Etchells Invitational Regatta in Cowes
published 08/05/2015
Cowes, UK, August 5, 2015 – An action-packed finish in the final race determined the overall result of the Etchells Invitational Regatta for the Gertrude Cup.
On the final approach to the pin end of the line, five boats were overlapped on port tack, when a boat on starboard forced them all to tack. Some squeezed past the correct side of the mark, but others were pushed outside the line and had to gybe clear.
This left the top three teams tied on 30 points after 10 races. Mark Thornburrow of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club took first overall on count back thanks to two race wins. Second overall was Jeanne-Claude Strong of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, thanks to her win in the penultimate race. Tom Carruthers of San Diego Yacht Club, who sailed a consistent series without winning an individual race, took third.
Race detail
The competition was incredibly tight throughout the event, with seven different winners over the 10 races, while more than half the fleet scored at least one podium result. At the other end of the scale, the smallest misjudgement could cost many points and every team finished at least one race near the back of the fleet.
The final day of racing delivered four intense races in a light to moderate south-easterly breeze with big shifts, lulls and gusts. The conditions, which provided many opportunities to slide down the fleet, or recover ground, proved difficult to read even for the many world-class sailors, including five world champions, in the fleet.
Thornburrow and his crew of Laurence Mead, Libby Watkins and Lauren Mead started the day as overall leaders, with a three-point margin. However, they had a disastrous first race, finishing 11th in the 16 strong fleet. That gave the benefit to Strong, who finished the race in third place. She then immediately lost the advantage by scoring 12th in the second race of the day, but recovered with a win in the next to remain in contention.
Tom Carruthers, the current Etchells North American Champion, of the San Diego Yacht Club had a better start to the day, with a second and fourth place. He followed this with an eighth in the penultimate race, a result he was able to discard. He and crewmembers Andrew Palfrey, an Etchells world champion and America’s Cup coach, and Chris Busch held the overall lead going into the final race, with a three-point advantage on Thornburrow, while Strong, the Etchells Australasian Champion, was just one point adrift in third overall.
The final race, sailed over a five-mile course, saw a dramatic game of snakes and ladders playing out on the water. However, before the fleet got away competitors were kept on edge as two huge windshifts during the start sequence forced a pair of starts to be abandoned while the line and course was reset.
The race started in a gentle east-south-easterly of 8-10 knots, however as the leaders approached the leeward gate on the first lap, a new wind, shifted 20-30 degrees to the south and significantly stronger closed up the fleet. Jan Muysken of the Emirates Palace Yacht Club, crewed by David Bedford and Mark Lees, led a tight group of boats around the strongly favoured right-hand gate. However, despite having had a good first beat, Strong had dropped to the back.
Principal Race Officer Phil Lawrence was on top form, setting a new windward mark to reflect the new wind direction in double-quick time and giving the fleet another perfect beat that continued to challenge competitors. By the start of the final beat Jeremy Thorp of Antigua Yacht Club, last year’s overall winner, held a lead of five lengths over Doug Flynn of the Cruising Club of Australia, and his crew of Steve and Seve Jarvin, with Muysken a further five lengths further back.
Flynn crossed the line first, followed by Thorp. Anthony O’Leary (winner of last year’s RORC Yacht of the Year award), Robert O’Leary and Julia Bailey (winner of the Dragon class’s prestigious Edinburgh Cup) of the Royal Cork Yacht Club took third place, all three finishing clear ahead of the drama that was about to unfold behind them.
A number of boats approached the pin just below the port lay line, including Thornburrow and Strong. Approaching on starboard tack, Carruthers was forced to duck behind a couple. However Jamie Clarke, of the Royal Thames Yacht Club took a more aggressive approach, forcing a five port tack boats, including Thornburrow and Strong, into a quick tack.
“We had the benefit of being in a controlling position over the boats on the left hand side of the course when the trouble came and it worked out for us,” Strong’s tactician Neville Wittey explained. Carruthers came out badly – scoring a 10th place in the race – while Strong finished fourth and Thornburrow fifth, leaving all three tied on 30 points at the end of the regatta.
