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Etchells 2005-2006 News Sail Information || Etchells News || FAQs || Tuning Guide || Contact Etchells Experts || Order
Report by Ched Proctor Joe Bainton, with Ched Proctor and Todd Raynor won the Etchells class at the YRA of Long Island Sound championship regatta. In the 6 race series Bainton's team scored 5 firsts and a third. Conditions were 10-18 out of the East on both days of the reagatta. Bainton used the PC+ main, GM and M3 jibs, and the full radial and vmg spinnakers. For moe information on North sails Etchells sails call Ched Proctor, Vince Brun or Chris Snow. Courses were all windward leeward twice around with a finish downwind. The American Yacht Club committee was able to start some fleets while finishing others still racing. Vipers, Etchells, Shields and S boats all shared the same course. In the Shields Fleet, Fred Werblow won handily using all North Sails. For more information on North sails' Shields sails, call Ched Proctor, Brian Hayes or Chuck Allen. Full results, click here.
Report by Chris Snow
The 2006 version of Etchells Fleet 13’s Orca Bowl regatta was held last weekend in San Diego. Sailing took place on the Coronado Roads. 17 boats, mostly from the very active San Diego fleet took part in this 5 race, two day regatta hosted by San Diego Yacht Club. Southern California, San Diego is no exception, has a geography and a warm inland climate that promotes a reliable westerly and northwesterly seabreeze. This breeze, blowing parallel to the shore creates conditions that generally favor going right upwind to get more wind velocity and a favorable shift to the right. This condition happens most days during the stable summer season. One thing that can disrupt this pattern is a very strong offshore wind blowing from the Northwest. When extra strong Northwesterlies are blowing offshore of Point Conception for two or more days the far part of Southern California (where San Diego is). This was the case this past weekend where the “Catalina Eddy” as this condition is called created light to moderate southerly and southwesterly winds. The great thing about sailing in this condition is that the wind is quite shifty and challenging and forces most us Southern California sailors to get out of our “go right” mentality and get into thinking about shifts and changing gears. One of the best at this is Vince Brun who together with Patrick Murray, of North Sails San Diego Service and “Super” Rodney Haegebols picked their way masterfully through the shifts, puffs and lulls of the weekend to win the regatta. Proof of there expertise came in Race # 3 on Saturday when Vince and team where over early at the pin and then put their heads down, concentrated and ground back to a 5th place finish. Coming in second, two points out of first for the weekend, were the father/son/brother team of Brian, Daniel and Alex Camet. These guys don’t miss a shift (at least not very often) and they always have boatspeed to burn. With Brian steering and Alex and father Daniel calling tactics the Camets are always a force to be reckoned with. Third overall was Chris Snow and his team of Gary Mitchell and John Rudderham. Chris and his team were a little inconsistent but scored some good races to finish well. All three of the top teams team flew full inventories of North Sails consisting of PC+ mains, LM-2 jibs and the FullRadial Runner and VMG spinnakers. Vince used the VMG all day on the second day when the racing was close. The VMG has a smaller upper girth measurement which makes it fly easier in lighter air and at higher angles. This is a “must have” sail for any serious Etchells program. For more information on North Sails for your Etchells contact Vince Brun, Chris Snow in San Diego or Ched Proctor in Milford. Complete results can be found at http://sdyc.org/raceinfo/results06/orca_res.htm.
Report by Ched Proctor Bermuda International Race Week 11 races were sailed over the 5 days of racing with Wednesday set aside for touring the Island, golfing, working or just relaxing. In the Etchells fleet we had a total of 11 boats racing. Three were three Bermudian teams and 8 invited guest teams. The racing was very exciting with the courses short and the conditions fast the fleet tended to stay very tight. Going into the last day’s race we were leading by 2 points over local Bermudian favorite, Peter Bromby. With Peter’s experience and boatspeed we knew we had our work cut out for us. We weren’t quite ready for the attack that came at the warning gun. At the start of the last race Peter and his team used his match racing experience to pin us outside the layline to the pin and force us to start some 30 seconds late. The wind was fairly strong and the pair of us sailed out to the right side of the course. Peter elected to tack back to the middle and try and get in touch with the rest of the fleet. We continued out to the right and passed Bromby. However we were overly risky at the weather mark and attempted to tack to starboard tack below three boats coming into the mark. When the breeze headed us were pinned below the layline and had to jibe around. This allowed Bromby to get in front of us. Bromby was able to move through the fleet and win the race while we were only able to move up to sixth place. Bromby ended up winning with a three point lead. Third was another famous Bermudian, Paula Lewin. The Bromby team used a brand new PC+ main and LM2 jib for the win. With the smooth water and good breeze the Bainton team (us) elected to use the GM jib and the PC+ main. For the three races on the Light air day we used our new LM2-06 in the now required 6.5 minimum weight cloth to finish 1-4-2 on the day. With the great racing and fantastic venue, the event was a great test for the sails and sailors. We'd like to thank the local Etchells fleet, the BIRW organizing Committee and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club for running such a great event. Hopefully we'll be invited back again. If so you can be sure we'll be there!!! Complete results, here (pdf file). For info on the World's fastest Etchells sails contact our Etchells experts.
