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Displaying items by tag: VX

The UK’s second ever VX One National Championship gets underway from 2 - 4 October at Weymouth Sailing Club. With boats travelling from as far afield as Ullswater, Edinburgh and the West Country, a good forecast and the sailing taking place on Weymouth Bay’s Olympic waters, the event is promising some thrilling and highly competitive, one-design racing.

The lively VX One, which has strong fleets in the USA and Australia, is already catching the eye of many top UK sailors. Last year’s Nationals saw the likes of Peter Barton and Olympian Stevie Morrison try their hand in the class, with more newcomers this year. Former Enterprise and OK World Champion, Jim Hunt will be making his debut in the fleet, along with Adrian Peach the SB20 Cowes Week Grand Slam champion.

Current VX One Inland Champions, and former International 14 stalwart, Howard Steavenson, sailing with son Tom, are racing as one of the fleet favourites for the Championship title.

Recently described as “The best one design ever!” by five times 505 World Champion, Wolfgang Hunger, and the “One of the most exciting new Sportsboats to hit the scene” by Yachting World’s Matt Sheahan, and with full support from the Ovington Boats team on shore, we can look forward to some exciting sailing over the next three days.

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Tom Dolan, Solo Offshore Sailor

Even when County Meath solo sailor Tom Dolan had been down the numbers in the early stages of the four-stage 2,000 mile 2020 Figaro Race, Dolan and his boat were soon eating their way up through the fleet in any situation which demanded difficult tactical decisions.

His fifth overall at the finish – the highest-placed non-French sailor and winner of the Vivi Cup – had him right among the international elite in one of 2020's few major events.

The 33-year-old who has lived in Concarneau, Brittany since 2009 but grew up on a farm in rural County Meath came into the gruelling four-stage race aiming to get into the top half of the fleet and to underline his potential to Irish sailing administrators considering the selection process for the 2024 Olympic Mixed Double Offshore category which comes in for the Paris games.