Bertrand, Palfrey and Slingsby take the Honours at Lake Macquarie

by Rob Kothe on 7 Oct 2009
The 2009 Etchells Spring Regatta delivered the largest Etchells fleet on Lake Macqaurie for many years, as competitors embarked on their campaign towards the 2010 Murphy & Nye Etchells Australian Championship to be held at the same venue in from January 11-16th 2010.

America's Cup legend John Bertrand and his crew of Olympians, Andrew Palfrey and Tom Slingsby, added another title to Bertrand's collection winning over a hot 36 boat Etchells fleet at the Lake Macquarie's Spring Regatta over the October Long Weekend.

Two points back was former Etchells World Champion, Lake Macquarie sailor Peter McNeill, with Alistair Gair's New Zealand team another eleven points behind. Rounding out the top five were team's helmed by Olympic 470 Gold Medallist, Tom King and Mornington's Graeme Taylor.

Bertrand was full of praise for his team commenting 'The synergy on board the boat was wonderful to be a part of. Andrew and Tom are both sailors at the top of their game and rate amongst the very best one-design sailors in the world.'

Palfrey added 'Since sailing with John and Ben Ainslie at the Worlds in Melbourne back in March, I have been coaching a lot more than I've been sailing. To have the opportunity to sail with the John and Tom is a great way to step back into some pure sailing at a very high level. Each of us did our bit to put together a solid set of results.

'Given the fact that we were 15kg's down on crew weight, it was a satisfying weekend.'

The Etchells class is reaching higher levels than ever before with the four-up teams full of younger sailors from competitive dinghy classes.

Dual Laser World Champion (2007, 2008) Slingsby has recently returned to Australia after a resounding victory in the Laser class at the Sail for Gold event, held at the site for the 2012 Olympics.

Palfrey will be in Rio, Brazil when the Etchells Australian Championship is to be held (in a coaching role with the New Zealand Star team of Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk at the Star World Championship).

So another Australian Olympian, Anthony Nossiter will join Bertrand and Slingsby in the defence of Bertrand's National title.

Co-organisers Mark Phillips and Tom Woods saw the Spring Series event as an excellent shake down for the 2010 Murphy & Nye Australian Etchells titles.

Tom Woods commented ‘The Etchells Spring Regatta was an astounding success. It was an excellent rehearsal for the National Titles being held in January at the same venue.

'We usually have a fleet of 20+ Etchells attend the Regatta mostly made up of our local fleet, Gosford and Sydney Fleets. This year the Fleet grew to 36 entries made up from other states and countries, including two boats from New Zealand, two from Perth and a number from Melbourne, including John Bertrand.

'Most of the visitors have left their boats here, so they can come back up before the Nationals. We are in the process of organising a few more weekends of racing in November and December to allow those crews to continue to their sailing here.

'The weather over the weekend was mixed, however everyone enjoyed themselves, a lot of visitors had never sailed on Lake Macquarie but I was told by a number of them that they loved the venue and the race track.'

Co-Nationals organiser and Lake Macquarie Fleet captain Mark Phillips was pleased with the Spring Regatta too. He said ‘The professional race management team of Ross Wilson and Phil Colyer, managed to get five good races in over the two days, that provided some typically great close racing, in spite of some heavy weather.

'We are looking forward to seeing a 50 + boat Etchells fleet in January 2010 with blazing sunshine, a solid north easter and blue skies.'

Etchells Spring Regatta

Hosted By Lake Macquarie Yacht Club

Series Results [One Design ET] up to Race 5 (Drops = 1)

