Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy for Etchells, Royal Yacht Squadron  

At about 1 pm on Saturday 29th May, US sailor Argyle Campbell must have been wondering why he was closer to Newport on the Isle of Wight, than at home in Newport Beach, California. The wind on the Solent was in the mid 20’s, gusting to early 30’s and the rain, whilst not lashing down was at least making the whole day a lot less summery than he might have hoped for while he was winging his way to the UK. He was however, like 15 other boats, having some great racing as the Etchells class raced for the Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy hosted by the Royal Yacht Squadron.

Race 1 was sailed in a building breeze, which was forecast to be very windy by the end but was 15 to 18 at the start. The fleet were unusually line shy for the Etchells class and with 30 seconds to go Laurence Mead sheeted on early, sailed down to the pin and port tacked the fleet for a big lead. Once he got round the top mark Mead was on the front edge of a big puff and by the time he had sailed it down the run he was out of sight ahead. The rest of the fleet struggled down the run but in true Etchells fashion Argyle Campbell and Robert Elliott got to the last leeward mark more or less overlapped and battled it out for 2nd and 3rd, finishing in that order ahead of David Franks in 4th and Julia Bailey- sailing with her husband Graham in the middle - in 5th.

Race 2 started in what were by now the aforementioned Newport Isle of Wight Bank holiday conditions. Windy and wet but thankfully not cold. In addition the tide was in full flood mode so the course became a bit one sided with a south westerly breeze making the obvious call a long starboard off the line to get into the best tide. Offsetting that was a bit of boat end bias, craftily added by RO Jonathan Peel to tempt the fleet away from the pin. At the windward end of the line Julia Bailey (1329), Andrew Cooper (992) and Steve Tucker (1267 - with Solent legend David Bedford and perennial top bowman Brian Hammersley on board) were away fast to lead up the first beat along with Rob Goddard. Elliot and Mead set up on the start line too early, and, with the former sailing fast under Mead’s leeward quarter he had no option but to protect by sheeting on as well and both these two ended up too far down the line. Campbell was again in the mix but with a big right hand shift at the top of the beat the leaders all came from that side. With the fleet pretty much nose to tail at this stage the winning move was however a very early gybe to get onto the headed port tack. Although Mead only got round in 5th he was first onto port gybe. Once he had ridden the first decent gust down he was line abreast with the Julia Bailey who was leading but he had the inside for the leeward mark rounding ahead. Down the run 4 boats were all overlapped with Steve Tucker riding a good puff down the outside to be in the mix as well. Some of the puffs now had some real venom to them but Mead and his crew held their line and sheeted on to lead up the 2nd beat. Julia Bailey was in 2nd, Steve Tucker got to 3rd and Andrew Cooper took 4th as the fleet headed down the last run. The RO recorded a gust of 32 knots as the fleet surfed, surged and broached their way down the final run. Mead kept his keel under his mast for his 2nd win of the day and after a trail of spins and wipe-outs further down the fleet 5 boats scored DNF’s but thankfully with no broken masts or boats. Newcomer to the fleet Steve Tucker scored a brilliant 3rd in what was a hard and windy race. The PRO wisely decided that was enough for one day and the 3rd race was held over to Sunday.