Report by Chris Snow
Congratulations 2006 Midwinters Champions Ben Mitchell, Bill Bennett and Steve Pickel!
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Team "Speed Gonzales" - 2005 World Champions! |
Five times Lightning World Champion Tito Gonzales, showing awesome speed, sound tactics and great sails, won the 2005 Etchells World’s against a very talented pool of sailors.
Wind conditions went from 8 to 25 Knots, and boats carrying North sails, completely dominated the medium to heavy wind event.
Tito Gonzales and second place Samuel Kahn (sailing with North's Jeff Madrigali) used exclusively, North PC Plus main, LM-2 ( 6.5 oz ) light to medium jib, GM-6.5 medium heavy jib, and two FullRadial spinnakers.
Boat speed was clearly important at this event, with the very long up wind legs (near 3 miles) and most of the fleet picking the same side of the course. Getting a lane and making something out of it, was the difference between being with the top boats at the first weather mark, or not.
We will be working on an updated Tuning Guide with tips form the top boats at the Worlds. Keep tuned! , Fell free to contact Vince for more information about the regatta and sail/rig tuning.
Complementing North Sails Etchells Worlds success, we had James Quinby from North Sails San Francisco, performing the “usual” excellent job servicing all the sail repairs during the event. Customers were very impressed with the absolutely hassle free service. Thanks James !!!
The next big Etchells event is the Jaguar Series in Miami. We hope to see you there!
16 teams out of top 20 used North Sails!
1. Tito Gonzales, B Mauk, J Linton, D Gonzales
2. Samuel Kahn, B Lee, J Madrigali, A Finglas
3. Iain Murray, G Szabo, A Palfrey
4. Hank Lammens, M Lammens, D Sabin
5. Jud Smith, H Frazer, A Wills
6. Brian Thomas, M Brink, H Schreiner
7.Stuart Childerley, S Russell, R Marino
8. Vincent Brun, B Mitchell, B Terhaar
9. Mark Thornburrow, G Gibson, A Webster
10. William Palmer III, T Corkett, Jr., W Bennet
11. Russ Silvestri, J Nicholas, K Campbell *
12. Rob Brown, G Gudmunson, B Wookey
13. Peter Vessella, S Gordon, M Carter
14. Jeff Pape, C Busch, R Hagebols
15. Peter McNeill, P Smidmore, J Mayjor
16. Ante Razmilovic, D Bedford, S Fry
17. Ed Warwick, T Wetherell, B Dunning
18. Philippe Kahn, F Loof, M Ivey
19. Dennis Conner, P Burton, B Nelson *
20. Steve Girling, C Johanessen, P Waters
* partial North inventory
For complete results, click here.
For info on the World's fastest Etchells sails contact our Etchells experts.
To order our fast Etchells sails, click here.
ETCHELLS MIDWINTER WEST
North Sails Sweep Etchells Winter Events
Report by Chris Snow
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This winter the U.S. Etchells Class has held five major regattas at two venues (Miami and San Diego) and one thing has been consistent throughout. North Sails are on the winning boats. From the 4 regatta Jaguar Series to the just completed Midwinters West in San Diego, North Sails have been the sail of choice for the winners in all five of the these regattas.
