DART18-Newsletter 2021: We keep sailing!

Keep on Sailing!

Dear DART-Sailors
2020 has been a strange year... Some have sailed more, most have sailed less. Regattas were cancelled, exchange within the DART-Family go difficult, other priorities took over...

We hope you are all coping as well as possible under the given circumstances!

Many of us miss sailing our DARTS. In this newsletter the IDA-Committee and different nations look back at 2020 and share their thoughts about moving forward in 2021.
Read their articles and follow up on their activities on websites, facebook and instragram!

Fingers crossed that we can see each other on the water in 2021.
Each of us can do a lot to keep the DART-Spirit alive!

France

Like anywhere else our 2020 season got very disturbed by Covid crisis. Only three events and very little travel for most of us.

Early march, for our “frozen feet” opening race at Sanguinet. 11 Dart were together …. Two days before the general lockdown.

We had to wait until mid September to get together again. Courseulles Yacht Club did a great job hosting us, with two weeks only to organize this event, where the focus was on Lady Teams and Single Handed.
Great meeting and perfect social for the 15 boats who managed to get there on short notice.

The mid October week end saw two Open Class meetings at the same time. The long distance Catagolfe in Brittany saw 15 Dart (one of the largest one-design group). Meanwhile Sanguinet saw 10 Dart at its end season Grand Prix. Not bad, given the restrictions!

François Morisset takes the Annual Trophy. Angélique and Lucie keep their Women Trophy and Thierry wins the Single Handed …. and special credit for his beautiful new boat.

All looking forward to safer and more frequent meetings in 2021. Our 2021 major highlight is obviously:

Dart 18 Wolrds 2021 – La Rochelle - July 24^th to 30^th.

See you all there, at last !

Italy

Hi to all Dart18 sailors,
the Italian Association is still very active and growing. Some new youngsters joined the fleet as well as the older ones. Congratulations to “20 Nodi Association” in Ostia (Rome) that brought 25 Dart18 in Lega Navale Italiana Club and opened the first Dart18 School there. We had a nice 2020 season unlike the Covid 19 restrictions, saving all the 6 programmed regattas, including the Italian Championship. The 2021 is going to be as well a thrilling season, since sailing is allowed during the covid restrictions. After the first two regattas in Rome (Ostia) and Goro (Ferrara) we are going to sail our 2021 Championship in Elba Island 28-30^th May, new place for Dart sailors. Dart18 sailors from abroad are most welcome… we can help to organise a boat.
Please visit our schedule on http://www.asidart.it/calendario-2021/

United Kindom

2020
Unfortunately in 2020 we had to cancel all of the planned Dart18 events as it became impossible to run them.  In the case of the nationals when it became clear the host club would not be able to run the event the UKIDA team tried to put together a plan B to keep the event going but this eventually proved futile. The important thing was that the sailors stayed safe and many did enjoy some local club sail at certain points in the year.  At my own club Dee.S.C we re-ran what would have been the UKIDA GP1 in April later in August with 19 boats and 1 traveller which was David Lloyd and Joanna Trafford.  Suffice to say we were not able to have one of our legendary socials.

2021
So far 2021 has started with the cancellation of the first 2 schedules UKIDA GPs.  But we are now optimistic we can restart sailing with the Dee.S.C now GP1 at the end of May albeit with social restrictions. The full program looks like this.

10 – 11 Apr Cancelled – GP1 / Inland National Championship – Rutland SC
15 – 16 May  Cancelled – GP2 Minnis Bay SC
29 – 31 May – GP1 Dee SC
12 – 13 June – Scottish National Championship – RTYC
19 – 20 June – GP2 – NDYC, Instow
2 – 4 July – D18 National Championship – Mumbles SC
17 – 18 July Cancelled – GP3 East Coast Piers Race – Marconi Sailing Club
24 – 30 July – D18 World Championship – La Rochelle, France
14 – 15 August – GP4 Snettisham Beach SC (note 0915 start 14th)
28 – 30 August – GT5 RYYC, Bridlington (2 day event within 3 days)
11 – 12 September – GT6 Weston SC
30 – 31 October – D18 Single Handed Championship – Grafham SC

Lets hope that the measures our governments have taken will finally gain control of the situation and we can all return to enjoying the sailing programs we have planned.

Germany

Only three regattas could be sailed: German Championship in Scharbeuz, Alpencup on Lake Garda and the "Ausklang" at Steinhuder Meer.

Good news for international competitors: The German Association bought boats in the north and south of our country for sailors to rent in order to make travelling easier. Also international sailors can come to German events without bringing a boat, just reserve it early!
In the north the boats have been paid for and are looked after by Bernd Meyer, in the south by the class association.

Even with bad general conditions there has been Dart sailing in local clubs. In Berlin we created a WhatsApp Group to let others know that we go sailing and encourage them to join. It improved the sailing level on our waters!