Sunday dawned a much nicer day, the forecast was still windy (but this time from the North West) but not quite as wild and Argyle Campbell could at least see the sun that he would have expected to have enjoyed had he stayed home in California! The fleet headed out for an on-time start. Flat water, sunshine, 15 hard raced Etchells and a pin biased line that was short enough to make it interesting. The leaders from day 1 got themselves in a mess and with 10 seconds to go it was clear they wouldn’t lay the pin. The Mead / Lawrence / Mead team bailed out early, went low and at the gun they were on port ducking the entire fleet. Not a good start to their day. Out of the traps smartly were Robert Elliot and Julia Bailey, with J80 sailor Allan Higgs making his way into the Etchells class also showing good speed from the leeward end. Further up the line Argyle Campbell was away well. By the top mark Elliot had a tiny advantage from the left hand side but Mead, having made up a lot of ground up the beat was clawing his way up the starboard layline, and, when Elliot took the conservative option and crossed him, rather than risk a leebow tack, Mead sneaked round the top mark into an unlikely lead. At this stage it looked good for 1339 but this is Etchell racing and the fat lady only sings after the dust has well and truly settled. Campbell came round overlapped with Elliott and chose the high road down the run. Elliot dived in to leeward of Mead and these three set off down the run with Julia Bailey in close attendance. All the way down Campbell ducked and dived, some of the time in Mead’s wake, at other times darting to windward. After a nice series of fakes Campbell pulled off a passing move to windward of Mead who suddenly found himself with Elliott trying for an inside overlap as well. Round the bottom mark and Campbell was off and away on the lifted port tack, Mead had to tack to clear his air and after 45 seconds on the wrong tack he had lost Elliot and Bailey as well. Although they circulated in close company from then on, Campbell was always in control and he won. Elliot 2nd, Bailey 3rd and Mead 4th. Despite slipping down the fleet a bit Allan Higgs also showed that he was getting to grips with his new class to score an 8th.

Race 4 and it was all a bit more open. Pin bias, wind up a bit, probably gusting into the very low 20 knot region. The fleet were all pushing down the line but Mead had the pin comfortably. 20 seconds later he tacked to cross the fleet when his race fell apart. The mainsheet traveller block exploded as it loaded up on port and from being a clean cross he was now in danger of being mown down by the starboard tackers. He got in a hurried tack as the fleet streamed past, but his race was over. Up a longer beat in a shifty north westerly the fleet had a great battle with Julia Bailey just leading round the top and down the first run. Mead having fixed his boat watched on and saw his nearest competitor’s battle for the top 3 slots. The regatta was wide open as the leaders got the leeward mark first time round. Bailey held her lead comfortably but up the second beat Campbell got all out of sorts on the shifts and when they came round the windward market the next time he had slipped back to 8th.  Going the other way were the team from Royal Mersey Yacht Club led by Dick Cowan who had come to the Solent for the regatta and they were in 5th , sailing with great speed upwind. The Baileys won, David Franks was back in the leading pack in 2nd and Elliot was 3rd to move himself into contention for the regatta. Andrew Cooper was 4th slowly rediscovering his previous race winning speed in his Bashford hull.

The regatta was now wide open and with the possibility of the 6th race not taking place if time ran out, Mead still had a lot to do. He led off the start and in the building NW breeze he had a 3 boat length lead at the top first time round in race 5. Campbell had put his slide down the fleet in the previous race behind him and was challenging for top slot, with David Franks and Rob Goddard rounding out the top 5.  Mead again showed a downwind speed frailty as he saw Campbell sail outside him and almost round the front on port. The two boats sailed side by side, each reminding the other about proper course obligations (several times!) but with Mead on the inside he should have had the edge. Right at the end of the run however a big lifting shift sent the wind right round so that both boats were running by the lee as they came into the mark. With suddenly clearer air Campbell nailed home his opportunity to round in front and lead again. The regatta was now truly opened up; Campbell would hold the edge if he could put the race away but after his DNF in race 4 Mead needed a recovery plan. These two battled up the next beat clear of 3rd and 4th place but Campbell wasn’t to be dislodged, he led at the last windward mark. By now the breeze was really starting to kick in though and with solid gusts in the high 20 knot region the fleet were on the edge of planning down the runs. Campbell came round, set and sailed on. Mead came round, set and gybed immediately into what should have been less tide to the left. That became a moot point however as it soon became clear Mead had more wind and was closing down the leader fast. As he was about to gybe and take the fight to the leader however, Mead’s bowman called for a hold as a BIG gust was about to hit them. Moments later and riding the front edge of the gust in the 30 knot range Mead shot past and into a 50 metre lead that gave him the edge in the regatta. He closed it out for the win with Campbell 2nd, Franks 3rd, and Cooper 4th while the Bailey challenge faltered with an 8th.