Last weekend 43 boats gathered in San Diego for the 2005 Midwinters West. With the Worlds coming to San Francisco in September all the top teams were on the line to check in and see how they measured up in anticipation of the more intense competition to come. At the end of the weekend it was guest skipper Bill Hardesty sailing Vince Brun’s “Hissar” that came out on top. Sailing with regulars Ben Mitchell and Brain Terhaar Bill logged socres of 2,5,6,1 to win the weekend. One point behind was the new team of Jim Nicholas and Russ Silvestri, roundind out the top three was the ever competitive Peter Vessella from San Francisco.
Conditions for the regatta were superb. Saturday saw a light southerly quickly fill and veer into a north to northwesterly at 8-13 knots. The hard right direction and the proximity of Point Loma made for some shifty conditions and in the tight fleet it was easy to go from the front to the back very quickly. Good speed and height to keep lanes was vital as tacking off a shift was a certain losing move.
Sunday saw a lighter breeze and more “normal” San Diego direction, northwesterly but not as hard right. Shifts were slower and this placed a real premium on getting off the line. In first start on Sunday, with the “Z” flag up a number of the top contenders (Camet and Nelson) were called back and ended up posting big scores and throwouts for that race.
The overall winners of the Midwinters West used primarily the following inventory:
- PC+ Main
- LM-2H Jib
- Full Radial Runner Spinnaker
The top ten with scores were:
1
1000 Hissar -
Bill Hardesty
2
- 46 ocs
5
6
1
Total 14
2
1279
Jim Nicholas/Russ Silvestri
5
4
2
4
- 8
Total 15 (*)
3
1168
Mahalaga
Peter Vessella
- 27
7
4
3
6
Total 20
4
873
No Justice
Jeff Pape
3
13
3
- 18
2
Total 21
5
522
Alturas
Alex/Brian/Daniel
4
6
6
- 37 zfp
5
Total 21
6
946
I Love My Wife
Craig Healey
1
10
7
- 33
11
Total 29
7
1060
Dennis Conner
15
8
- 19
1
9
Total 33
8
986
Rhino
Bruce Nelson
6
12
9
- 41 zfp
7
Total 34
9
899
Royal Charter
Robert Britton
20
1
16
2
- 21
Total 39
10
985
Second Wind
Andy Ladow
9
- 46 ocs
1
19
12
Total 41
(*) partial North inventory
Complete results, click here.
For info on North One design's Fast Etchells sails contact our Etchells experts. To order our fast Etchells sails, click here.
2005 Etchells Jaguar Cup Series
MIDWINTER CHAMPIONSHIP
Report by Ched Proctor
The 2005 Florida midwinter’s championship was run over Feb 2-5. This was the fourth and final regatta of the Jaguar winter series. For the midwinter’s a total of seven races were run. Some of the top contenders from the previous regattas had significant personnel and boat changes. Three races were run on Wednesday (first day), in anticipation of questionable weather on Thursday. The first day saw variable conditions and a moderate sea breeze that varied from 5-12 knots. At the end of the first three races, North sails’ customer, Bob Bell had started his steady march to victory with a 14-1-4. Other early contenders were Peter Duncan who was on the scoreboard as Jud Smith. Jud was sailing in the front. They had a 27-3-1. Cameron Appleton showed the best consistency with a 2-6-3. Cameron took over helming duties on 1198, from Simon Williams who had to attend to some work duties.
Thursday provided a very light northeasterly for race 4, which was won by Noel Drennan from Melbourne Australia scoring a narrow victory over Detroit’s Bruce Burton. For race 5 the northeast wind increased somewhat to require three on the rail and the occasional full hike. The wind proved pretty tricky in this race with the hard right looking strong early, but the leaders came from the left at the first mark. Tom Piper did an excellent job to come from the left and took an early lead to win the race convincingly. Bob Bell sailed conservatively rounded the weather mark about 6th and ground away to finish second. Cameron Appleton finished in the top 5 or six, which on the preliminary scores gave him a comfortable lead. Cameron and Bob Bell had a port/starboard incident at the top mark. A protest was filed by Cameron and heard by the jury. The Jury found in Bell’s favor, so Cameron had his throw out. This provided an interesting lesson. No matter how right you may think you are, avoid a collision. The jury after hearing all the testimony may not agree, as was the case here. Thursday evening all competitors were treated to a fantastic Buffet and get together at Scott Piper’s beautiful home on the canal..
