While 420 training continues at various venues around the country through the winter, the first 420 sailing event of 2018 takes place from Monday the 12th to Thursday the 15th Feb at the Fastnet Marine & Outdoor Education Centre in Schull and online entry is now open through the 420 Class Association website here. This training week has been a regular event in the 420 season for many years and it is organised to run in parallel to the Optimist training in nearby Baltimore.

Following immediately on from the Schull training camp will be the Munster regional championships on Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th February, also hosted by the Fastnet Marine & Outdoor Education Centre. This is the first competitive event of the 420 season, a season that will stretch through to the end of September when the Ulster Championships will be held as part of the RYANI Youth Championships.

The spring will see 420 crews racing in a number of Irish and overseas events to seek qualification for various International Championships during the summer. First up after the Junior and Leaving cert exams are the Junior Europeans which move to Sesimbra in Portugal this year and later in the summer the 420 Wolds return north of the equator to be held in Newport, Rhode Island. In 2017 the 420 class was represented by Geoff Power and James McCann at the 2017 ISAF Youth Worlds in China and next year the event will be held during the summer at Corpus Christi Yacht Club in Texas.