ITCA (GBR) Midlands Topper open training at Swarkestone Sailing Club
by Claire Turner 21 Feb 2024 12:27 UTC
17 February 2024
ITCA (GBR) Midlands Topper open training at Swarkestone © Claire Turner
On Saturday 17th February, ITCA Midlands finally made it to Swarkestone Sailing Club for a day of Topper Open Training. Originally scheduled (and rescheduled) for January, the Derbyshire floods beat us twice, so to finally get on the water at one of our new training venues felt like a real triumph!
With a full house of sailors, most of whom were new to ITCA, the day started with a briefing from coaches Harris Goodman and Ffion Morgan on the morning’s planned activities concentrating on roll tacks.
The wind was light but at times we had sunshine so conditions were perfect. The group was split into two, and the coaches worked the sailors hard before the break for lunch, when we were treated to an excellent galley spread of pasta, soup and cakes.
A further briefing on roll gybes set the sailors up for an afternoon of more technical exercises. At one point Ffion hopped into a Topper to demonstrate the technique in more detail to her group. After more practice the groups joined together for some races with the faster sailors being held back for a second start.
It was great to see the progress made by so many of the sailors with each and every sailor reflecting on their improvements on the day at the end of sailing debrief.
We would like to extend a very big thank you to Swarkestone Sailing Club, especially Louise Robertson who was a superb host for the day, and in January did everything possible to try to get the session to run. We will be visiting Swarkestone again in July, this time for more specific race coaching.
Our next open training is taking place at Notts County Sailing Club on March 23rd. If you would like more information or to book please visit www.itca-gbr.co.uk/area-pages/midlands/training or email