So race 6 of the regatta with Mead ahead after a discard but having a DNF on his scorecard. Mead very nearly messed up the start at the pin end but luckily for him there was enough ebb tide pushing the fleet over that he was able to go head to wind and shoot the pin and stay alive in the left hand corner. Elliot was just to windward but Campbell was further up the line and had given up a lot of bias. The fleet were very close and by the top mark Mark Downer and his family team had sailed themselves into the lead, nailing a little shift to the left at the top of the beat. Again however the trick was a smart gybe and coming round in second Mead and his crew pulled it off best, loaded up in a big puff, and before the pack had got themselves sorted the regatta leaders had blasted off to a big lead - all they had to do from there was keep the truck on the road to the end. David Franks was flying downwind and got himself into 2nd, overtaking Downer and Cooper who had been forced right (looking down the run) into more adverse tide and less wind. Both Bailey and Campbell were buried, in 8th and 6th so Mead was secure for the trophy while Franks and Elliot (both now coached by double world champion Stuart Childerly) were close to evicting Campbell from the top 3.

It finished that way, Laurence Mead, Phil Lawrence and Oscar Mead took the RYS Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy for the second time in 3 years with Newport Beach sailor Argyle Campbell 2nd overall, Robert Elliot in 3rd and David Franks in 4th - these three each separated by a single point.

Great racing, sunny and warm on day 2 and the fleet is now more ready for the 2010 Etchells Worlds to be sailed in Howth, Ireland in mid August. The fleet is back out for the Red Funnel weekend on June 5th and 6th and then the Southern Area’s on June 26th and 27th.

Etchells South Coast Championships 2010  With the 2010 Etchells Worlds in Dublin in August the Cowes fleet entered the 2nd phase of its qualification process over the May Bank holiday weekend, with nearly 20 owners expressing interest in the 12 places available to the Solent fleet. Against that back drop it was always likely to be a tough weekend of boat racing and new sails were seen being measured in the night before by more than one boat. The forecast was for moderate SW winds on Saturday and building (cold) northerlies on the Sunday. 6 races over 2 days, the best 5 to count for the South Coast Championships and with the Worlds qualifying being the best 6 of 12 from this weekend and the Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy at the end of May, it would be possible to secure a place in Dublin with a strong set of results in all 6 races.

Heading out to Race 1 the breeze was slightly north of west and Ante Razmilovic sailing with Stuart Flynn and Chris Larson from the US led smoothly all the way round about 3 boat lengths in front of Laurence Mead / Phil Lawrence and Oscar Mead. At least they did until the last run when a slow but persistent decline in the breeze saw Razmilovic’s lead dropping. Literally out of nowhere he was headed so much that the pole was on the headstay, and with the tidal component now higher due to the light breeze pushing him away from the finish line it suddenly became “game on” again. Mead gybed away from the hole Razmilovic was in and got down tide before gybing back with just enough wind to make it to the pin and score an unlikely bullet in race 1. Razmilovic got 2nd, Graham Bailey who had been in the pack got back to 3rd by being up tide on the last run whilst US visitor Argyle Campbell came roaring in on the re-established NW to get 4th. Perennial Cowes Week contender Mark Downer, sailing, like he does in August every year, with his family, but this year aiming for the Worlds in Dublin, was in the race from the start and got 5th.

Race 2 kicked off in a 9 to 12 knot NW breeze with quite a bit of pin bias on the start line. Graham Bailey was first off the pin end and led Razmilovic. Mead, Julia Bailey and the new Etchells team of Eamon O Nolan and John Gimson were right in the race and these three battled around, never able to threaten the top 2 but always in a tight fight for 3rd. Down the last run Razmilovic managed to soak down inside Bailey and only missed taking the 2nd race by about 2 feet at the end of the 2nd run, while Mead was 3rd around the last windward mark but lost out to a John Gimson inspired match racing effort down the last run (which included about half a dozen double gybes by Gimson to regain luffing rights) and in fact allowed Julia Bailey to also beat Mead for 4th.

