By Jamie Hilton
You’ve entered (or about to enter) the ACO Musto Skiff World Championship at Carnac. The regatta is now just over a month away, and for some of you, the thought of sailing five days over a week with little-to-no training is daunting – but it shouldn’t be. Sailing is fun and wherever you are racing in the fleet, you are guaranteed to enjoy some good racing with other sailors. You know it’s going to be a fun week whatever happens – and let’s face it, we would all rather be sailing for a week than working or studying!
Get yourself ready for a World Championship regatta with this 5-week action plan that focuses on how to get the most out of your week sailing in Carnac.
The Goal for the Next 5-Weeks
#1: Get your entry in
Why… well, because getting your entry in early gives the organisers a huge boost and helps with scoping the final event plans. It also gives you focus; knowing you’re going and committed gives you the extra motivation to arrive in the best condition possible.
A key point here too – if you are new to the fleet, or you haven’t sailed for a while, don’t think you’ll not be good enough to be on the racetrack, or winning is the only thing that matters. For newcomers especially, it’s arguably one of the best ways to accelerate improvement. Besides, one of the great things about the Musto Skiff class is you will always get good racing no matter where you find yourself in the fleet. Things can go wrong, and we have all been there, but any calamitous moments always make for a good story at the sailing club after racing.
Whatever happens, we know we’ll all have fun, both on and off the water.
#2: Make goals
These might come in many forms depending on your own ability, ambitions, or even just a sense of what gives you the most satisfaction. For some, it will simply be to take part, for others it will be to win the coveted title of World Champion; and for the rest of us, everything in between.
In other words, we all have our own goals and time constraints to work with. Don’t overwhelm yourself with what you think you must achieve at a World Championship. Just focus on your own strengths and personal goals.
Your goal might just be to keep it simple:
- Finish races consistently
- Manage risks verses rewards
- Make fewer mistakes than the sailors around you
- Have fun
If you’re only just getting on to this now, you could opt for a more structured approach and focus your time on the key areas, such as on preparing the body, the boat, your boat skills, and perhaps some venue specific preparation.
Here’s my view on things to consider and what you might want to do to help you prepare for the Worlds in Carnac in the coming weeks.
Prepare the body
As I recently discovered, after a long period of not sailing, it is amazing how quickly your fitness goes. Nothing builds sailing fitness better than sailing itself, but if you’re like me and can’t go sailing every day then I’m looking for opportunities to do what I can during the week.
The aims here for me are to lose the “winter coat” getting down to “fighting weight”, and to build enough fitness to get me through the championship at the competitive end of the fleet.
To do this, I’ll be eating well (or even just a bit better) and making sure to exercise where I can whether that be cycling to work, lunchtime runs (or even walks), adding in a few routines with weights (say bent over rows), and most recently, trying a spot of yoga to help limber up the aging limbs. Having access to a rowing machine I know is particularly useful for our type of sailing – so if you have one – get on it.
Prepare the boat
Equipment:
We’ve all been there. You’re having a peach of a day sailing your best-ever race, and then something happens… Something comes undone. Something breaks. Something snags. Your race/day is over. Heartbreaking!
Regatta preparation is as much about getting your boat and equipment race-ready as it is about getting yourself race-ready. Here’s a few things to think about. Some obvious, some borne from experience:
- Check EVERYTHING works.
- Check everything over… all ropes that might wear where they attach to fittings (the pole launcher pulley block is a personal nemesis), any fittings that show signs of giving up – get them replaced.
- If you’ve put on anything new, make sure it’s been race tested well before getting to a championship start line. (Also make sure any modifications are legal under the class rules)
- Check halyard is not worn at the mast head. This should be checked every sail.
- Get your foils in good condition, filling chips, removing scratches and giving them a polish.
- Consider any spares you might need and order them now. The Ovington van should be on hand with many spares, but there’s only so much they can do. Best not to rely on that if you haven’t checked your boat over already.
Clothing:
- Check your harness straps fasten securely – if it’s Velcro – might it give way? Might it need stitching up?
- Check you have grip on your race boots and new pair of gloves
- Take clothing for a range of conditions
Fine tune your boat handling
In these final weeks before a championship it really helps to focus our time on the water to race specific exercises. So perhaps before or after club racing, try to make time to focus on high-return skills:
- Starts: Using a buoy, practice time on distance, holding station, low speed manoeuvres and acceleration to mimic coming off a start line in the best possible shape.
- Boat handling: Do lots of tacks, lots of gybes, windward mark roundings (including spacer legs, leeward mark roundings, taking penalties (360s)); and basically, adding in a concentrated amount of manoeuvres. It’s also amazing how much this helps with your sailing fitness.
- Boatspeed: Practice boat speed. This works best if you have someone to buddy up with, talk through what you’re trying to achieve, and see what matters. I’ve always found the biggest gains come when you can sail the boat based on feel (perhaps not perfectly) and can look around the racetrack with your head out the boat.
- Organise training sessions: Perhaps you sail at a club where you can get a bunch of you together to get multiple boats out. It’s both effective and fun to run short course races, and even making use of club buoys or moorings for a makeshift course, or nominating a rabbit start to set you off on your way.
The above should all be carried out ideally over a range of conditions.
Key message: Actively seek shorter, more intense sessions (over full race scenarios), as these tend to deliver more value with limited time.
Race practice:
Getting the mind in a race ready state can probably only be achieved through racing itself. For this we need to make time for say club racing, and better still, to make it along to Musto Skiff events in the lead up to the championship.
There are two practice races the day before the championship starts but this really should be reserved for learning the venue and conditions ahead of the championship itself.
Prepare for the Venue
You’ve put in time to build up some fitness and reacquaint yourself with your Musto Skiff. Now you can ease up on the training and start to get focused on the regatta week. You want to arrive at Carnac feeling excited, not exhausted.
Championship specifics:
- Finalise logistics early – stress is speed robbing
- Reduce training load slightly – focus on the areas you want to iron out
- Arrive at Carnac early if you can and find time to relax – prioritise sleep and hydration
- Re read Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions
- Remind yourself of the Class Rules
- Study the racecourse, whether through your own observations, venue guides, local knowledge, legacy race reports, etc.
I hope that helps. I guess a key thing is that you don’t need to be at peak form to justify being on the start line at a Worlds – or any big sailing regatta. You just need to be ready enough to enjoy it.
If you have not yet entered the ACO Musto Skiff World Championship 2026, you can find all the details about it and enter the event here: mustoskiff.com/musto-skiffs-return-to-carnac-for-the-2026-world-championship/
The topline event details – Our annual international regatta for the class is being hosted at Yacht Club de Carnac over 6 – 12 June 2026. We’ll have free-time sailing on the Saturday 6 June, a one-day Pre-Worlds for some practice racing on the Sunday 7 June, and then five days of racing for the World Championship over 8 – 12 June.
For the after sailing socials – We have a great social schedule planned with activities hosted at the club venue, including our Gala Dinner sponsored by ACO. All of this is included in the competitor entry fee, and you’ll be able to buy additional tickets for the organised socials from the club on arrival so family and friends can join in too.
It’s going to be a great week, so I hope to see you there – both on the racecourse and at the club house.
Image Credit: © Down Under Sail
