Etchells European Championships at the WPNSA in Weymouth

The Etchells European Championship 2014 was 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.

And the bay lived up to expectations as a challenging sailing area with minimal tidal gradient, but with a local topography that influenced both wind direction and pressure particularly as the land heated up during the day, when the thermal effect starting to move the wind to the right.

Day 1 saw Ante Razmilovic sailing Swedish Blue making the best of the conditions scoring a 5, 2 and 1st to lead overnight by 1 point from Richard Burrow's Matatu Dubb, who in races 1 & 2 made big gains on the fleet by getting the furthest into the right handed thermally effected shifts and scoring a 1, 2 & 6th.

But on Day 2 Razmilovic faltered, scoring 15 points for the 3race day, while Jeremy Thorp on Phan had 2 firsts and a 4th to take the lead overall on 20 points, while in race 4 David Franks's Elvis team had their first win of the regatta taking the lead on the last run of the 3 lap race from the Spinnaker Sailing Club based youth team on Darling S helmed by Jack Muldoon who had led up to then from the start to finish a very disappointed second. While in race 6 another youth boat Sumo helmed by Tom Harrison also had a very creditable second.

With 6 races sailed and 2 more scheduled to complete the series on the final day, anyone one of 4 boats could win the series: Swedish Blue, Phan, Elvis or Matatu Dubb and even going into the last race with only 1 discard to apply it was still all to play for. However it appeared that Razmilovic had blinked first, arriving at the windward mark 2nd to last, but with 5 more legs to sail he picked his way through the fleet 1 boat at a time until only Franks finishing first was ahead of him, but 2nd was enough. Ante Razmilovic (Swedish Blue) sailing with a pre-determined changing crew over the 3 days of Steve Milne, Brian Hammersley and Stuart Flinn were the 2014 European Champions, both Overall and Corinthian, while Jeremy Thorp (Phan), Stuart Childerly and Roger Marino finishing in second place just 1 point behind, with David Franks (Elvis), Graham Sunderland, Amy Prime and Matt Reid 2 points further back in 3rd place.

At the awards ceremony with prizes generously donated by Zhik and The London Gin Company, Ante Razmilovic congratulated the organisers, volunteers, and his competitors for a great regatta, afterwards he praised his crew on how they focused on looking for the right shifts and keeping the boat moving at its optimal speed and how he thought that while challenging, what a great race course Weymouth Bay is, and that he is looking forward to sailing here again in his build up to the 2016 Etchells Worlds and hopefully beyond.

Races are available to replay thanks to Race Q's link: raceqs.com/regattas/etchells-europeans

Full results will appear shortly on etchellsukfleet.co.uk