Netherlands

Hello Dart friends,
Obviously 2020 wasn't the season we dreamt of beforehand. But the Dutch Dart sailors were happy with the opportunity to race in three events: Bergen Sail, the Dutch Open in Medemblik and the traditional closing event during the Autumn Cup at Muiderzand. Despite all restrictions we were very happy to welcome more than 12 boats on these events. All three events were tightly fought, with some finishes just one second apart! It was also great to welcome several new sailors to the class. Not the least through a trend that started last season and has definitely continued into 2021. A growing fleet of Dutch single handers. We already have a strong field of around 7 very experienced and talented sailors that proof to be very competitive in races. Sailing one-up also proofed to be the perfect solution for sailing during the strict COVID-regime.
Looking at 2021 the first event on the beach of The Hague will be organised in the run-up to the Worlds July 10 & 11, so it might also be interesting for some Belgium or German Darts.
Many Dutch sailors have already registered to travel to La Rochelle, looking forward to racing the beautiful bay and catching up with the international Dart-family on and off the water.

In the autumn we will have a three day Dutch open from 8th till the 10th of October on the beautiful and challenging waters of Medemblik. Of course you are all invited! We hope to see the return of many of the international Dart-sailors that have fought hard for the Dutch tittle over the past few years. More information on the Dutch Nationals later on: www.allianzregatta.org

We hope to see all of you again soon!

South Africa

Dart18 SA is alive and kicking.

Greetings to all around the World, it’s been awhile since we’ve had correspondence with the rest of the Dart18 sailors around the world. Since 2014 Worlds in SA things kind of slowed down for some reason, our economy also hasn’t help over the last 10 years and now Covid but we are growing again which is great news.

Since taking over as chairperson in August 2018 my main drive has been to try grow the fleet again. With the combination of youth, novices and the stalwarts of the class we are reaching 25+ boats at Double & Single Handed Nationals. The figures have doubled in a two years, taking into account that no National Championships took place in 2020 due to Covid Restrictions in SA.

I’m confident that the fleet will grow even more over the next 2 years and we will be looking at sending a few teams across to compete in the Dart World Championship. Some of the young adults, men and ladies, are starting to show the stalwarts they getting better every season and are starting to win some of our National and Provincial Championships. Liam Gunning our Youth National Champion 2018 and Dart18 National Champion 2019 represented SA at Youth Worlds in Poland.

Even though the youngsters are knocking on the door Ben Mienie is still our top Dart18 sailor. He has been sailing Darts for 40 years and has been too numerous Dart18 Worlds. His dedication to sailing is rubbing of on the youngsters and they are starting to follow his philosophy BOB “Bum on Boat” as much as possible.

To end off I am confident South Africa will be present at a Dart18 World Championship in the near future and it will be great to meet all of you from around the World.

Cheers and Stay Safe, Stay Healthy.

Portugal

Due to travel restriction we could not sail our usual 5 or 6 races a year in 2020. Our "hardcore" of around 12 boats s eager to start sailing again in 2021!

This year if the situation regarding Covid and lockdown's keeps improving, we are planning to organise the Nationals next September 2021 in Vilamoura which at the moment is probably one of the most popular locations for Dinghy sailing in the world judging by the amount of Olympic classes which have been training here over the last few months.

In septembre 2022 the situation will hopefully have improved to such an extent that we will be able to have lots of social events with BBQ's, beers and wine at the Worlds 2022 in Vilamoura!

Switzerland

Two regattas, one "fun-weekend". That was 2020. Or not? A few of us took advantage of the new "freedom" and made shure the spent as much time as possible on the water! Even if its not regatta-sailing, it is still a great way to forget about daily business. We were lucky that individual sailing could continue throughout the summer and autumn.
2021 will still be a challange for regatta-sailing. But we are eager to back sailing after a small warm-up n saturday 15th of may! fingers crossed we will see some of our international friends at Lake Como, 5./6th of June.

Keep safe and keep sailing!

Hello Dart Sailors!

For those who I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting, I'm Tom Phipps and along with Alex Metcalf represent Windsport, the licenced manufacturer for the beautiful Dart 18.
As as little back ground, Windsport has operated as the class's manufacturer for a number of years now all of which has be managed by Brian and Cookie Phipps (my parents). Over the last 18 months we have been working closely together as they move towards retirement. I am very pleased to say that as of 2021 Windsport is now in the very capable hands of myself and Alex. We both have been involved with Dart and catamaran sailing for a lot years. The combination of my racing background and Alex’s technical knowledge will mean we have all bases covered moving forward. On top of our commitment to the supply and manufacture of the class, Windsport has recently created a brand new training base and campsite from our base in Cornwall. That side of the business will be known as ‘Coastland’ and if any sailor wants to improve their skills through training, or just come down, stay and enjoy exploring the incredible sailing waters around Falmouth, then we are the place to be! www.coastland.life

History and admin aside, you guys will all be very pleased to know that it's business as usual in terms of Dart parts and boats. Despite the turmoil of Covid and Brexit we have worked hard to create robust supply chains so the availability of parts is consistent. Currently we are experiencing some slight delays with shipping but ultimately everything is available and ready to go. New boats will continue to be sold with the new silver branding, and we now have our own custom made race-lite sheet options, the perfect balance between fast running, hardwearing and comfortable to hold.

As ever we as manufacturers and of course sailors welcome any feedback.

We look forward to seeing you guys on the water soon. Sail fast!

Tom and Alex

info@windsport.co.uk
www.windsport.co.uk

(Our new training base in Cornwall)

Keep on Sailing!

Worlds 2021

Worlds 2021

23.-30.07.2021, La Rochelle (FRA)

IDA international dart association

new team

international championships

national class associations

France

Italy

United Kindom

Germany

Netherlands

South Africa

Portugal

Switzerland

Windsport INTERNATIONAL

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