Stuart Childerley wins Etchells Europeans

by Fiona Brown on 25 Jun 2006 Sadly the final race of the Crew Clothing Co. Etchells European Championship in Cowes had to be abandoned as there was insufficient wind to start by the 1330 cut off time.

The crews had spent the morning waiting by their boats or drinking coffee on the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club's terrace and staring out across the Solent praying for breeze. Unfortunately their prayers were not answered and as a result the Championship comes to a close with six of the seven scheduled races completed.

Stuart Childerley and his crew Simon Russell and Roger Marino are named Crew Clothing Co. Etchells European Champions 2006 winning the regatta by seven points.

Second place goes to Andy Beadsworth, crewed by Jonathan Taylor and Mo Gray who finished just one point ahead of Ante Razmilovic, crewed by Mike Wolfs and Stuart Flinn. Ante’s brother Nils Razmilovic with crew Brain Hammersley and Adam Turk finished fourth while Tom Hughes and crew Jamie Stewart and Ron Rosenberg of the USA were fifth.

Tonight the teams will enjoy a gala prize giving dinner where they will also be presented with a Crew Clothing Co jacket and gift voucher for every team member.

The Etchells class will be back in Cowes again next year for its 2007 World Championship from Monday 25 to Saturday 30 June (registration will open on Wednesday 20 June with practise racing on Sunday 24). An entry of 70 plus boats is expected for the Worlds which will also be hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club.

'The Europeans was a challenging and very enjoyable event, only marred by loosing the last race on Saturday. We were very pleased to welcome competitors from the United States to join the European crews. This has been a excellent lead in and preparation for the World Championships to be held on the same waters in June 2007 where we are looking forward to welcoming a strong overseas contingent.' – Mike Till, Chairman British Etchells Association.

For Stuart and his double Etchells World Championship winning crew this was a particularly sweet result as this was last international Etchells regatta they will sail in their home waters before they leave the class after the 2006 Worlds in Perth in November.

Speaking about his preparations for this regatta and the forthcoming Perth Worlds Stuart said: 'This year we've been struggling a bit and we've been playing around with rig tune and we're just starting to get back to where we should be after we changed our mast at the beginning of the year. As soon as you realise your half ok you start sailing better again, you can get your head out of the boat and look for the shifts and Roger and Fumesy are doing a great job of that.'

'Fumsey's always sailed in the Etchells with me right since 2001 and Roger's sailed 3 of the 4 Worlds with me so we've been together a long time. We've got high expectations and we put quite a lot of pressure on ourselves to do well within the boat and when it's not going quite well enough it becomes hard work and you have to work through it.'

'But after the Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy weekend in May we sat down and worked out exactly where we were and what we needed to do about it. Again it's all about working out what we want to achieve and trying to achieve it in Perth in November so this is half way through the year's programme and this is a useful event for gauging things.'

'Perth will be in the mid wind range. At that time of year we're looking at 10-18 knots sea breeze and perhaps some days we'll have north westerly land breezes, which is good because it means you can't just go there with specific sails for specific conditions and get stuck in. You're going to have a bit of everything. I like the light stuff and I like it shifty so I'm looking forward to it.'

Following the event Rachael Barr, PR & Marketing Manager of event sponsor Crew Clothing Co commented - 'Crew Clothing Co. has always had a strong affinity with the sailing community, and we wanted to acknowledge our nautical heritage by giving something back to the sport. The International Etchells fleet reflects our brand perfectly as the fleet members are all passionate and committed to their sport, yet also seem to enjoy the camaraderie of the fleet off the water as much as the competitiveness on the water. The regatta has been incredibly well run and Crew Clothing Co. is proud to be the official sponsor of such an exciting event.'

Final Overall scores after 6 races, 1 discard:

1 GBR 987 Stuart Childerley 2 1 -10 1 1 4 19 9 pts
2 GBR 1187 Andy Beadsworth 8 2 2 3 -9 1 25 16 pts
3 GBR 1333 Ante Razmilovic 1 3 -12 4 6 3 29 17 pts
4 GBR 1340 Nils Razmilovic 6 9 1 5 -10 2 33 23 pts
5 USA 526 Tom Hughes 3 8 5 9 5 -16 46 30 pts
6 GBR 1175 John Brinkers 17 5 -34 2 3 5 66 32 pts
7 GBR 1332 David Bedford 12 10 3 12 -23 6 66 43 pts
8 USA 1198 Simon Williams 4 4 4 -34 21 11 78 44 pts
9 GBR 1195 Jamie Boag 7 11 6 -14 13 13 64 50 pts
10 GBR 1297 Mike Sparks 11 13* -24 8 4 15 75 51 pts
11 GBR 1331 Adam Gosling 13 13 11 -20 2 18 77 57 pts
12 IRL 1330 Dan O'Grady 14 15 14 7 -20 10 80 60 pts
13 IRL 1015 Richard Burrows -34 6 17 15 14 9 95 61 pts
14 GBR 957 Graham Bailey 10 7 13 13 19 -23 85 62 pts
15 GBR 937 Chester Maudsley 9 18 16 -23 8 14 88 65 pts
16 GBR 1067 Graham Sunderland 16 17 -23 10 18 19 103 80 pts
17 GBR 1325 John Greenwood 22 16 15 -24 17 12 106 82 pts
18 GBR 1193 Andy Oddie 21 12 18 19 15 -29 114 85 pts
19 GBR 1021 Jervis Tilly -34 34 9 11 25 7 120 86 pts
20 GBR 1075 Cordelia Ellis 20 -34 7 17 22 20 120 86 pts
21 GBR 992 Andrew Cooper 15 -34 27 16 11 17 120 86 pts
22 GBR 1339 Laurence Mead 18 14 8 21 -27 26 114 87 pts
23 IRL 1116 Anthony Shanks 29 -34 29 6 7 25 130 96 pts
24 GBR 812 Nigel Harley 24 -34 26 22 16 8 130 96 pts
25 GBR 1165 Doug Flynn 19 -34 19 18 24 21 135 101 pts
26 GBR 1036 Robert Elliott 5 20 25 -27 26 27 130 103 pts

Results & Photo Gallery are available at www.rcyc.co.uk/da/27898