Sailing News
Tango steps up to the Etchells NSW State
Championship podium
In a phenomenally close finish, a single
point and two countbacks determined
the top four placegetters at the Etchells
2016/17 NSW State Championship
conducted off Palm Beach Headland,
Sydney, in an area known as the Palm
Beach Circle.
Chris Hampton’s effort in bringing his
newish team of Sam Haines and Mark
Andrews up from Royal Brighton Yacht
Club in Victoria paid dividends when
Tango took out the series by a boat
length in the final race six.
‘It takes two to tango’ is the expression
and Peter Conde’s Encore team, runnerup by the narrowest margin, plus others,
pushed the Victorians right up until the
dying seconds.
“It was very close; we thought we’d
blown it in the last race and we had to
fight for every centimetre on the run to
the finish,” Hampton shared.
“I’ve had 15 years in the class but this
team only came together for the Etchells
Worlds in Cowes in September where
we won race one and blew third spot
overall with a UFD (disqualification) in
the last race. After this series we know
we have some things to work on, mainly
our starts. We are only a young team and
we feel we are far off achieving our full
potential.
“The boat is a Pacesetter; we bought the
hull and fitted it out ourselves. We are
very happy with the speed, we found
it much more lively and responsive
compared to the older hull, which is still
at Cowes. We enjoy sailing against the
best boats and sailors in the world and
we have a busy program ahead including
the Australian title in January then the
North American circuit and the San
Francisco worlds.”
Hampton’s boat is shiny new and the
state title was the latest Tango’s debut
regatta. Second placed Peter Conde’s
Etchells called Encore (Royal Queensland
Yacht Squadron) is a 1990 hull and he
was the boat’s first owner. Last year he
noticed it up for sale and bought it back.
Campaigning with the same crew he
had in the mid-1990s, Brian Hillier and
Myles Baron-Hay, Conde pushed the
26-year old hull to its limit in the NSW
championship to finish second overall on
a countback and first Corinthian boat.
“It always was a good boat,” agreed
Conde at the trophy presentation on
Sunday November 27, 2016 at host
Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. “I just
wanted to come back from sailing admin
(performance director at Australian
Sailing) and do my own sailing. The
racing was incredibly tight in this series;
I don’t think the fleet was as close 20
years ago.
“My ultimate aim is to have fun on the
boat with these guys [Brian and Myles].
The 2018 worlds are at our backdoor
in Brisbane and if the timing works out
we’ll do it. We are a bunch of old guys
so we don’t have super competitive
expectations.”
Prior to this season Conde, Hillier and
Baron-Hay last sailed together at the
1996 world championship in Cowes, UK.
Though the bodies are older, over the
weekend the trio demonstrated less hair
definitely doesn’t equate to less flair.
Past national champion, Graeme Taylor’s
Magpie sailing for Mornington Yacht
Club in Victoria, finished third on a
countback from Ray Smith’s The Cure,
the winning Grand Master crew with a
combined age of 150 plus years, all the
way from Royal Perth Yacht Club.
The first NSW boat in the rankings was
David Clark’s Fifteen+ (CYCA) in fifth and
sixth was Iain Murray’s Northern Havoc
(RSYS) in what is also Murray’s comeback
season.
Reflecting on the one design series,
race officer Kevin Wilson said, “We had
three days and three different sets of
conditions; the first day light out of the
SE then on day two we had N-NE up to
15 knots and Sunday it was back to the
SE. We had some comfortable seas and
some very rocky seas, and that’s all part
of ocean racing.
“It’s been fantastic watching, they are
all so close together and come around
the marks four, five and six deep. It’s
been great to sail out of the Alfreds, the
hospitality has been excellent.”
Australian class president David Ritchard
and RPAYC Commodore Ian Audsley
were delighted with a 38-boat state title
roll up and Ritchard thanked sponsors
Harken, Gill and North Sails one design.