International Etchells Class Association
Cunningham Wins US Nationals in a Countback
published 09/22/2019
Results
Photo Gallery
International Etchells Class Chairman Jim Cunningham and his all-star crew of Steve Hunt, Erik Shampain and Carrie Wiley won a US Nationals loaded with past World Champions and Olympians who were looking forward to a fantastic event graciously hosted by American Yacht Club in Rye, NY Sept 20-22.
Despite the challenging Long Island Sound forecast and daily conditions, the organizing team, led on the water by PRO Rich Hulit managed to make the best of the breeze available to deliver four races.
Leading the regatta out of the blocks from the hard right corner in Race 1 was Scott Kauffman, Austen Anderson, Brian Kamilar and Gonzalo Ribero. Showing the fleet a clean pair of heels for a wire to wire victory.
In race 2, it was another Shelter Island-based team of Jay Cross skippering to lead wire to wire, but in a race that saw NW gradient fighting with SW sea breeze producing several large holes, plenty of snakes and very few ladders. Jay and team were short on fingernails as they crossed the finish line, peeling to their jib for the last 100 yards into the finish line.
Jim Cunningham’s team delivered a strong first day posting a 2, 3 for a clear overnight lead over George Francisco, Karl Anderson and Ezra Culver and Steve Girling, Adrian Owles and Lars Osell.
American Yacht Club hosted a wonderful regatta dinner on Friday evening celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the founding of Fleet 1 in western Long Island Sound, with guest speakers including 7-time Etchells World Champion Dave Curtis and one of the original Fleet 1 founders Dooie Isdale illuminating the crowd with some great memories and words of encouragement! Benefiting the US Etchells' Youth program, an auction was run on a hat signed by nearly all of the Etchells World Champions over the 50 years donated by Fleet 1 treasurer Dan Smith and a round of golf donated by Don Dowd and Sandy Weil raised over $4,200 for the young Etchells' sailors.
Day 2 dawned breathless with a weak forecast!
After being postponed ashore for a couple of hours ashore the fleet left the generous hospitality of American Yacht Club to sail upwind in a light southerly.
A jam-packed pin-half of the line saw Girling lead off the pin towards left shift and pressure for a straightforward (if that can ever be a thing on Long Island Sound) race victory.
With the breeze clocking further left, race 4 was started in a diminishing SSE breeze. This time Cunningham won the pin and was launched, quickly able to cross the fleet on port tack. Behind Cunningham, it was a very close affair with boats lining up bow to stern, poles forward on the run back downhill.
Cunningham led the left on the second, increasingly sticky lap, but it was Steve Benjamin, Joseph Morris, Ian Liberty and Dave Hughes who were the first to dig right, followed by Dirk Kneulman, Andrew Macrae and Hank Lammens. Scott Kaufman followed a couple of minutes later, crossing the middle, which looked awful!!!, but he just kept going, taking a few transoms and eventually finding more right shift and pressure on the right side of the track. This provided just enough leverage to seal his second race win of the regatta, with Benji second and Cunningham, escaping the left to hold onto third.
Sunday opened hazy and hot. Although better breeze was promised, it did not arrive at the race course until after the PRO had called time on proceedings.
So the overnight results stood, with Jim Cunningham and team won the regatta on a countback from George Francisco and team, with Scott Kauffman and team in third.
Steve Girling and team in fourth place overall won the podium as the first Corinthian boat, followed by one of the two US Etchells Youth teams competing in the regatta, led by Gordon Gurnell, with Chris Mason-Hing and Rachel Day aboard. Rounding out the top 3 were local legends, Don Dowd, Sandy Weil and Eric Dowd.
Please see Yachtscoring for the full results.
A big thanks to the sponsors – Brooklyn Sailbags, Landmark Vineyards, Fiji Water and North Sails – and all of the organizers and volunteers who helped to make this event a success. The fleet moves to Shelter Island and Annapolis in the coming weeks. Join us, and we’ll welcome folks who want to join or return to this amazing class!