Evans Long Etchells Australasians – Raring to race in Mooloolaba

by Tracey Johnstone on 9 Jun 2016 The 39-teams contesting the Evans Long 20th Etchells Australasian Championship are in town ready to start racing in the three-day regatta being held by Mooloolaba Yacht Club.

Eager title contenders are talking up how to win the championship. They are using phrases such as boat speed, smart tactics, absolute focus and perhaps even a bit of guile to topple the competition.

Previous winners have returned to challenge Matthew Chew’s title of being the only skipper to win the title twice. Defending champion Jeanne-Claude Strong, Mark Bradford, Tom King are among the returning skippers.

There are also a number of new crew combinations and championship first timers to add to the complexity of working who will be in the top group at the end of the racing.

Racing starts tomorrow at 11am with PRO Ross Wilson hoping to get in three of the seven programmed races. The forecast is for a bight sunny day and 10 to 15 knots south to south-west which will guarantee flat sea conditions and fast racing.

A new face in the Australasians crowd is sole New Zealand entry, Newby, skippered by Lincoln Fraser. He is joined by his son, Ben, 14, Sam Melville and Geoff Woolley.

“We are loving the Etchells as it so such close racing. They sail beautifully; manoeuvre beautifully; classic one-design,” said Lincoln, a former Young 88 skipper.

All the team are new to the Etchells class and its open water events. Their first competition was February’s NSW championship on Lake Macquarie where they placed tenth out of 40.

“We have never sailed in the Etchells in anything rougher than a ferry wake. We have raced on offshore waters, but not on a boat with a shorter, stumpier keel and little rudder.

“We’re really keen to learn. That’s why we are here.” Lincoln added.

With the entry list “chocka” full of talent, Lincoln says he is looking for a top half finish to bring a smile to the team’s face at the end of the regatta.

Another new combination is team Whisper skippered by Bruce Ferguson. Joining him is Cameron Miles and James Meggison.

Miles, a world and Australasian champion, has changed Etchells roles this year, taking a step forward in the boat. He has handed the helm of The Hole Way to old crew member Grant Cowle and moved onto Whisper as trimmer and tactician, joining new class entrant Ferguson.

Ferguson has come from the Sydney 38 class where he won the national championship before he says the class moved to Melbourne.

His Whisper campaign with Miles will take the pair offshore to this year’s class world championship in Cowes and beyond.

The Pittwater-based team joined forces in November and from there have been training on the water twice a week. “It’s a serious program which we are hitting very hard,” Ferguson said.

“The boat itself is not the thing. It’s the level of competition in the Etchells that is the thing. The level you have to sail at, the precision, it is higher than in other fleets.

“I am not finding the boat difficult. It really is time on the water,” Ferguson added.

Across the fleet there is a changing of the guard with many new faces among the crews including several Australian Sailing team and squad members – Mitch Kennedy (Laser), Sasha Ryan (470) and Angus Galloway (470).

“This is my first season on the Etchells. I have been having a break from the 470s since Sail Melbourne in December,” Galloway said.

Underpinning the outstanding performers are the tried and true weekend warrior teams that will hustle and bustle in the mid-fleet, pushing each other hard for the honour of winning the North Sails jib incentive prize.

Leading that group, at least in the honour of being well practiced on the Mooloolaba course are Brisbane’s Noel Paterson and Southport’s Greg Forgan-Smith. Both have competed in all but one Australasian Championship.

“I’m still not improving,” Forgan-Smith joked.

Back to the serious business of the top contenders, Miles’ move to a development team may clear the way for an emerging team to successfully challenge the top contenders and add one more name to the illustrious list 18 skipper names that already appear on the coveted trophy.