About the Class

The Club 420 Association was established to promote, foster, encourage and sponsor one-design sailing. The Association sponsors a class North American Championship, US and Canadian National Championships as well as regional events and supporting education and clinics for class members across North America while promoting the class and a lifelong love of sailing to all ability and experience levels of youth sailing.

The Club 420 is a two person dinghy which forms the base of many local, high school and collegiate programs in North America. Simple for beginning sailors and yet challenging enough for collegiate champions. The Club 420 offers more learning opportunities than any other double-handed boat. Over 5,000 Club 420s are sailed in youth, high school and collegiate programs all over the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

About the Club 420 class and the Club 420 dinghy

The Club 420 is a strict one-design class with over 5000 boats currently in use in North America and is a key entry point to a lifetime sailing for many juniors

• It forms the basis of many junior sailing programs
• It is the basis of over 470 high school sailing programs (ISSA)
• It is core to 233 collegiate sailing programs (ICSA)
• The class maintains an active membership of over 800 sailors and is growing rapidly with membership extending over 22 states, 4 provinces in Canada, and 6 countries
• The class has over 1000 active Alumni, many of whom now sail in other classes, in collegiate programs or at National, International and Olympic levels
• The Class works closely with 3 manufacturers (Zim, Simmons Boatworks, and Devoti) and North Sails to provide consistency in this one-design class and to keep costs down to our members

The Club 420 class organizes regional, national, and North American level events

• The North American Championship has had over 150 boats and is a very competitive 4 day event
• The US, Canadian National Championships, and the Midwinters Championships typically have over 100 boats and many times over 150 boats at these 3 day events
• The National Junior Team Racing Championship attracts 24 teams of 6-8 sailors during the 2 day event.
• 6 Regional events in the North East, Mid Atlantic, South Atlantic, Gulf Coast, and West Coast. The class will be adding new regional events in 2026.

The Club 420 class is not just an event organizer; it provides a social community for our members and their families, Club 420 National and regional level events have social events tied to the sailing competition – these range from parent socials, to college nights, to safety seminars to volleyball at our events.

The Club 420 community is enriched by a variety of investments made by the c420 Association, including:

• Creation of online learning videos from Save It, our safety video, to several "how to" videos, the class supported the creation of these resources to help our membership. These videos are free and Sailing Schools, high school teams, and all others are encouraged to utilize these training vehicles.
• Investment in coaching training
• Investment in and sponsorship of high-caliber coaches for regional training days and other events throughout the year