The first race on Friday was fairly light with the wind from the North. Vince Brun had a nice start in the middle of the line. He was able to tack to port and cross after a minutes sailing. This put him nicely in phase with the shifts. Much of the fleet became mired in the doldrums on the left side of the course. The Duncan/Smith team was over early at the pin. They restarted and sailed on the lifted port tack up the middle of the course. The bulk of the fleet sailed to the left side of the course which proved to be the wrong place to be. In end Brun won the race and Duncan/Smith made a nice comeback to finish 6th. On the run to the finis, the breeze filled in from North and it started to rain also. It was no longer the pleasant Miami weather we had become so used to. In race 7 Duncan/smith used the right side of the first beat to their advantage and lead the whole way. Bob Bell team had a bit more of a challenge. They were over early and rounded the pin to re start. They took basically everybody’s stern to sail to the right. Bob’rs crew, Peter Bromby, commented, “With a little wind the boat goes really well.” I guess so since they finished the race in Second. With one race to go, The top contenders were Duncan/Smith at 28 points, Bell at 30, third Cameron Appleton at 43, then Bill Hardesty at 45. From there the points dropped off into the 60 range.
For the final race, Saturday had a nice 15-20 knot Northwester with the usual shifts that come with this direction. With the point score very close, it set up for an exciting first beat. The regattas win would be determined by which of the top contenders did the best job of playing the shifts. One of the aforementioned players would likely be the winner given the breezy conditions. As the fleet converged on the weather mark, all of the top contenders were in position to take advantage of the shift. Cameron was in a strong position coming in from the left but the right shift was the last one. This enabled Bob Bell to round inside the top ten which was a sufficiently strong position to assure the regatta win since Duncan/Smith were back in the 30;s at the first mark. The “98 World champion Dirk Kneulman capped a disappointing series with a clear win in this final race. His comment afterwards was “I wonder why this is happening now.” I guess just to keep you coming back for more Dirk. It’s all in the spirit of the adventure.
The final positions showed NS Customers in first, third, fourth and fifth.
1st Robert Bell/Peter Bromby
2nd Peter Duncan/Judd Smith
3rd Phillipe Kahn/Bill Hardesty
4th Cameron Appelton
5th Vince Brun/Karl Anderson
Click here for complete results.
Jaguar Overall46 boats qualified for the overall jaguar series scoring. A further 21 boats sailed 1 or more of the regattas, but failed to qualify for the overall series. North sails One Design is proud that all four regattas were won by different competitors all using North One design’s sails. North Customers were 2 nd, 3 rd and 4 th overall.
For the final scores for the Jaguar click here.
For info on North One design's Fast Etchells sails contact our Etchells experts. To order our fast Etchells sails, click here.
2005 Etchells Jaguar Cup Series
SID DOREN MEMORIAL REGATTA
Report by Ched Proctor
This past week end the Sid Doren Memorial regatta was sailed as part of the Miami Etchells Jaguar series. 55 boats competed in the 5 race 1 with throw out series. Conditions were primarily light easterly winds. Simon Williams won the series with Chris Law and Ched Proctor crewing. Simon used the AU04 main, LM2 jib, VMG and Full radial runner spinnakers. Set up was primarily to the North Sails’ One design tuning guide.
Saturdays three races were sailed in an easterly breeze with the wind 6 knots picking up to as much as 10 knots by the end of the day. Generally the left side of the course paid off early in the beats. Race one got off with perhaps 20 boats called over. We started near the weather end and seemed to be going well. Unfortunately we started a little too well and heard our number called about a minute after the start. After restarting far last the race became a long journey. We climbed back a little to 38th place gaining primarily downwind. New Zealander Cameron Appleton, worked the left side successfully to round the weather mark in second. They gained the lead on the first run and extended from there to win the race by a comfortable margin.
In the second race we again started conservatively to windward of the jumble at the mid line boat and quickly flipped to port. The wind had shifted left about twenty degrees. As one of the furthest right boats we took several short hitches whenever the wind would go back to the mean. It never held long enough for us to get over the fleet. Generally it was staying further left on the left side of the course. In spite of the stronger left side pressure, we were able to stay in touch and rounded the top mark around 10th. We picked off a couple on each leg to work up to 3rd at the finish.
Saturdays last race was sailed in rather variable conditions. Phil Garland got off to a good start, and lead all the way around, holding off a strong charge by Cameron Appleton. There were lots of holes and it seemed to pay to go to the pressure rather than worry about the shift. The wind picked up on the last beat. We went fairly hard right and it paid off handsomely as the sea breeze helped pull the wind right as it had done in the end of the day in the previous regatta.
