Metung Yacht Club One Design Regatta 2022
by Jeff Rose 26 Jan 02:17 PST
22-24 January 2022
For the 32nd year Metung Yacht Club held its annual Australia Day One Design Regatta with both the International Etchells, and International Dragon Classes taking part.
There are exciting times ahead in 6 weeks' time with Metung hosting the King & Heath First National - Australian Championships for the first time from the 2nd to 6th of March 2022. With 27 boats already entered with the likes of 2018 World Champion Martin Hill, current Victorian Champion Chris Hampton, Mark Bradford, Noel Drennan it is shaping up to be a great series.
Principal Race Officer Jacquie Crawford got the first days racing of the seven race series off on time in a building Easterly sea breeze of around 12 knots for the first race and by the 3rd race of the day was a solid 18knots. The second day of racing was like the first, albeit a bit lighter. With light winds forecasted the Principal Race Officer held the fleet ashore on the 3rd day until a 6 knot South Easterly filled in and allowed racing to get under way.
Dragon Class Results:
1st Fred Haes iD his new boat Wicked II with Will Crooke, Adrian France, and Melanie Jeffreys.
2nd Tarakona with Hugh Howard, James Harland, and Maia Hester.
3rd Imagination with former National Dragon class president Jeremy Nolan, Liam Chan and Alan Grant.
In the 19 boat Etchells fleet, there was a lot of close type racing this class is known for and it was reflected in the results with 2nd,3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th all finishing within one point.
Other things that the Etchells fleet has been known for over the years was the diversity of people sailing these boats with the oldest crew, Clive Beckinsale, John Gash and Marty Bryan with an average age of 72 years. The youngest crew with an average age of 23 years being Tom Russell, Ed Geniuses and Mitch Kanat at an average age of 23 years.
Eliza Ewart sailing Conspiracy was the youngest skipper and put in a competitive performance. Had she not had to do a penalty turn in the last race could very well had finished in the top five. Not surprisingly she was also the first lady skipper and no doubt a future champion of the class.
Etchells Class Results:
1st Tango skippered by Chris Hampton with Cameron Miles, and Sam Haines. Tango never placed worse place than 3rd and dominated the first two days with consistent starts, great boat speed and very clean racing never getting involved in any incidents.
2nd was last year's winner and defending champion Nigel Abbot with Hamish McKendrick and Noel Drennan.
3rd was Excite skippered by Toby Richardson from Tasmania along with current Olympic Laser hopeful Sam King and the highly experienced Wayne (Moose) Johnson.
Finishing 4th was Richard Smith skippering Go With The Flow along with Sarah McCully, Bentley Conn and Toby Conn, and being the first local Metung Boat.