Etchells European Championship at the Royal London Yacht Club
by Jan Ford 16 Jul 2019 21:45 BST
12-14 July 2019
Etchells European Championship 2019 © RLYC
The International Etchells European Championship was hosted by the Royal London Yacht
Club and took place over three days on the Solent. 17 boats entered including four youth boats
and seven Corinthian boats.
Three races took place on both Friday and Saturday in generally light to medium conditions from
the North West; sea-state was determined by the tide with chop decreasing throughout the
day. Boats scoring low points generally started well; managed the shifts (+/-25 degrees) and
the leverage that brought against the fleet.
Results in the middle of the fleet were very
sporadic and even after six races (and one discard) 5 points separated fourth to ninth place, with the rest
of the fleet close behind.
A particularly impressive Saturday was had by Ante Razmilovic's Swedish Blue, winning all
three races in less than stable conditions. The term Ante-Christ was used a number of times at
the pub that night.
Despite this impressive performance everything was to play for on the final day that saw light
and fickle wind from the East. First and second was fought-out exclusively by Swedish Blue and
Seamus McHugh's K2. K2, the only continental boat (SUI 1406) in the fleet, managed to
beat Swedish Blue (12-14 respectively) closely match racing on Sunday.
Whilst Shaun
Frohlich's Exabyte secured third after putting four boats between him and Rob Goddard's
Rocketman (who took first Corinthian) in the final race.
Miles Jones jumped up past Hattie
Roger's Royal Lymington boat and Thea Crawshaw's Royal Thames boat after a strong
finish on Sunday and taking 1st youth boat overall.
The way the results are calculated in yacht fleet racing can lead to some interesting
scenarios and the 2019 Etchells European Championship was a good example. After six races,
with five to count, McHugh (K2) and Ante Razmilovic (Swedish Blue) each had 20 points.
McHugh's discard was a seventh place whereas Ante's was a whopping 18.
This meant that
if McHugh scored eighth or worse in his last race, his score after discard would always be set
at 27. So if Ante came eighth or worse, even though he might have been well ahead of
McHugh, McHugh would be crowned European Champion. The only way Ante could win was
to not only beat McHugh, but not have a position worse than seventh. In the event they match-raced each other in this all-important final race, and Ante came fourteenth leaving McHugh
to claim the championship cup.
A huge thank you must go to the race committee that did very well to manage the racing
despite the variable wind direction, and to the various owners, and Jan who provided the beer,
ice-cream and cake.
Overall Results:
Pos | Sail No | Boat name | Skipper/Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | Pts |
1 | SUI 1406 | K2 | Seamus McHugh / Luis Doreste / David Vera / Leonor Ramia | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 20 |
2 | GBR 1438 | Swedish Blue | Ante Razmilovic / Brian Hammersley / Andrew Mills | 5 | DSQ | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 27 |
3 | GBR 1437 | Exabyte 7 | Shaun Frohlich / David Bedford / Duncan Truswell | 8 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 32 |
4 | GBR 1439 | Rocketman (Corinthian) | Rob Goddard / Bryn Phillips / Joe Burns / Christine Shrimpton | 1 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 12 | 7 | 33 |
5 | GBR 1352 | Jolly Roger | Tom Abrey / Matt Reid / Bruno van Dyke | 10 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 9 | 3 | 33 |
6 | GBR 1468 | STRAIT DEALER | David Franks / Graham Sunderland / Harry Blowers / Phoebe Conellan | 3 | 12 | 16 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 36 |
7 | GBR 1459 | Colin | Kim Ridge / James Downer / Andrew Palfrey | 6 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 5 | UFD | 5 | 38 |
8 | GBR 927 | Royal Dart YC ‑ Youth (Corinthian) | Miles Jones / Lewis Smith / James Holmes / Libby Watkins | 12 | 13 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 40 |
9 | GBR 1407 | Ice | Andrew Cooper / George Cooper
Jack Daniel / Graham Deegan / Ben Childerley | 9 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 43 |
10 | GBR 1020 | Royal Lymington YC Youths (Corinthian) | Robby Boyd / Max Crowe / Henry Collison / Hattie Rogers | 14 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 43 |
11 | GBR 782 | Royal Thames YC Youths (Corinthian) | Ollie Grogono / Thea Crawshaw / Murray Hampshire / Verity Hopkins | 4 | 6 | 11 | 7 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 45 |
12 | GBR 1460 | MBF | Grant Simmer / Graeme Spence / Sam Haines | 7 | DNS | 15 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 46 |
13 | GBR 1351 | Audrey (Corinthian) | Jon Warwick / Eddie Warwick / Will Bedford | 11 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 6 | 64 |
14 | GBR 1353 | The Plant Hunter | Malcolm Offord / Laurence Mead / Luke Deegan | 13 | 10 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 66 |
15 | GBR 1194 | Oxford University YC Youths (Corinthian) | Rebecca Anthony / Josh Bell / Meli Besse / Annika Moslein | 17 | 9 | 7 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 15 | 75 |
16 | GBR 1271 | Ziggy | Julian Metherell / Oliver Spensley‑Corfield / Tom Forrester‑Cole | 15 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 15 | DNC | 90 |
17 | GBR 1014 | Grieg City Academy (Corinthian) | Montel Fagan‑Jordan / Azat Ulutas / Ted Blowers / Samuel Oladele | 16 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 96 |