“It’s been a very challenging event,” says Thornburrow, “with everyone having both good and bad races. It was difficult to judge the laylines in the tide and then there were the massive wind shifts and changes in pressure in the last race. Phil Lawrence’s race management was fantastic – he set great courses on a difficult day, without keeping us waiting.”
Many thanks go to the event’s five main sponsors: Zhik, Spinlock, David Heritage Racing Yachts, Shepards Wharf Marina and Edward S Fort, OBE. The event is hosted by the Royal Thames Yacht Club.
Next year’s Etchells Invitational Regatta will take place in Cowes from July 30 to August 3. Anyone interested in more information, or receiving an invitation, should contact David Franks at davidfranks80@gmail.com. It will be followed by the class European Championships from August 26-29 and the 2016 World Championship from September 2-9.
Photography Copyright Notice: Emma Louise Wyn Jones Photography
For high resolution images please contact Emma Jones, ELWJ Photography: elwjphotography@gmail.com
Etchells Invitational Regatta for the Gertrude Cup – Day 3
Report by Rupert Holmes
Cowes, UK, August 4, 2015 – The penultimate day of the Etchells Invitational Regatta for the Gertrude Cup dawned bright and sunny, with a brisk south-westerly breeze averaging 18-22 knots, with stronger gusts and a forecast for the wind to continue to strengthen.
Principal Race Office Phil Lawrence initially kept competitors at the dock for an extra 30 minutes while he checked out the conditions on the race course, where he found a more agitated sea state than might have been predicted for the wind with tide conditions. At the same time the breeze had been building, with a mean speed of 22 knots and gusts already hitting 28.
Although the decision to abandon racing for the day was a marginal one, it’s one that competitors fully understood. Neville Wittey, a crew member of Jeanne-Claude Strong’s team from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, summed up the thoughts of many in saying: “I wouldn’t want my own boat to be in other people’s hands in spirited competition in these conditions. “This was our favourite regatta last year,” Wittey, a former Olympic sailor and three times world champion, continued, “that’s why we returned this year – it’s definitely worth the effort of the travel.”
The first two days of racing have shown this to be a tight and high-scoring event, in which more than half the fleet still stands a chance of finishing the regatta on the podium. The decision to cancel today’s racing leaves the overall results hanging on the final day, for which four races are now scheduled.
Currently only five teams are counting a clean score of top 10 results and so far there have been four different race winners. Only Mark Thornburrow of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and Chris Hampton’s team from the Royal Brighton Yacht Club in Melbourne, Australia have won two races. In all, nine of the sixteen teams have achieved at least one podium result to date.
Thornburrow currently leads the fleet, with 13 points, with Tom Carruthers of San Diego Yacht Club second on 16 points. Jeanne-Claude Strong of the Royal Sydney Yacht Club is third overall on 22 points, with the next three teams within just five points of her score.
The social aspect is also a really important part of this regatta and tonight sees a gala dinner at the Royal Yacht Squadron. “The atmosphere at this event is absolutely great,” adds Wittey. “Everyone is together for drinks after racing and for a meal in the evening. We’ve been catching up with old friends that we’ve not seen for a long time, as well as meeting lots of great new people.”
A unique event
This unique regatta sees 16 of the world’s top sailing teams, from 10 countries spanning four continents, gathered in Cowes to compete for the 141-year-old Gertrude Cup. Competitors include multiple world champions and America’s Cup sailors, as well as successful match racers from the world arena.
Boats are provided to competitors, thanks to the generosity of their owners in the Cowes Etchells fleet, and are fully prepped and maintained during the event, including on water support. To help make the fleet as closely-matched as possible, all boats have identical sails that were cut from the same cloth by North Sails.
Competitors change boats each day, which helps to maintain a level playing field, while at the same time providing an unusual challenge for those more accustomed to fleet racing than match racing. “I love the concept of changing boats each day,” says Chris Hampton of the Royal Brighton Yacht Club in Melbourne, Australia, who is currently lying fourth overall. “It has forced us to sharpen our skills and we’ve got better at bringing different boats up to speed in a short timeframe.”
Many thanks go to the event’s five main sponsors: Zhik, Spinlock, David Heritage Racing Yachts, Shepards Wharf Marina and Edward S Fort, OBE. The event is jointly hosted by the Royal Thames Yacht Club, which is organising the racing, and the Royal London Yacht Club.
