Once again, Hayling Island, one of the near spiritual homes of the class will be welcoming boats next June from across the world to compete for what has to be one of the great titles to win, the 5o5 World Championship.
Like the 14s and their PoW Trophy, the list of names on the 5o5 silverware is an amazing record of top sailing royalty; far bigger though is the list of top helms from around the world who have set themselves the challenge of winning it but come up short. Sailors with a chest full of winners medals from the Olympics and other World Championships have given the FiveO challenge their best, only to finish a few steps off the top spot.
This talk of silverware is an important part of the latest 5o5 story, as the UK fleet has been busy tracking down the trophies that are awarded at the UK Championships: these have been located, cleaned and brought back up to spec with any missing names added in, so now there really is something to race for.
As a result, the FiveOs are aiming for something of a bumper fleet for this year's event, which is being hosted by the WPNSA. They could well be in luck, as already there has been a run of purchases that has seen a number of the available competitive boats being snapped up by top quality teams.
Now it is the turn of the UK Class Association to be doing everything right: they have the boat, the event, the people and now a surge of new interest which is putting the 5o5 right back to it's rightful position as one of the pinnacles of dinghy sailing that anyone can aspire to - and it all starts in Weymouth, Thursday 26th June for four days, though there's a welcome reduced entry 'deal' for those who can only make days 3 and 4 at the weekend.
Weymouth is always wonderful: why not be there next weekend?
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