Page 5 - Folk Boat Year Book 2022
P. 5

From the President


     The Future of Folkboating in the 80th Anniversary Year of the Nordic Folkboat

     During the last three years as President of
     the UK Folkboat Association I have seen a
     shift in the profile of the Association and of
     fleets in the UK. There is a subtle change in
     popularity with new and successful sailors
     coming into our Nordic fleets, seeing
     Folkboats as an exciting alternative to, for
     example, X Boats.  A new workshop has been
     opened in Lymington at the former Green
     Marine site at Walhampton where Simon
     Osgood has invested in skilled boat-builders
     who are renovating older Folkboats, both
     GRP and wooden, to immaculate versions of
     their old selves and which are proving as competitive as any of the newer boats. This
     has been a great initiative by Simon whose dedication and promotion of Folkboating
     is evident in his forty years as a successful Folkboat sailor in the UK and
     internationally.

     We shall be celebrating the 80th anniversary this year of one of the most popular
     designs of all time, by hosting an international regatta incorporating the Sessan Cup,
     the UK Nationals and Walcon Cup in September. I really hope that the camaraderie
     that this event will promote between the UK and our continental visitors will lead to
     more crews making the effort to enter some of the great international events, such as
     the Gold Cup, Kiel Week, the Rolling Home regatta in Berlin as well as future Sessan
     Cup events. The next San Francisco FB Regatta will offer 2 boats to British crews, for
     the last event we had three crews competing for the two places, sadly it was
     cancelled due to covid.

     The opportunity to run the Sessan Cup in the UK is an honour for the Association and
     for the organising club, the Royal Lymington Yacht Club. I hope that it will lead to
     more international liaison and the possibility of making a bid to run the Folkboat Gold
     Cup in UK waters.


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