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Eight Etchells raced this weekend in competition for the Bedrock Trophy. Saturday greeted the class with sun and a twelve knot south easterly breeze. The first race started on time to the north east of the Bramble Bank; with many of the fleet starting towards the pin end of the line. The early leader was Rob Goddard’s Rocketman who led round the course to take the first win of the regatta closely followed by Colin being sailed by Will and David Heritage and Will Bedford. Race two was again in Rocketman’s favour with the Greig City Academy in Palaver coming a close second. And the Royal Lymington Yacht Club Youths in Sumo coming third. The third and final race of the day was sailing in slightly more breeze, the race was started under the U flag and resulted in three boats being disqualified for being over the start line within the 1 minute. Colin took the win with Sumo second and Palaver third. The results overnight was very close with the top two boats (Colin and Rocketman) on equal points. 

Sunday’s racing was delayed allowing the Cowes Torquay race powerboats pass through the Solent, there was a worry about not having enough breeze to race in but again a ten knot south easterly was present and allowed racing to get underway. The racecourse was set up nearer Hill Head. Colin continued from Sunday and won with Rocketman in second and Shaun Frohlich’s Exabyte in third. The second race of the day was won by the Greig City Academy who took advantage of a left shift on the first beat to round the windward mark in first and maintain the lead through the race. Colin came in second and Sumo in third. The third race of the day and the final race of the weekend was again won by the Greig City Academy; sailing well at the front of the fleet. Rocketman finished second with Colin third. This meant that Colin (9pts) won the event with Rocketman (10pts) beating the Greig City to second on countback. 

Thank you very much to the race team from the Royal London Yacht club and all the volunteers involved in the running of the event. The next event is the Ice Bucket on the 14th-15th of September. 

Full results 

https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eid=7270

Over the weekend 26/27th July, the 2019 Etchells South Coast Championships were held in Cowes and organised by the Royal Thames Yacht Club

Saturday morning’s racing started in a 12 to 14 knot breeze from the north and, while it was forecast to increase, that didn’t happen. Unfortunately as the wind was shifting so much, it took 45 minutes before the first start could actually happen, as the committee struggled to lay a fair line.

It was a day that the wind pressure was up and down by 4 knots with frequent 20 degree wind shifts that kept rolling over the race course under the clouds. So, heads out of the boat, and watching for the wind shifts is what counted on the day, and the first race was won appropriately by the Royal Thames Youth Sailing Team skippered by Ollie Grogono, before Matt Hannaby sailing Escape helmed by Julian Smith won the following two races and were the overnight leaders, with Rob Goddard’s Rocketman in second place and David Heritage’s family crew sailing Colin in third place.

Sunday brought a slightly more consistent breeze pressure, but still with the wind shifting with every cloud formation that moved through the Solent, and it was Rocketman’s turn to fly, taking a first and second in races four and five, moving them into first place overall. For the sixth and final race after a good start Rocketman seeing Escape sailing behind, but starting to move swiftly through the fleet, realised that for the second consecutive

Etchells Regatta a match race was called for. What resulted was Rocketman sailing back to cover Escape by closely tacking on them while sailing up the first beat, but in traditional symmetrical spinnaker match racing style, the advantage switched to the trailing boat on the down-wind leg as Escape forced Rocket Man away from the leeward gates, and while Escape rounded a boat length ahead, Rocketman took the opposite gate to regain the lead forcing Escape deeper into the pack, thereby giving Rocketman crew their first series win, with Colin taking the 6th and final race win with Sophie Heritage helming.

Eddie Warwick supplied the weekends beer, with Shaun Frolich providing Rum and Cake for the hungry sailors.

https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=7274

The International Etchells European Championship was hosted by the Royal London Yacht Club and took place over three days on the Solent. 17 boats entered including 4 youth boats and 7 Corinthian boats.

