Report from the Doublehanded Class Association

Written by Kate Cope

Doublehanded Sailing continues to grow and now often represents half of the fleet in UK offshore racing with the RORC. Last year the UK setup up a Class Association to promote the sport: The UK Doublehanded Offshore Series.  The objective is to cherry pick the best Double Handed Offshore Races on offer and combine them into one season long series. We welcome professionals, amateurs, and young talent and in 2022 our numbers grew from 30 to 43 foot boats 

We have brought the community together to provide a stronger voice for this growing sport and to learn from each other to improve everyone’s skills. We provide training both in the classroom and practical on the water coaching. We also have regular social events to exchange ideas.

One of the concerns I hear from fully crewed boats about the shift to Doublehanded is that young talent will have no pathway into Offshore racing. We have found its quite the opposite. We run a crew match and this year it has been more successful than ever at matching youngsters with boats. We are partnered with the Magenta project, the Gentoo Youth programme and Young Tigris. Gavin Howe deserves special recognition for setting up the Young Tigris programme. This year with his classic boat Wavetrain and his Sunfast 3600 giving opportunities in every race for under 25 years old mixed pairs to compete.

Thanks must also go to Jangada, Polished Manx, Malice, JAGO, Hot Pursuit, Mzungu!, Asgard and Arcsine for giving young sailors the opportunity to race DH this year. The feedback from the youngsters who have taken part has been very positive.  All appreciate the opportunity to try out more roles onboard particularly responsibility for Helming, Navigation and Tactics. No relaxing on the rail as there is always plenty to do on a doublehanded boat.

We are thankful to our sponsors as without their support we would not be able to run the Series. This year we welcomed new sponsors Upffront, Royal Southern yacht club and One Sails aboard to join long term sponsors Sea Ventures, Jeanneau, RYA, B&G, Ocean Safety, Musto, Farr X2 and Cyclops Marine. 

This is all run by a small voluntary team at Doublehanded HQ. Kate Cope, Henry Bomby, Ellie Driver and Conrad Manning. This year we have been spreading the word about Doublehanded racing and are pleased to have helped the Australians get a Sydney Doublehanded Series off the ground. We have just started to advise a NE USA team. 

Plans for 2023

The Doublehanded series will continue in 2023 and all boats are welcome to join us so. Keep a look out on our website https://www.doublehandedoffshore.com/ or email contact@doublehandedoffshore.com for details of how you can get involved.