International Etchells 2023 Australasian Championship Day 1
The first day of the International Etchells Australasian Championship was exceptionally challenging with breeze from west, round to sou’east, and sou-west over the course of the day.
“It was lovely Mooloolaba winter weather” said Malcolm Page, tactician on RacerCC currently placed second in the International Etchells Australasians.
“It was pretty toasty being a southerner, and the wind was better than predicted, although pretty shifty, as it was west off the land”, he surmised.
“GT [Graeme Taylor] was probably the boat of the day but he had a little issue in the middle of the day with a disqualification for being over the start line. The middle race was really shifty with 40-50 degree shifts. JC was exceptional to do well in that race. We were sailing from fully hiked to being on the leeward side. It was seriously tricky”.
“Plenty of stuff to work on as always” he finished.
While RacerCC is currently placed in second, and the team on Magpie had two firsts, there is no denying who sailed exceptionally well today on average, and that was AUS1475, Flying High.
“Today was a very long day,” said Seve Jarvin, the tactician on Flying High.
“The wind was all over the place and the race committee did a good job to get the three races in. We were lucky to get off the start line well in two races, and the team sailed amazingly. Special mention to our super crew Sebastian I think he would be the lightest crew ever on an Etchells at 26kgs”.
“Was a great day on the water in tricky conditions” said Graeme Taylor, skipper of Magpie.
“JC did an awesome job. We need to be a little less eager to prove ourselves, as in race two”.
There are still a number of races to be sailed over the course of the weekend, and drops yet to be in play stay tuned to our social media channels for live updates.
More info on the Event Website
Nic Douglass
Media Manager
International Etchells Class Australia
Photos: Kenyon Sports Photos