This year the Nationals have been reduced from a nine-day event to a six-day event in order to make it more accessible to everyone. There will still be a mix of long and short races, with the longer races (0.8nm legs) slightly shorter than what has been sailed in previous years (1.0nm legs). The short course (0.5nm legs) will be sailed over the popular "gate course", featuring tighter, exciting reaches, short runs and a gate at the bottom of the run on all three laps. This course has provided some exceptionally close racing over the years.