Phuket youth sailors headed for 2020 O'pen Skiff Worlds

Luan Heitmann sailing an O'pen Skiff © Phuket Yacht Club

Three Phuket Yacht Club (PYC) youth sailors, Zac Duncanson, Luan Heitmann and Michael Beckett will be competing in the 2020 O’pen Skiff World Championship, scheduled for 12-18 July 2020 in the Mediterranean waters of Sardinia, Italy. The regatta has already attracted 209 entries from Europe, USA, Australia, New Zealand, India and Thailand and is sanctioned by World Sailing.

These young sailors aged 11 and 12 have been part of the unique O’pen Skiff sail-training philosophy aimed at engaging sailors primarily through fun and the learning of life skills on and off the water. The 2020 World Championship is going to be a fantastic opportunity to for them to make new friends and will be their first experience sailing at an international level.

The O’pen Skiff is a new generation junior sailing dinghy class for ages 7-17. Designed by Vitali, Italy and built in France, it’s fast, wet, exhilarating and quickly becoming the first step on the pathway to high-performance dinghies. With well over 10,000 boats built to date, the boat is tough, very low maintenance and most importantly very well priced. The PYC will be holding their inaugural O’pen Skiff Regatta as a warm-up event 26-29 March 2020, and all intermediate level youth sailors are invited. Entries have already been received from India and Phuket and (it is hoped) a special guest from the Thai National sailing team.