World Sailing Emerging Nations Program 2017 – Americas

Club Nautico hosted the latest ENP clinic and it proved to be step of progression for the 45 young sailors and coaches who attended from North and South America as well as the Caribbean, from 14 – 20 August 2017.

World Sailing Nominated Expert, Tim Cross from Great Britain, said, “Once again an Emerging Nations Program clinic surpassed expectations. It was a fruitful program with 16 Member National Associations (MNAs) attending, including the largest fleet of female sailors attending at any clinic.

“The Dominican Republic served up a range of Caribbean summer time conditions allowing the attending coaches and sailors to practice and refine their processes across a range of wind strengths and sea conditions.”

Cross concluded, “My highlight was watching the friendships grow throughout the duration of the week, as both sailors and coaches alike worked hard with their peers to ensure they maximised their learning output from the clinic and developed mutual bonds which will continue for many years to come.”

Kyle Spenard, the Barbados sailing coach who participated the clinic, highlighted his take on the clinic, “It was a fantastic opportunity to train with a larger group of sailors and work with other coaches. The Emerging Nations Program provided me with many more challenges and experiences than just sailing against the same three sailors every session back home. There were so many interesting topics that we covered and these have helped me to focus and re-set my performance goals for the future.”

Another coach who attended the clinic was Alenna Rankine from Cayman Islands, she said, “I feel I have gained more knowledge during the seven days. The on-water training was really fun and also it great to have the input from so many different coaches during the week.”

This was the fifth and last Youth ENP Regional Performance clinic of 2017. This years’ ENP clinics were held in Singapore, South Africa, Vanuatu, Poland and finally Dominican Republic. From these clinics, 19 sailors have been selected to attend the Youth World Championships Emerging Nations Program that will run directly before the Youth World Championships which will be held in Sanya, China, from 09-16 December 2017.

About the Emerging Nations Program
The Youth Worlds Emerging Nations Program (ENP) aims to increase the number of sailors and MNAs participating at the Youth Worlds, with the aim to narrow the performance gap and promote worldwide competition. With this in mind the ENP clinics focus on coach performance, sailor ability and national training scheme development, with the goal to enhance sailing within the home nations, allowing future generations and sailing as a sport to benefit.