About the Etchells
This strict 30ft one design keelboat offers some of the world’s most competitive yacht racing. Winning the Etchells world championship – which will be held in Cowes in 2016 – is therefore regarded as one of the hardest titles to achieve in sailing.
Former world champions include Americas Cup winners Dennis Conner and John Bertrand, while British Olympian Stuart Childerley has won the title twice. Quadruple Olympic gold medallist and America’s Cup supremo Ben Ainslie has also competed as a crewmember, finishing third in the Etchells world championship.
New names rising up the leaderboard at the Etchells Invitational Regatta, Cowes
Report by Rupert Holmes
Cowes, UK, August 3, 2015 – The second day of the Etchells Invitational Regatta for the Gertrude Cup saw more intense competition, including an incredibly tight finish in the second race that saw the four leading boats cross the line in just three seconds. With a discard having kicked in following the completion of six races, Mark Thornburrow’s team from the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club remain overall leaders in this high-scoring series, despite a disastrous first race in which they languished near the back of the fleet.
A fourth place and two thirds saw Tom Carruthers’ San Diego Yacht Club team, crewed by double Etchells world champion Andrew “Dog” Palfrey and Chris Busch, leap four places up the leaderboard to take second place overall. Meanwhile Jeanne-Claude Strong of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron slipped one place to third overall, having scored 6, 4, 15.
Race detail
The first race of the day started in a south-south-westerly breeze of 17-19 knots, with a strong east going stream helping to keep teams behind the line. However, a right hand wind shift less than two minutes before the start saw competitors bunched close to the committee boat. At the gun, Curruthers was over the line and recalled, while Mark Thornburrow’s Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club team also returned, even though they were just on the correct side of the line, It was a move that might have cost them a top position in this race.
At the end of the first lap three of the teams of young sailors were leading the fleet. Fiona Hampshire’s Royal Thames Yacht Club Youth Academy boat held a tenuous lead from another youth team, Jack Wilson’s Trinidad and Tobago Yacht Club entry and local sailor Matt Reid from Spinnaker Sailing Club, all three boats reaching the leeward gate within two boat lengths of each other.
At the end of the final beat, Hampshire and her crew of Arthur Henderson, Jack Davies and Honor Fell, was still looking well placed, but approaching the windward mark near the port lay line was forced to tack early by Reid. With the strong tide setting the boats onto the buoy she hit the mark and had lost several places by the time she had completed her penalty. This left the door open for Chris Hampton’s Melbourne, Australia based Royal Brighton Yacht Club Team, crewed by Ian “Barney” Walker and Ben Morrisson-Jack, to take their second win of the event, just ahead of Reid and Wilson.
The next race saw the fiercest of battles for the lead –one that was not to be resolved until the finish line. After a tight contest right round the course, running into the finish, three teams – Anthony O’Leary, Robert O’Leary and Julia Bailey’s entry from the Royal Cork Yacht Club, Tom Carruthers and Jean-Claude Strong – were very tightly bunched. Meanwhile Reid was a few lengths to leeward and powering towards the line at a higher angle to the wind. All four boats were overlapped at the finish, with Reid holding a two-metre advantage over the Irish boat, while Carruthers and Strong finished just moments later.
The day’s racing took place as the tide changed from an east-going stream to a west going one. Therefore, in the early races the right hand side of the beat tended to be favoured, but by the final race of the day the left hand side of the upwind leg had a strong tidal advantage, which caught out two of the opening day’s four best-placed teams.
By this race, however, Thornburrow had recovered much of his form from the opening day, leading for the first lap of Race 6, until a botched spinnaker drop saw his crew drop five lengths behind Jan Muysken, David Bedford and Mark Lees Emirates Palace Yacht Club team. On the second run Thornburrow significantly closed the gap on Muysken, piling pressure onto his opponent. An untidy rounding at the leeward gate by the UAE team provided the opportunity Thornburrow needed to slip inside at the mark and gain an advantage that he held to the finish.
The day’s best performance was by Spinnaker Sailing Club’s Matt Reid and his crew of Jamie Diamond, Izzy Welch and Graham Sunderland. “Yesterday we were slow to adapt to the boat we had, and didn’t have our heads out of the boat enough, but today we were stronger strategically,” Sunderland says.
