There is no hope
A couple of weekends ago I won the Handicap Class in the Penarth Regatta.
The fact is that there were only 6 boats entered and on the Sunday only 3 turned out. I was sailing in an ancient club Topper and weigh in at 93kg. OK it was so shifty that you could hardly fail to get the shifts right but there is NO WAY that I should have beaten a privately owned Blaze and RS100.
In my youth we would sail from Barry to compete in this Regatta and I am sure that there were many more boats and that it was much more competitive (this was the late 60's -early 70's) This event did not attract a single person under the age of 40, at least in the handicap class. There were no Junior Class boats taking part.
The RYA are re-organising their Squad System. Perhaps I should see what they propose.