Etchells Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy at the Royal Yacht Squadron

The Cowes Etchells Fleet finally kicked off their 2013 season with the Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy, after the Etchells Spring Series was postponed due to the weather. Sir Kenneth Preston, a retired Vice Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron and captain of the 1960 British Olympic sailing team, donated this beautiful trophy for the Etchells class shortly before he died. This was the 19th year the Trophy has been fought over having been won twice by World Champion and Olympic sailor Stuart Childerley, once by World Champion Adam Gosling, and three times between the Razmilovic brothers, Ante and Nils. The only person to have won it three times is Laurence Mead, but he was unable to attempt a fourth win because business commitments kept him away in the Far East, where he continues to race Etchells in the Hong Kong fleet.

Saturday morning's forecast was for a North Easterly force 4 becoming variable 2 before going South Easterly 4 later, but the best bit was the sun on the Solent, and the sun lasted all day, and then turned out again on Sunday.

Ten boats came to the line on Saturday. Race 1 started with an east wind that was shifting through 30 degrees, and the wind strength varied between 4 and 10 knots, after the start the main pack sail on starboard towards the hill head shore and those who were unable to hold their lane and therefore tacked away to the right soon suffered as the wind dropped on that side of the course but it was Richard Burrows' ORL 1015 Matatu Dubh made the best of the conditions winning race 1.

Race 2 had the best breeze of the day on the race track, and Rob Goddard's Stampede lead from start to finish followed closely for most by Robert Elliott's Esprit who sailed into their own wind hole on the last upwind leg, therefore acting as a marker for the others boats to sail around forcing them down to 4th.

Race 3 had the biggest pockets of wind, with holes forming throughout the race, and when the easterly wind died away just after the final bottom mark rounding, Gelert made the best use of a building breeze coming down from Southampton water and headed due north under spinnaker towards it, and enable them to closely follow Esprit across the finish line, where Esprit learnt that they were judged OCS and Gelert became the winner, but Overall on Day 1 it was Paul Lees sailing Gelert who lead overall from Matatu Dubh in second while Stampede, Elvis and Jack Wilson sailing Palaver all tied for third.

Day 2 had better wind conditions with a South Easterly breeze that varied between 8 and 13 knots, unfortunately due to other racing fleets starting earlier in the Solent, the Etchells start line was just South of the Bramble Post and ran both parallel and close to the main deep water channel, and with a strong ebb tide made winning the start and going hard left of paramount importance,

In Race 1 David Franks' Elvis won the pin and stretched out a lead on Starboard before easily tacking across the fleet and then with clean air sailed away for the rest of the race to win by the longest lead of the day,

Race 2 saw an eager fleet fighting for the pin many of whom were OCS and had to return, and Gelert and Elvis ended up with the best of the correct starters, but this time it was Gelert who won the left and protected it with some close tacking on Elvis pushing them back towards the pack, at the first downwind mark just behind them were Shamal, Stampede and Palaver, however 3 into 1 mark rounding didn't go, consequently Stampede and Shamal both had to take penalty turns which shot them back to 8th and 9th respectively

Race 3 was started under Z flag, Gelert won the pin and never looked back, winning their 3rd race of the weekend and the series overall.

The Gelert team was made up of Paul Lees (helm), David Bedford (highly experienced Solent and Etchells sailor), and Tim Lees on bow. Paul's performance was all the more remarkable given that he has been busy building up the Crusader Sail family company in Poole with no time on the water racing in recent years. It was 22 years since he last set foot on an Etchells!

David Franks on Elvis repeated his 2012 second placing with local sailing guru Graham Sunderland calling tactics, Amy Prime (RYA Youth Keelboat Academy racer) and local young Illusion sailor, Robbie Southwell, on bow. Richard and Samantha Burrows (father and daughter team) from Ireland with top Kiwi sailor and America's cup coach, Kelvin Harrop, sailing in the Cowes Fleet for the first time and posted a creditable third place overall aboard Matatu Dubh. Richard's son David, another fine Etchells sailor, represented Ireland in last year's Olympics. Andrew Cooper sailed on his new David Heritage Racing Yachts boat, ICE, coming fourth with the eponymous boat builder on board and local sailor James Downer, a 400 European sailing champion.

PRO Jonathan Peel and his Race Committee did well to get three races away on Saturday when the wind shifts and breeze looked like it might be unsailable, but his crafty persistence ensured we had our racing. Sunday was made more difficult for thecourse layers as the Hamble Spring Series boats were racing on the same water in force. Fortunately, the Protest Committee headed by International Judge Bob Milner was not required as it was a red flag free weekend.

A mention should be made of the youngest crew racing this weekend – Jack Wilson (helm), Bleddyn Mon (Team GBR squad sailor), Nick Sutton (2012 British Cadet Champion) and Laura Sutton. Their average age was just over 20. Laura is a retired Commodore of the Otters Division of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Burnham. The Otters were established in 1930 and is the largest youth sailing club on the East Coast for 6-18 years old, a credited RYA Championship Club, which has produced several Olympic and international sailors. These young Etchells sailors, supported by the genorosity of Jack's father, John, will be joined by two more boats crewed solely by RYA Keelboat squads funded by long time Etchells supporter, Ted Fort. They weren't available this weekend because of exams, but will be racing with the fleet for all of our other major events including Cowes Week where they will all compete for the Young Skippers award. The Etchells fleet continues Sir Kenneth Preston's aim to support young fleets and young sailors, and defy the description that the Etchells is an old man's boat. Anyone of any age who wishes to try one of our loaner boats should contact David Franks.

The RYS hospitality, with their excellent cooks and staff, provided a first class meal on the Platform at the Squadron for the competitors and their partners, which always helps make the Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy a very special event.

More information and full results can be found here.

New Spring Series Dates

As you know we lost our Spring Series because of the weather, but the CCYC have to agree to run us the series on the weekends of 11/12 May and 25/26 May. That first weekend was already down in the calendar as training pre Worlds, and the second was down as a CCYC event anyway, but will now be a dedicated Etchells event.

I hope you will be able to attend... please let me know if you have any questions or difficulties, and many thanks to Andrew Millband and his team for chopping their diaries around.