“Our starts were also much better today than yesterday and our manoeuvres were all good,” says Reid, “including gybe sets that opened up more options at the start of the downwind legs. With the wind more in the south-west it also felt easier to call which side of the course would pay, especially when we could see that other good local sailors were making the same decisions.
“For us the most challenging part today was maintaining our lead in the race we won, as the fleet was split right across the course, which made it really hard to defend our position. Looking ahead, we already have two big scores to discard, so the challenge will be to maintain consistency.” With big winds forecast for the third day of racing that’s a thought that’s likely to be on the minds of many competitors.
Many thanks go to the events five main sponsors Zhik, Spinlock, David Heritage Racing Yachts, Shepards Wharf Marina and Edward S Fort, OBE, as well as to the Royal Thames and Royal London Yacht Clubs.
Photography Copyright Notice: Emma Louise Wyn Jones Photography
For high resolution images please contact Emma Jones, ELWJ Photography: elwjphotography@gmail.com
Consistency pays for Hong Kong at the Etchells Invitational Regatta in Cowes
Report by Rupert Holmes
Cowes, UK, August 2, 2015 – The Solent delivered a bright and sunny day of spectacular sailing conditions for the opening day of the 2015 Etchells Invitational regatta for the Gertrude Cup in Cowes, UK.
In a day in which all but a handful of the 16 teams from 10 countries failed to post consistent results, a win in the first race, followed by two second places saw Mark Thornburrow’s Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club take a clear overall lead. Jeanne-Claude Strong, of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron lies second overall, seven points adrift of Thornburrow. David Anastasi of the Royal Malta Yacht Club is third, a further four points behind Strong.
With only nine points separating places two to eight, the trio of races scheduled for the second day is sure to see plenty more fierce competition.
Race detail
Principal Race Officer Phil Lawrence set three windward leeward courses in a south-easterly breeze that built from around 12 knots during the first race to gusts exceeding 20 knots in the final two legs of the last race. For most of the teams that are competing for the 141 year old trophy it was a day of mixed fortunes, with their results swinging wildly between the front and back of the fleet.
This was certainly the case for the defending champion, Jeremy Thorp of Antigua Yacht Club. After a disappointing seventh in the first race he fell to the back of the fleet at one stage in the second. However, in the final race Thorpe, and his crew of Mark Andrews and Olympian Mark Buckley, regained his form from last year, taking a 15-second lead on the first beat. Thorpe held this throughout the race, extending it to 23 seconds at the finish.
Extremely tight racing made for an exciting and incident packed day, especially at the first windward mark, where a number of port tack boats tried to push their luck without success. In subsequent race many fewer competitors chanced a port tack approach. Nevertheless, numerous boats could be seen doing penalty turns for minor rule infringements throughout the day.
A further six teams scored podium results in at least one race, but only four showed genuine consistency. Jan Muysken, from the Emirates Royal Palace Yacht Club in the United Arab Emirates, and crewed by David Bedford and Mark Lees, took third in the opening race, but slipped down to sixth and eighth in the next two, finishing the day on 17 points.
David Anastasi, sailing with Karl Migiani, Tom Bonello Ghio and Zach Zammit of the Royal Malta Yacht Club scored 6, 5, 5 to finish the day on 16 points in third overall, taking a prize for Most Improved Team. Jeanne-Claude Strong, of the Royal Sydney Yacht Club, who recently became the first woman to win the Australasia Etchells Championship, scored 5, 4, 3 to finish the day lying second with 12 points.
Thornburrow’s Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club team of Laurence Mead, Malcolm Page and Charlie White showed impressively consistent form, finishing the day with only five points. “This is a very good fleet with some excellent sailors and it was a great day with a building wind. Malcolm [Page] called some really good laylines for us that definitely helped us out,” Thornburrow said.
Page, a double Olympic gold medallist, added: “Often when you have a good day things appear to be simple – that’s how our day seemed. When we had to we always managed to find a way out of the pack. It also helped that we got a big reminder about the tides and laylines in the practice races yesterday – and Charlie White [a 15 year old Laser 4.7 sailor from the local Royal Victoria Yacht Club] made sure I didn’t underestimate the tide today.”