Etchells UK National Championships at Weymouth - Preview
by Rob Goddard 5 Sep 2014 19:10 BST
6-7 September 2014
15 experienced Etchells teams are gathering at the WPNSA to race in Weymouth Bay this weekend, while Saturday's weather forecast looks light and shifty, Sunday's breezes are set to be moderate and more stable.
Who is likely to win, could be anybody's regatta, Nils Razmilovic the last winner is back to defend his trophy, but the class has moved forward over the last year having been influenced by this years Worlds and an increase in coaching in the fleet. Also new teams skippered by Peter Rogers and Jeremy Thorp have joined the class, Robert Elliott and Richard Burrows have been putting in good results, so has Shaun Frohlich, Rob Goddard and David Franks, all three winning class championships this year, and Nick Stagg is buoyed by his first ever class championship win, winning at Cowes week this year, we then have Gert Zandt from Holland and Graham Ellis from the Mersey both unknown quantities. And amongst our under 25 year old helms we have Tom Harrison, Bradley Mclaughlin, Jack Wilson and Jack Muldoon. Racing will be tight and if you cannot compete this year it will still be good to watch, and for the first time in the UK for the Etchells that will possible, we are trialling Race Qs so anyone can watch the event in progress or afterwards at raceqs.com/regattas/etchells-uk-nationals
As well as the overall champion, the ISAF CAT1 crewed Etchells will be sailing for a new trophy, dual scoring will apply throughout the regatta and all results will be counted towards the Cowes Fleets 2014 league table.
The Nationals is the first of two events in Weymouth this year being run as test events towards the Etchells World Championship in 2016 that is being held at Weymouth, and next weekend being held over 3 days is the European Championships when more boats are set to join the racing.