Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd June saw 16 Etchells take to the Solent for the Red Funnel Regatta. The fifth event of the series hosted by the Royal London Yacht Club produced some extremely close racing throughout the fleet, it was great to see a mixture of seasoned Etchells sailors and youth boats all battling it out for the top places.
Saturday morning brought a 12 knot west north westerly providing excellent conditions for the three scheduled races. With Tango, Exabyte and Palaver each taking a race win on day one it was all to play for going into Sunday.On Saturday night, the Royal London Yacht Club hosted a drinks reception and presentation of jackets to the Etchells Youth Academy teams followed by supper.
After a delayed start on Sunday morning the breeze filled in to provide champagne conditions for the remaining three scheduled races to be completed with Tango taking two wins on day two to secure the overall regatta win, congratulations to Chris Hampton, Quentin Bes-Green and Charlie Cumbley. Second and third overall were taken by Shaun Frohlich’s Exabyte and the boys from Greig City Academy on Palaver respectively.
In the Corinthian division, Harry Cowell, Arthur Brown and Matt Barrett on Alison took the win followed by Rocketman and Mano. And finally in the Youth division, Ted Blowers, Ryan Orr, Kelly Hillier and Killian Boag on Audrey won followed by Alison and Astrid
Thank you to Mike Randall and his race team for providing a fantastic weekend of racing, and we look forward to more tight racing in a fortnight’s time at the Southern Area Regatta hosted by RTYC.