Etchells Bedrock Trophy Regatta at the Royal Southern Yacht Club
by Jan Ford 16 May 14:34 BST
11-12 May 2024
Etchells Bedrock Trophy - Overall Winners © Jan Ford
The second event of the UK Etchells fleet saw a fleet of 10 boats gather for the Bedrock Trophy run by the Royal Southern Yacht Club. Once again there was a great turn out from the 7 youth teams.
Day One was exceptionally difficult for the race committee with the 7-9knot breeze not materialising. With a very strong tide pushing boats towards the line, the first race got off in 6knots of breeze with all boats making a clean start. It was Tom Hough's Louise racing which took the first bullet from David Mclean's Man's Best Friend second and Harry Cowell in a youth boat, Alison 3rd.
For the second race the tide had turned and was ebbing strongly with a dying breeze. David Maclean, with Charlie Cumbley and Paul Childs on board used all of their skill and experience to creep around the windward mark, but all other boats struggled to make any way and at one point were being pushed away from the top of the course. David Mclean went onto win by a huge margin, with the other yachts agonisingly creeping over the line on a shortened course.
Similarly to the last Etchells regatta, the Sunday saw excellent, consistent and stable breeze. 10 knots from the South East established and 4 races were run. A dominant day from Man's Best Friend saw them taking a further 2 bullets and a 2nd and a 3rd to win the overall series. Tom Hough's Louise Racing took the only other two 1st places of the day to finish in second place.
3rd place and 1st Corinthian was Rob Goddard and 1st Youth boat was Harry Cowell's Alison- both with frequent top 5 finishes. The next 4 places were filled with youth boats- Astrid, Sumo, Ziggy and Palaver - all with an impressive number of top 5 finishes.
This weekend was yet another example of the growing strength of the Etchells class on a busy sailing weekend. Great racing and great socials are consolidating the fantastic reputation of the Etchells class.
The next event is the 3 day Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy over the May Bank holiday weekend.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Bow No | Sail No | Yacht Name | Skipper / Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 60 | GBR 1460 | Man's Best Friend | David Maclean / Charlie Cumbley / Paul Childs | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| 2 | | GBR 1495 | Louise Racing | Tom Hough / Peter Ballantine / Lucy Rutter / Anna Watkins | 1 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| 3 | 39 | GBR 1439 | Rocketman (Corinthian) | Rob Goddard / Arlo Braund / Dylan Collingbourne | 5 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 16 |
| 4 | 57 | GBR 957 | Alison (Corinthian) (Youth) | Harry Cowell / Santi Sesto‑Cosby / Matt Barrett / Helena Coombs | 3 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 24 |
| 5 | 7 | HKG 1407 | Astrid (Youth) | James Oxenham / Kate Robertson / Tiarnan Brown / Edward Latham | 8 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 25 |
| 6 | 20 | GBR 1020 | SUMO (Corinthian) (Youth) | Hamish Pimm / Camereon Yates / Will Oldroyd / Harriette Rossall | 6 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 25 |
| 7 | 71 | GBR 1271 | Ziggy (Corinthian) (Youth) | David Bromilow / Will Martin / Oscar Cawthorne / Henry Heathcote | 4 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 28 |
| 8 | 14 | GBR 1014 | Palaver (Corinthian) (Youth) | Kai Hockley / Jessye Opoku‑Ware / Jaydon Owusu | 9 | TLE | 3 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 30 |
| 9 | 48 | GBR 1148 | Ariel (Corinthian) (Youth) | Tiger Tellwright / Kerian Shrimpton / George Sellwood / Naomi Richards | 10 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 41 |
| 10 | 92 | GBR 927 | Shamal (Corinthian) (Youth) | Owen Colbern / Charlie Cooper / Max Bradley / Becky Caiger | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 41 |
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