Rob Goddard takes Etchells Southern Area Champs

by Media on 19 Jun 2008
Rob Goddard, sailing Ragtime GBR962 with his team of Garth Britton and Dave Freemantle won the Etchells Southern Area Championship, held on the 14 and 15 June, and hosted by the Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club. Next stop for the UK Etchells sailors is the Worlds at the Chicago YC where 90 boats are expected on the start line - seven boats have qualified to represent the UK.

The Championship started late on the Saturday, awaiting a southwesterly seabreeze to properly develop. As often the case, an eager and very competitve Etchells fleet, this time combined with a wind shift to the right just before the first start, managed to force a general recall at the first attempt to get away. With a target of three races in the day, the race committee reset the line and hoisted a Z flag which managed to control the fleet for the next start sequence.

Starting alongside the committee boat and able to pick up the first wind shift, another righty from the relentless northerly, Goddard led the fleet to the top mark where he rounded 30 seconds ahead of the pack, and his lead was never troubled, Ragtime joining the list of boats which have put wins against thier sail number this year. Goddard finished more than a minute ahead of second place Graham Bailey and his team of Keith Walker (sailing in his first Etchell regatta) and David Heritage, sailing Festina, a boat borrowed from former British Association chairman Mike Till while thiers is on route to the Worlds.

The Race committee decided to keep the fleet in line from the outset of race 2, hoisting the Z flag for the second race. Spotting a line bias, Goddard again started alongside the committee boat, leading the first two legs. Doug Flynn, sailing four up on Wobbegone - crewed by Roger Marino, Hugh Evans and Roger Reynolds, caught up on the second beat, headed hard right, and found a 15 degree wind shift that took him into first place before the top mark.

Team Wobbegone match raced Ragtime into the finish and Wobbegone duly crossed the line first. Unfortunately, Wobbegone had been caught line side during the one minute Z flag period and was penalised 20%, receiving a fourth place instead of thier first bullet of the year! Scoring a solid fourth on the water in his first start in his 'new' Etchells was Robert Tryhett Drake, new in that she was purchased last Cowes Week having been top 5 in last years Cowes Worlds in the hands of Americans Tom Hughes and Ron Rosenberg, but this was her first start since.

The same strategy of a committee boat start worked the magic again for Goddard in the third race, keeping them in clean air and able to use the shifts and lead to the finish, despite constant pressure from Swedish Blue, helmed by two-time, third place Etchells Worlds finisher Ante Razmilovic with his team of Brian Hammersley and Stuart Flynn.

On the Sunday, the near-term outlook for wind looked bleak and the fleet was held in harbour until 12.40, when a bold race committee took the decision to lead the fleet out to the central Solent. This proved a stellar decision as a light seabreeze filled in over the race course and two good races were sailed.

Once more, an impatient fleet forced a general recall and the Z flag was produced again to keep the fleet away from the line. The starting line up was joined by another entrant as Shamal, helmed by Roger Reynolds, who had crewed for Doug Flynn with bowman Hugh Evans the day prior, came to join the racing. Wobbegone was joined by Stuart Childerly, the two-time Etchells World Champion, calling tactics from the middle seat.

The Southwesterly wind was still moving by 10 to 15 degrees and Ante Razmilovic's Swedish Blue made best use of it to win race 4, with Graham Bailey’s Festina a close second.

As the fifth race got underway, the wind dropped to less than 6 knots at times and with a lumpy sea, changing gears and being able to spot pressure was the premium requirement to getting round the race course fast. With decreasing pressure, the race committee decided to shorten the course with Graham Bailey and his team in Festina taking the race, closely followed over the finish by Graham's wife Julia Bailey sailing with her team of Anna Bailey, Dylan Potter and Pedro Andrade on Freelance, a boat borrowed from Cowes Fleet Captain Laurence Mead.

Despite not scoring the bullets of Saturday, Goddard put in two good races scoring a fourth and a sixth as Team Ragtime hung onto first place overall thanks to their 1, 2, 1 finishes on the first day which left the fleet trailing overnight, finishing ahead of Graham Bailey in second and Julia Bailey in third, with Ante Razmilovic fourth overall.

Another team have added their names to the winners list in the 2008 Etchell season as the fleet heads into its traditional July break before Cowes Week and the UK Nationals in September this year.

After an 18 race qualification series spread over both the end of the 2007 season and the spring of 2008, the six boats who have qualified to represent the UK at the 2008 Etchell Worlds in Chicago are announced as:

GBR 1333 Ante Razmilovic
GBR 1352 Graham Bailey
GBR 987 Robert Elliot
GBR 1329 Julia Bailey
GBR 962 Rob Goddard
GBR 1354 David Franks

In addition Andy Beadsworth will be racing having qualified as the defending World Champion. We wish all of the sailors in the various teams the best of luck. The Etchell World Championships is hosted by the Chicago Yacht Club where 90 boats are expected on the start line.

Etchells class - www.etchellsukfleet.co.uk