3 races took place on both Friday and Saturday in generally light to medium conditions from the North West; sea-state was determined by the tide with chop decreasing throughout the day. Boats scoring low points generally started well; managed the shifts (±25 degrees) and the leverage that brought against the fleet. Results in the middle of the fleet were very sporadic and even after 6 races (and 1 discard) 5 points separated 4^th to 9^th place, with the rest of the fleet close behind.

A particularly impressive Saturday was had by Ante Razmilovic’s Swedish Blue, winning all three races in less than stable conditions. The term Ante-Christ was used a number of times at the pub that night.

Despite this impressive performance everything was to play for on the final day that saw light and fickle wind from the East. 1^st and 2^nd was fought-out exclusively by Swedish Blue and Seamus McHugh’s K2. K2, the only continental boat (SUI 1406) in the fleet, managed to beat Swedish Blue (12-14 respectively) closely match racing on Sunday. Whilst Shaun Frohlich’s Exabyte secured 3^rd after putting 4 boats between him and Rob Goddard’s Rocketman (who took 1st Corinthian) in the final race. Miles Jones jumped up past Hattie Roger’s Royal Lymington boat and Thea Crawshaw’s Royal Thames boat after a strong finish on Sunday and taking 1^st youth boat overall.

The way the results are calculated in yacht fleet racing can lead to some interesting scenarios and the 2019 Etchells European Championship was a good example. After 6 races, with 5 to count, McHugh (K2) and Ante Razmilovic (Swedish Blue) each had 20 points. McHugh’s discard was a seventh place whereas Ante’s was a whopping 18. This meant that if McHugh scored eighth or worse in his last race, his score after discard would always be set at 27. So if Ante came eighth or worse, even though he might have been well ahead of McHugh, McHugh would be crowned European Champion. The only way Ante could win was to not only beat McHugh, but not have a position worse than 7. In the event they match raced each other in this all-important final race, and Ante came fourteenth leaving McHugh to claim the championship cup.

A huge thank you must go to the race committee that did very well to manage the racing despite the variable wind direction, and to the various owners and Jan who provided the beer, ice-cream and cake.

https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=7271

Sadly, the Saturday of this year’s Saida Cup, hosted by the Royal Thames Yacht Club, was cancelled as the tail end of a front brought strong winds to the Solent. The race committee sensibly made the decision to cancel Saturday’s racing on Friday, which gave competitors the chance to prepare for Sunday’s early start.

Despite Saturday’s lack of sailing teams from the RLYC’s Etchells academy made the journey over to the Island to be officially welcomed to the club and for drinks. Later they were joined by other Etchells sailors for dinner – a great evening was had by all. Sailors were greeted by a completely different picture on Sunday, with a high pressure bringing light winds of between 5-10 knots. Nonetheless, after an hour’s delay Race Officer Phil Hagen got racing underway, with 4 races scheduled.

The first race saw those who took to the left-hand side of the race course on the first beat finish at the front. The race was won by Peter Rogers (Highlife), who was pushed hard down the last run by Shaun Frohlic’s Exabyte. They were closely followed by Shamal sailed by the Royal Dart youth team and Grant Simmer on Man’s Best Friend.

Race two was a similar story – the west to east tide making the pin favoured, with those starting towards the pin also able to escape off to the favoured left-hand side. Rob Goddard’s Rocketman was launched off the pin, leading comfortably at the Winward Mark. However, by the finish, the speed of Grant Simmer’s team and the youth team from the Royal Lymington prevailed, with the pair taking first and second respectively and Goddard finishing in third.

Man’s Best Friend picked up where they left off in race 3, again winning the left-hand side of the course on the first upwind and stretching away for the win. They were followed by the crew of Joly Roger and Shamal.

The last race of day was considerably different from the first three of the day. The breeze built to a steady 10 knots and swung right. This increase in wind speed meant that the racing was especially close and hard fought. In familiar fashion Man’s Best Friend took the win, followed closely by Highlife and Ollie Grogono’s Royal Thames Youth team.

The win for Grant Simmer and his team was enough to secure the win of the event, with Peter Roger’s Highlife finishing second and the Royal Lymington team finishing third and first Youth and first Corinthian.

