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Sail-World.com : Musto Etchells Australasian Winter Championship: New crew for Bertrand
Musto Etchells Australasian Winter Championship: New crew for Bertrand
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James Chilman and Gary Van Lunteren two exceptionally talented young Queensland sailors will fill an important crewing role when they contest the 2010 Musto Etchells Australasian Winter Championship off Mooloolaba Beach this weekend.
Chilman a gifted sail maker with the North Sails Brisbane loft, has the proven trimming skills to create fast sail shapes while the ‘Big Boy’ Van Lunteren, normally a key crew member on the dual Brisbane to Gladstone race line honours champion Black Jack, has both the body weight and hiking skill to sail fast in the heavier breezes.
They have answered the crew call to contest the important championship series with the master match racing helmsman John Bertrand.
Surprisingly John Bertrand, who with the Australia ll crew won a tactical arm-wrestle over the Dennis Conner skippered Liberty to win the Americas Cup in 1983, has experienced several unsuccessful attempts to win at Mooloolaba.
He has made a casual approach this year sailing a borrowed Etchell and racing with an unfamiliar crew but this has failed to disguise the respect the five times summer national title winner holds within the strongly bonded Etchells family.
Naturally James Chilman who at 22 has sailed far too many highly competitive races to make any pre-title predictions on the championship results in a fleet which has attracted several World champions.
Chilman winner of a World Tasar Youth silver medal in his home town of Darwin also has the career distinction of winning the 2009 Audi Australian IRC ocean racing championship with the Rod Jones skippered Sunshine Coast yacht Alegria.
However while he respects the opportunity to crew for John Bertrand he has entered this championship with an open mind.
'Both Gary (Van Lunteren) and I have never sailed with John (Bertrand) before so it will be an interesting new challenge' James Chilman said.
The strict nature of this one design racing class where the results are generally decided in centimetres rather than seconds suggests that John Bertrand, James Chilman and Gary Van Lunteren could be forced to play catch up to sail on equal terms with the pre-title favourite Mark Johnson and his crew of Nik Burfoot and Peter Conde.
Johnson, the Silver Medallist from 2009 and the talented New Zealand skipper Alastair Gair, who was forced to carry a Black Flag disqualification in his Bronze medal winning score last year, head the rankings.
John Bertrand has proved his tactical tenacity but like his other major rivals, including Mark Johnson, dual World champion John Savage, and former Winter Etchells champions Julian Plante, Ian Johnson and David Rose, will need to consistently protect their sailing space and finish all races in the top ten to rate a chance to wrap up the championship.
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by Ian Grant
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http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=70521
1:21 AM Wed 9 Jun 2010 GMT
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