Successful 470 Baltic Clinic

The opening clinic for the 2011 470 Development Programme took place from 7-11 May in Nida, Lithuania attracting participants both from Lithuania and neighbouring Latvia. Nick Drougas (GRE) was the class appointed coach, who has an impressive pedigree as a world class coach.

Nida is a beautiful fishing village in an area protected by UNESCO for its unique Curonian Spit and forest.

Six teams participated for five full training days, before they went on to compete at the Lithuania Cup 2011 which took place from 11-15 May 2011.

The clinic programme was for five full training days on the water , with a focus on tacking, gybing, mark rounding, boat set up and basic trimming. Time was also spent on upwind, downwind and reaching techniques.

Explained Nick Drougas, “Every day, we had a briefing to set the goals of the day, how we would manage to reach our goals through the exercises, which are the key points and where we have to focus to achieve the maximum performance of each sailor.”

The briefing included videos and notes on the white board. At the end of each day, a de-brief was held which included videos of the day, notes on the board and a discussion on the performance of each sailor.

The last day of the clinic delivered no wind, so a fully day was spent on theory about trimming- analysis of the use of mainsheet, kicker, chocks, bridle, outhaul, tack tie, top batten, jib sheet, jib track and spinaker pole height – and the importance of the reference marks. Time was also spent on the ISAF RRS, part 2 and the definitions.

The conclusion from Nick Drougas was, “The sailors learnt a lot and even more than they expected!”

More Information:
470 Development Programmes

Image: Clinic participants © Nick Drougas