Etchells European Championships on Weymouth bay

by Rob Goddard on 17 Sep 2014 The Etchells European Championship 2014 was three days of racing in Weymouth bay, sailed in generally a moderate strength shifting wind coming from a North Easterly direction. David Campbell-James was PRO for the Portland based regatta organised by the WPNSA, the location was chosen as the start of a two year program of Etchells events leading up to the 2016 Etchells Worlds to be held here.

And the bay lived up to expectations as a challenging sailing area with minimal tidal gradient, but with a local topography that influenced both wind direction and pressure particularly as the land heated up during the day, when the thermal effect starting to move the wind to the right.

Day one saw Ante Razmilovic sailing Swedish Blue making the best of the conditions scoring a 5, 2 and first to lead overnight by one point from Richard Burrow’s Matatu Dubb, who in races one and two made big gains on the fleet by getting the furthest into the right handed thermally effected shifts and scoring a 1, 2 and sixth.

But on day two Razmilovic faltered, scoring 15 points for the three race day, while Jeremy Thorp on Phan had two firsts and a fourth to take the lead overall on 20 points, while in race four David Franks’s Elvis team had their first win of the regatta taking the lead on the last run of the three lap race from the Spinaker Sailing Club based youth team on Darling S helmed by Jack Muldoon who had led up to then from the start to finish a very disappointed second. While in race six another youth boat Sumo helmed by Tom Harrison also had a very creditable second.

With six races sailed and two more scheduled to complete the series on the final day, anyone one of four boats could win the series: Swedish Blue, Phan, Elvis or Matatu Dubb and even going into the last race with only one discard to apply it was still all to play for, however it appeared that Razmilovic had blinked first, arriving at the windward mark second to last, but with five more legs to sail he picked his way through the fleet one boat at a time until only Franks finishing first was ahead of him, but second was enough, and Ante Razmilovic (Swedish Blue) sailing with a pre-determined changing crew over the three days of Steve Milne, Brian Hammersley and Stuart Flinn were the 2014 European Champions, both Overall and Corinthian, while Jeremy Thorp (Phan), Stuart Childerly and Roger Marino finishing in second place just one point behind, with David Franks (Elvis), Graham Sunderland, Amy Prime and Matt Reid two points further back in third place.

At the awards ceremony with prizes generously donated by ZHIK and The London Gin Company, Ante Razmilovic congratulated the organisers, volunteers, and his competitors for a great regatta, afterwards he praised his crew on how they focused on looking for the right shifts and keeping the boat moving at its optimal speed and how he thought that while challenging, what a great race course Weymouth Bay is, and that he is looking forward to sailing here again in his build up to the 2016 Etchells Worlds and hopefully beyond.

Races are available to replay here.

Full results currently on Cowes Etchells fleet Facebook page, and later today here.