The scores at the end of Saturday’s racing showed Cameron Appleton in the lead with a 1, 15, 2. Newcomer to the class, Jeff Siegal was in second with 41 points. These were the only two competitors with 3 finishes inside the top 20. Jud Smith was sitting third with 43 points. We were next with 47 points and the highest drop score. Ante Razmilovic was an unknown with average points situation for the first race. His other two races were 4, 12.
Sunday morning the wind seemed to be building nicely and had us setting up our rig for more wind. However before the start it dropped out and we went down to the same tensions we’d used on Saturday. Other than this pre race sailing, shroud settings and mast step stayed the same for the whole weekend. The first race started with considerable drama. We were well behind the line, tangled up with a competitor and a considerable acrimony was in the air. Our trim was way off resulting in slow speed. We tacked three times to clear our air and did a penalty turn before we were able to settle down and sail. We had started on the left and the wind again shifted pretty far left, we were in reasonable shape in spite of all the stumbling around and got to the weather mark around 12th. Jud Smith took the lead from the left side over standing the mark. They held on to win the race. We went hard right downwind, even beyond the layline and came out around fifth at the leeward gate. We rounded the right gate and took a clearing hitch then went fairly hard left. We dropped to 12 at the weather mark. We again worked our favorite side on the run to pass three boats and finish 9th.
In the last race we won the pin start, and sailed fairly conservatively up the middle. We were around fifth or sixth most of the race. On the last beat we joined the end of the day right side shift and places to finish second. Robbie Doyle played it perfectly, passing several boats to finish first.
For more details on this regatta go to: http://etchellsfleet20.org/
For info on North One design's Fast Etchells sails contact our Etchells experts.
To order our fast Etchells sails, click here.
2005 Etchells Jaguar Cup Series
PIANA CUP
Report by Ched Proctor
The first event of the 2005 Etchells Jaguar Cup Series, the Piana Cup, was won by team "Gone" sailing out of Bayview Yacht Club. Team "Gone" consisted of Peter Feldman-helmsman, Glenn Burton and Sean "Doogie" Couvreux. The team had never sailed together before which provided a "No expectations and just have fun" mantra throughout the regatta. This made the racing easier especially when the team was behind. Collectively, Peter (Sears Cup champion) and Glenn (two time Etchells World champion) have sailed Etchells over 40years with Doogie just coming off an Olympic 49er but never having sailed in the class. The competition was very strong including the likes of Dirk Kneulman, Jud Smith with Henry Frasier, Tim Law, Ante Razmilovic as well as local favorites Robert Bell and Buddy Cribb all placing in the top ten. It was like a who's who of Etchells sailing.
Biscayne Bay Yacht club once again hosted the December 4th & 5th event. Dave Brennan was the R/C PRO and provided great committee work. With erratic winds on Saturday his committee was constantly changing the marks to keep the legs as square as possible. On shore, BBYC kept the fleet happy with ample libations and food from sponsors Cruzan Rum after the days sailing. The R/C was very sailor-radio friendly with course, distance, time and OCS's continually broadcast throughout the series. The use of a mid-line boat for the 49-boat fleet was employed thereby gaining an extra set of eyes on the line. This kept everyone somewhat honest in that no general recalls or black flags were used. This is a rarity for the aggressive Etchells fleet.
Saturdays' 3 races were run in winds of 5-8 from a direction 010-015 with a mix of sun and clouds. On Sunday The wind had shifted to the right and steadied in at 100-105 8-12 knots coming off the point at Key Biscayne. Two more races were run for a total of 5 races.
Glenn Burton: " On "Gone", our rig set up was right off the North Tuning guide for wind's 6-12, upper's at 2nd hole 3/8 block behind the mast. Mast step at 17'5 1/2 rake at 47". We used 1 1/2 year old North PC main and full radial & VMG spinnakers. The main we first used during the 2003 Worlds. The North LM-2 jib was 1/2 year old and trimmed tight in all conditions. "
For more details on this regatta go to: http://etchellsfleet20.org/
For info on North One design's Fast Etchells sails contact our Etchells experts.
To order our fast Etchells sails, click here.
For more information on Etchells sails, contact the North Etchells experts.
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