A special thanks to the race committee, all the volunteers and the Royal Thames Yacht Club for organising and running a great weekend in tough conditions.

Full results on YachtScoring.com

This weekend saw the 25th year of the Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy; in memory of the retired Vice Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron and captain of the 1960 British Olympic sailing team. Previous notable recipients of the prize (and who feature on the plaque in the Squadron) are Stuart Childerley and three times winner Laurence Mead.

This year’s event saw fourteen Etchells entered, and three youth teams. This is in keeping with Sir Kenneth Preston’s personal aim to support young sailors.

Saturday began with blue skies, warm weather and no wind, which led to an hour postponement to racing. This allowed crews to tweak rigs, sunbathe and have Tiffin’s breakfasts. At midday a sea breeze began to fill in and the Etchells made their way to Hill head race area for some windward leeward courses. Three races were run, which saw competitive racing at all points in the fleet. Particular note should be made of Peter Roger’s team who took the lead in the first race and Grant Simmer’s team who came first in races 2 and 3.

Sunday saw a new band of pressure across the Solent, with brief glimpses of sunshine. The wind direction was similar to Saturday, a westerly, but with a bit more of a kick (average 18 knots). This led to a challenging sea-state of short, sharp chop in the racing area. First place in race 5 went to William McNeil and in race 6 Grant Simmer took the lead. Particularly notable was the performance of Robby Boyd and his youth team in Race five, who had a very clean and quick race and finished in 3rd.

After finally emerging from the salty sea’s, the Etchells sailors made their way to the squadron for the event dinner. It was an excellent evening hosted by the Royal Yacht Squadron and a chance for many of the youth teams to integrate into the class.

Monday was the final day of racing in the SKP. The conditions were very glamorous, with blue skies and an average of 15knots, beginning as a NW and swinging round to a Westerly throughout the day. The bigger waves led to lots of surfing downwind and some great action photographs. The fleet had clean starts all day, with the comforting call of ‘line clear’ in both races. The last race of the day saw Jolly Roger winning, proving that you can win the social and then win races.

This weekend was a fantastic glimpse into the racing that is to come for the rest of the season. The Etchells class are very grateful to Peter Saxton (PRO) and his team for running a seamless event.

1st place – Grant Simmer / Graeme Spence / Sam Haines
2nd place – William McNeill/Toby Mumford/Toby Yeabsley (1st Corinthian)
3rd place – Peter Rogers/Neil Harrison/Charlie Cumberley

Full results on YachtScoring.com

The Saturday of the Red Funnel Regatta was cancelled due to some windy weather in the Solent. Particular note should be taken to thank the Royal London Yacht Club Race Committee and those driving ribs, who ventured into The Solent for the whole morning to try their hardest to get racing underway. Racing was cancelled around midday, allowing teams to have pub lunches, walks around the island and shopping trips.

Competitors woke up on Sunday to find beautiful blue skies and a light breeze of 5-10 knots from the North. The first race saw a win from Straight Dealer, Nicholas Stagg and his team. It was also a great start to the day from the Youth teams, with 2nd, 3rd and 4th place going to teams from the Etchells Academy. The second race of the day was comfortably won by Tom Abrey on Jolly Roger, who managed to find some favourable wind out on the right of the course, and attempted to lap the rest of the fleet. By the third race, a big right-shift caused the race committee to move the course. This was a challenging race with lots of difficult East to West tide and the arrival of some jet skiers to the course, who seemingly attempted to team-race Strait Dealer. The last race of the day was changed to the trapezoid layout of course N, owing to the strong tide.

This race saw a very condensed fleet with boats changing positions in every leg. Nonetheless, Exabyte won the race, which secured their win for the event. They were closely followed (1 point after discard) by Ice (Andrew Cooper – Corinthian) in 2nd and Royal Dart (Miles Jones) in 3rd, who were also the first Youth Team.

A special thanks goes to the Race Committee for organising a wonderful weekend in shifty weather.

Full results on YachtScoring.com