The Yachtsman 2017-2018 RPAYC Yachtsman 2016-2017 | Page 45

E T C H E L L S N AT I O N A L C H A M P I O N S H I P
G
raeme Taylor and his Magpie crew of
Steve Jarvin and James Mayo sailing
for Victoria’s Mornington Yacht Club
posted the best scores among a who’s who
of keelboat sailing to be named Etchells
Australian champions for the second year running.
Taylor, Mayo and Richie Allanson won in 2016 at
Royal Brighton Yacht Club. In 2017 off Palm Beach
on Sydney’s northern beaches, Taylor and Mayo were
joined by Steve Jarvin who cut short his skiing trip and
spent five days travelling to make the final two races of
the five-race one design series.
“It’s never easy at an Etchells Nationals” Taylor said
of the entry calibre, “you just have to chip away and
eventually it comes good,” he added, while heading back
to his home state with some extra luggage.
“We are very, very happy. The race committee did an
amazing job. They were smart enough to know what was
going on out there and try and work with the conditions.
We were very glad they binned that last race. It was
getting hard to get a handle on the shifts.”
On the number of general recalls and black flag starts
over the shortened and very intense series Taylor said,
“Everyone wants to get a good result. They are pushing
hard. You do your best and sometimes things fall your
way. We were lucky this time.”
Magpie’s training partners Iain Murray, Euan
McNichol and Richie Allanson finished second overall
by three points with Northern Havoc and the current
Etchells world champ, John Bertrand, took third with
Triad2 and his crew of Bill Browne and Jake Newman.
nationals the Royal Motor Yacht Club Broken Bay is
hosting from January 16-21.
The 46-boat Etchells fleet went out on Saturday to the
Palm Beach Circle where the residual sloppy seas from a
big blow late Friday combined with 1-3 knot winds made
offshore conditions very unpleasant. In the hope things
would improve, crews and officials waited patiently in
the searing heat until 4pm before commencing the long
journey back to the host Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club,
sunburnt and without posting a score.
46-BOAT ETCHELLS FLEET
Offshore winds were light ENE on Sunday for races
four and five. As the wind freshened to 15 knots race
officer, Ross Wilson, attempted to start race six under a
U flag, but it was a general recall. The committee went
straight to black flag, but a major wind shift at 30 seconds
to go forced a postponement, and then the time limit
kicked in.
First female helm was Jeanne-Claude Strong (Yandoo
XX), first and masters and grand masters crew was
Bertrand’s Triad2 and first Corinthian boat was 15+
(David Clark, Mark Langford, Sasha Ryan, Will Howard).
The RPAYC’s youth development team of Malcolm
Parker, Clare Costanzo, Evelyn Foster and Rachel Bower
grabbed the older guard’s attention in Race 5 on Sunday
afternoon when they crossed Magpie’s bow and went
on to post their best result, 11th. Other YD sailors were
sprinkled among the fleet.
LISA RATCLIFF
“We didn’t get a win but we were always there, and
it was good enough to bring us home second,” Murray
said. “It was difficult out there with weather and sea
conditions. Our target is the world champs in September.
This is the first part of the journ ey. It’s the second regatta
we’ve sailed and we are going up the curve.”
Murray’s America’s Cup commitments will restrict his
return to sailing and in particular Etchells racing. A class
he says people move on from but often return to. “We
all seem to come back to the Etchells. It’s the common
denominator. They’re a good bunch of people in the
class who enjoy racing and we all rendezvous. There are
some old hard heads, like us, and out there today was
the RPAYC junior squad who are at the other end of the
learning curve and showing plenty of promise.
Given three of the ‘red shirts’ from the Wild Oats
XI supermaxi crew picked up trophies at the Etchells
major title, Murray says the pressure is now on their
Oats crewmate, Chris Links, to perform well at the Finn
YAC H T SMA N
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