International Etchells European Championship at the Royal London Yacht Club

The weekend started off with a briefing from the PRO Peter Taylor (Royal London Yacht Club) before racing where it was decided that there would be four races as there was a good breeze across the course coming in at 15 knots and the Monday wasn't looking too promising for wind.

The racing was held in front of Hill Head and we started on time with a general recall to start the racing off which led to a Black flag start where a couple of the fleet were caught out. This led to good racing where 1st place went to Exabyte, 2nd to Swedish Blue and 3rd to Jolly Roger.

From the start of the race one you could tell it was going to be a challenging event with wind shifts and quality of the racing making it very interesting. Race 2 came with its challenges but yet again the top 3 consisted of 1st place Swedish Blue, 2nd Jolly Roger and 3rd Exabyte. Following on into Race 3 there was another general recall as the fleet were getting caught out by the strong tide and this followed onto another black flag start. This changed up the results with new boats taking the top three, 1st place Tango, 2nd place No Dramas and 3rd place Arena. Coming onto the Fourth and final race of the day the three boats from the previous race held the top positions with 1st place No Dramas, 2nd place Tango and 3rd Arena. After this long day of racing The Royal London Yacht Club held food and drinks organized by David Maclean who knows we all love a good hearty Meal and some Champagne after racing where we can socialize and relax, chat and debate about the day of racing we just had.

Day 2 of racing saw our start time pushed back due to another event that was taking place with Powerboats, so some teams/sailors went to watch the start of that race. Once on the water it was another good day of racing with the wind coming in around 12-15knts and shifty. The top places in the fifth race were, 1st place Swedish Blue 2nd place No Dramas and 3rd Man's Best Friend. Sixth race 1st place Jolly Roger, 2nd place Arena and 3rd place Swedish Blue. Seventh race 1st place Tango, 2nd place Swedish Blue and 3rd place Exabyte. These 3 boats were consistent over a lot of the racing making it quite a battle. After racing, Shaun Frohlich, who sails on Exabyte, held drinks at the container. A lot of Rum was provided and it went down a hit with the sailors.

Day 3 of racing came in with wind below 10knts and shifty. We completed the 8th race where marks had to be moved for the second upwind due to the wind shifting. 1st place Swedish Blue, 2nd place Ada, 3rd place Arena. In between 8th race and the (9th) last race we had roughly around a 2 hour wait due to the wind vanishing and shifting, this proved to be difficult course laying and there wasn't enough wind to race. The committee considered abandoning the racing for the day if everyone agreed but a couple wanted to wait it out to see if the wind filled in, which eventually about 2:40pm only 20 mins before cut off time we started the final race which we also had a general restart but finally went ahead and the top three came out as 1st place Mans Best Friend, 2nd place Arena and 3rd place Exabyte. This rounded off the Europeans with some good strong racing which was challenging and fun. The committee did a great job keeping competitors informed marks were being moved during racing, next start time and if there were any commercial boats coming through the channels/nearby the race course and laid good long courses.

Prize giving took place with overall results being - European Champion Swedish Blue (Ante Razmilovic), 2nd place No Dramas (Andrew Lawson) and 3rd place Jolly Roger Bruno van Dyke).

Over all Corinthian results were 1st place Audrey (Ted Blowers) who were also 1st Youth boat, 2nd place Rocketman, 3rd place Mans Best Friend who were 2nd youth and 3rd youth was Ziggy. Overall a great Europeans.

Overall Results: