far west of the country, on a grassy meadow by the stunning lake with a view across vineyards to the snow-covered Alps. The Swiss watch-making capital of Biel, three miles up the road, provided enough hotels, bars, restaurants and expensive watches for anyone.
The event started with a break from tradition - no T shirt! Instead we were given a D-One Swiss (not army) multi knife. No complaints there.
As expected The Swiss were great hosts : Barbecued sausages each lunchtime, wine tasting, historic tour and two great evening meals with plenty of boxer old beer and strangely addictive local milk protein soft drink Rivella -all first class.
Yacht Club Bielersee have a lovely little club and an amazingly helpful group of volunteers in a great setting but also, as feared, a slight absence of wind.
We did manage to get out for some practice racing before the main event, so a chance to check we had all rigged our boats correctly.
On Friday we gathered at the club and..no wind. OK a postponement, no problem the sun is shining more boat fine tuning. I made a nice uv cover for the pole with recycled water bottles and duct tape and made some small adjustments hoping to get s little more power in the expected light breeze. Just when we thought there would be no racing for the day enough breeze appeared to get us out for one light airs race. Sadly my tuning efforts resulted in no pointing and no speed. Glad we just had one race.
Read more: 2019 European Championships, Lac Biel, Switzerland
Since the D-One was launched 10 years ago, it has been sailed in a huge variety of conditions, from calm alpine lakes to full-on sea sailing, and by all shapes and sizes of competitor. We are fortunate to have a very wide base of friendly international sailors.
The boat has always had a fairly crude form of weight equalisation, whereby sailors below 86kg are allowed slightly wider wings. As with all classes, there has been occasional discussion as to whether this is adequate. We were fortunate at the Gold Cup this year to have very clearly defined windy and light days, and a full international fleet weighed in for the event. This gave a perfect opportunity to crunch the numbers, as shown in the graph, which reads from first to last place left to right.
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