2014 European Championship

09/16/2014

3 days of racing in Weymouth Bay, sailed in generally a moderate strength shifting wind coming from a North Easterly direction. David Campbell-James was Pro for the Portland based regatta organised by the WPNSA, the location was chosen as the start of a 2 year program of Etchells events leading up to the 2016 Etchells Worlds to be held here.

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2014 UK Etchells Open National Championships, 1 event 3 Champions

09/09/2014

Weymouth Bay’s weather, just like the rest of Southern England and the Western Half of Europe was dominated by high pressure, and with little or no wind forecast for the weekend. Racing on Saturday had to be abandoned from ashore during which time the fleet meet to agree an early start for racing on Sunday to commence at 08.00 when a 6-8 kt NE.

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A new era for the Etchells class

07/24/2014

A winter of development work with some of the world’s top sailors has resulted in significant improvements to the latest Etchells keelboats built by David Heritage Racing Yachts in Cowes, UK. “What we’ve done here represents the biggest changes in the class over the past 20 years,” says Andrew ‘Dog’ Palfrey, a double Etchells world champion.

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2014 World Championship

06/24/2014

Hardesty Claims Third World Title With Race to Spare NEWPORT, R.I. — Consistency is king and Bill Hardesty and crew of Stephanie Roble, Taylor Canfield and Marcus Eagan have earned the 2014 Etchells World Championship by sticking to a steady plan for success.

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Eight Bells - Bill Bennett

06/18/2014

It is with profound sadness that I inform you of the passing Bill Bennett, a popular and beloved member of our community who was in Newport preparing for the 2014 Worlds. He suffered a head injury off the water. Bill was frequently on the podium receiving awards for outstanding performances in the Etchells Class, including winning a World Championship in 2000 with Vince Brun and Rick Merriman.

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Cowes Etchells Fleet race for the Royal Thames Saida Cup, June 7/8 2014

06/10/2014

Thunderstorms and rain were forecast for the Saturdays Racing, luckily they were all over by 9 AM , so the 12 crews and race officials enjoyed 2 days of Solent in the Sunshine.

To get to the start of Hill Head the SW breeze gave the boats a great Spinnaker run across the Solent for the 11.00 start, only to die away at 10.45 before blowing a 12kt Easterly, but Jamie Clark the RTYC PRO wasn't fooled, waiting till the wind switched back to a 10Kt SW after 30 minutes or so in order to race the fleet in the tidal shelter on the Knoll plateau.

Race 1 saw Peter Rogers Highlife GBR 1331 lead a densely packed fleet to the first mark and hold his lead on the 2 lap course as the first 6 boats all finished in less than 50 seconds behind him, while “first race” boat handling errors and mark rounding incidents stretched the other 6 boats a little further behind.

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