Place	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Crew	Crew.	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1	AUS1383	Triad	John Bertrand	Tom Slingsby	Andrew Palfrey	11.0	7.0	2.0	1.0	1.0	[11.0]
2	AUS832	Absolute Pearler	Peter McNeill	Dean Williams	Phil Barber	13.0	1.0	1.0	9.0	[10.0]	2.0
3	NZL950	Kelsheda	Alistair Gair	Dave Ridley	Derek/Anna Scott/Flu	24.0	[22.0]	7.0	10.0	3.0	4.0
4	AUS925	Iron Lotus	Tom King	David Edwards	Ivan Wheen	24.0	8.0	4.0	[13.0]	7.0	5.0
5	AUS947	Magpie	Graeme Taylor	Grant Wharington	Steve Jarvin	27.0	13.0	6.0	[20.0]	5.0	3.0
6	AUS1318	Bananas in Pyjamas	Ian Johnston	Tim Ede	Phil Smidmore	31.0	[24.0]	3.0	19.0	8.0	1.0
7	AUS940	North Star	John Plante	Nick Garland	Angela Farrell	31.0	4.0	8.0	5.0	[15.0]	14.0
8	AUS1084	Why Be Flat	Kane Sinclair	David Gleadhil	Mark Phillips	35.0	3.0	[12.0]	11.0	11.0	10.0
9	AUS1164	B Squared	Gary Boyd	John Boyd	Tony May	37.0	6.0	21.0	[23.0]	2.0	8.0
10	AUS1219	Carabella IV	Matthew McCann	JeanClaude Strong	Neville Wittey	40.0	10.0	5.0	8.0	[29.0]	17.0
11	AUS1223	Tango	Chris Hampton	Ben Morrison	Ben Durham	40.0	15.0	9.0	[24.0]	9.0	7.0
12	AUS867	Belly Flop	Tom Braidwood	Darren Senogles	Ben/Steve Lamb/Chapm	41.0	9.0	25.0	3.0	4.0	[30.0]
13	AUS883	Tusk	Gary Smith	Brad Sheripen	Mick McAnally	46.0	16.0	10.0	6.0	14.0	[24.0]
14	AUS1367	Chill Pill	Rob Bird	Graeme Johnson	Nic Gray	52.0	18.0	11.0	2.0	21.0	[25.0]
15	AUS1146	Mojo	Ian Knight	Graham Prosser	Paul Morish	54.0	14.0	[28.0]	7.0	17.0	16.0
16	AUS991	The Boat	Jake Gunther	Stuart Skeggs	Ben gunther	56.0	[37.0F]	15.0	15.0	13.0	13.0
17	AUS1192	Echo Beach	Tom Woods	Keith Jensen	Dean Blatchford	61.0	5.0	16.0	12.0	[31.0]	28.0
18	AUS994	Crews Control	Paul Minter	John Minter	Ross Bull	62.0	19.0	17.0	4.0	22.0	[29.0]
19	AUS1049	Vertigo	Doug Williams	Chris Blanch	Darren Cooney	62.0	17.0	24.0	[28.0]	12.0	9.0
20	AUS750	Seven50	Tod Wyborn	Dean Wyborn	Bendad Quinlan	63.0	2.0	33.0	22.0	[37.0F]	6.0
21	AUS1213	Dutch Moth	Aaron Hampo	Gary VanDijk	Anthony Paterson	68.0	12.0	27.0	17.0	[30.0]	12.0
22	AUS1254	Odyssey	Peter Merington	Andrew Coates	Geoff Bonourriel	76.0	[37.0F]	13.0	21.0	16.0	26.0
23	AUS1338	Critical Balance	Mark Langford	Paul/Lisa Garaty	Jason Dean	77.0	11.0	23.0	[34.0]	20.0	23.0
24	AUS1291	The Don	Don Wilson	Brent Connor	Nil McDonald	77.0	23.0	18.0	18.0	[24.0]	18.0
25	AUS1362	Fair Bump Play On	Jeff Rose	Craig McCallum	Fred Haes	82.0	[37.0F]	30.0	14.0	6.0	32.0
26	AUS1082	Alchemist	Richard Hammond	Roger Gain	Richard Lawson	87.0	21.0	22.0	25.0	[27.0]	19.0
27	AUS1380	Two Speed	Nigel Nattrass	Christian Brook	Ant Elliot	89.0	20.0	19.0	35.0	[35.0]	15.0
28	AUS1288	Magic Buzz	Steve Gunther	John Collingwood	John Shakey	92.0	25.0	[31.0]	26.0	19.0	22.0
29	AUS1374	Steampacket	Rob Brown	Bruce Wookey	Gary Gudmunson	93.0	37.0F	14.0	16.0	26.0	[37.0B]
30	AUS1314	Addiction	Lindsay Kennedy	Peter Waters	Trevor Swinburne	98.0	26.0	20.0	27.0	25.0	[27.0]
31	AUS1191	License to Chill	Peter Johnson	Bryce Johnson	Joel Antill	104.0	[37.0F]	29.0	31.0	23.0	21.0
32	AUS1386	Jazasa	Jan Muysken	Paul Grundy		106.0	[37.0F]	26.0	32.0	28.0	20.0
33	AUS1336	Go With the Flow	Robert Griffids	Robert Tredman	Peter Cornford	126.0	27.0	[35.0]	33.0	33.0	33.0
34	AUS724	7 to 4	B Cheek	L Smith	B Cretham	126.0	[37.0F]	34.0	29.0	32.0	31.0
35	AUS1165	Wobbegong	Doug Flynn	Calvin Gardiner	David Baker	129.0	37.0C	37.0C	37.0C	18.0	[37.0B]
36	AUS1118	Mister Ed	Greg Eddu	Stuart Eddy	Roy Waghorn	130.0	[37.0F]	32.0	30.0	34.0	34.0

(Ties: S=Score R=Race B= Bettered. Penalties: A=ARB B=BFD C=DNC D=DNE E=ESP F=DNF G=RDG L=Late Entrant M=DGM N=ENP O=OCS P=Protest Q=DSQ R=RAF S=DNS U=DUT V=AVG X=EXC Z=ZFP Y=SCP #=NoData [x.y]=Discarded)