UF in San Francisco - BF for Fremantle

by Rob Kothe on 12 Sep 2005 Michael Coxon has been hurting this week. The North sailmaker from Sydney had been planning to sail the 2005 Etchells Worlds in San Francisco, with good mates and fellow Australians, Iain Murray and Andrew ‘Dog’ Palfrey.

He'd had been carrying a niggling injury for a couple of months. During Hahn Premium Race Week regatta on the Northern Australian coast he realized the double hernia he had sustained was worsening, and that it would not be smart to spend a week on the Etchells, on a windy Berkeley Circle.

So Murray and Palfrey, the Australian Star pairing, asked North American Star champion George Szabo, to sail with them. The team has worked well together producing some solid results. Serious about his sailing Murray has trimmed down over the last five years, he is not the big fellow, he used to be and Palfrey is looking positively gaunt.

At the start of the final day they were fifth behind Judd Smith, Tito Gonzales, and Stuart Childerley.

With the points table fixed in their brains, the leading group all imagined they knew the placings as they rounded the finish boats and set out on the fast reach, back to Richmond Yacht Club.

Only as their Etchells were being craned from the water, did the news begin to filter out to the crews that there had been seven OCS’s.

Standing atop Steampacket IV, the new Ontario built Etchells on its trailer, yesterday’s race winner, Sydney sailor Rob Brown called out to ‘Dog’ Palfrey still in his black wetsuit and hosing down his boat.

‘Judd and Tito were OCS’.’ Palfrey stood open mouthed then called down to Murray and Szabo securing the trailer below. ‘I think that makes us third overall.’

Down the ladder he came, the three sailors studied the results sheet, then handshakes all round. ‘Cocko will be pleased. That’s North Sails - 1, 2, 3, 4.’

Murray, the World Champion from 21 years ago, explained that he’d deviated from Coxon’s sail plan for the boat.

‘Cocko did not even know what we were up to until just before the regatta. Most crews these days with North Sails, use the all-purpose PC (named after Peter Conde), mainsail. I’ve had a heavy weather UF sail (named by Coxon more than 10 years ago, it stands for User Friendly), in the sail locker for ages.

‘It’s an old sail, hardly used and in good condition from the days when we could have two mains, a light and heavy weather.

‘Thinking about the winds here I figured it would a reasonable gamble. The UF was used in winds above 14 knots and we’ve seen plenty of that here.

‘Now Cocko tells me he’s going to build a new version, it should be perfect for the 2006 World Etchells Championship in Fremantle.

‘He emailed me yesterday to say he’s already figured out the name of the sail. Its going to be the BF.’

‘What does that stand for?’ was the innocent question.

He grinned ‘Big Fella’.