Race 3 looked like being pivotal in the regatta as Bailey absolutely stormed off the pin to lead the race easily. With a 2nd bullet on the day he would lead handily if he could finish out the race in the lead. Rob Goddard was with him and these 2 led half way up the first beat. Ante Razmilovic made a good effort of finding clear air out to the hard left and got into 3rd while Mead got pinned under Goddard and saw the race leaders slip away. At the bottom of the run Razmilovic hit the leeward mark and while he was doing his turn saw boats stream by. Gimson, Argyle Campbell and Mead, along with Goddard and Mark Downer were all fighting hard in a big bunch but Mead got dropped when he infringed Razmilovic as the latter finished his penalty turn and had to do turns himself. Ron Thompson was also in this battle, showing great speed in his “UK boat” (having acquired a boat in the US as well!) with the new class approved ring frame in the bow making the boat stiffer and faster upwind. By the end Gimson had locked up 2nd but Bailey paid for his great first beat jump when he was adjudged OCS, along with Goddard and Thompson. So a win for Gimson, 2nd for Mark Downer, 3rd for Razmilovic and 4th for Argyle Campbell. Campbell was now in the overall mix, as was class newcomer Steve Tucker (sailing with David Bedford) who had a very respectable 7th, 8th, 6th at the end of the day and Downer who posted 5, 6, 2 on the score board.

Day 2 dawned with a forecast of NE breeze building from virtually nothing at 0900 to a big breeze by the end of the day. Light jibs were busy being swapped for heavy air sails as the 5 minute gun went for race 3 and Bailey and Mead started best to lead at the top, Bailey just edging it. These 2 had a decent lead and battled for the win with Gimson in 3rd making himself a real candidate for the regatta win. Mead and Bailey split at the bottom gate with Mead able to then pace Bailey out to the right. When Bailey came back Mead tacked under him forcing Bailey to clear and when Mead then laid the top mark the race was over and he took his 2nd win of the series to get back into contention. Razmilovic took 4th, Campbell 5th. After 4 races Bailey led with 6 points, Mead, Razmilovic and Gimson were tied on 7 points (all after discard)

Race 5 was sailed in a building NW, high teens and gusting into the mid 20’s. Cold and wet with the fleet hiking hard and every place being hard fought for. Unusually for a tight knit fleet a big split appeared on the first beat after a 15 degree left shift during the 5 minute countdown. Mead and Bailey starting in the middle tacked on the gun to get onto the lifted tack, Razmilovic, Gimson and Robert Elliot sailing further left to get into what turned out to be a persistent and increasing shift to the left. With no right handers to get back from the left on Mead and Bailey rounded the top mark well back from the leaders while Razmilovic had a handy lead from Gimson with Robert Elloit finding form to be in 3rd. Mead got back to the Elliot and Campbell at one stage down the first run but couldn’t convert his gain into a place advantage, while Bailey took most of the race to get back to 6th. Some of the gusts were by now pretty big and there were some surging gains when different boats picked up the breeze and planned away. Rob Goddard and Julia Bailey both had great gusts that got them to the leading pack at one stage but David Franks eventually beat them both, finding the form on Sunday that made him the man to beat in the Spring Series 2 weeks before.

Razmilovic was looking good after his race 5 win but Gimson was in the fight as was Bailey. Both of the latter boats had used up their discards however so they had a lot to do to beat the Razmilovic / Larson / Flynn team. With a strong west going tide the issue the fleet faced before the start was making the call between taking the pin bias or starting further up the line to make sure that you could tack early and not get forced past the port lay line. The tide was going to sweep the fleet up to the top mark once they were on port in a big way.

The top 3 chose all 3 options....! Bailey decided to forgo the bias, start at the boat and tack quickly. Razmilovic played the leaders game and started in the middle heading left while Gimson took the six shooter approach and lined up at the pin with 40 seconds to go to stamp his claim for the left hand corner firmly on the fleet. As is so often the case in sailing it turned out that winning the race was best accomplished by not losing it and Razmilovic had a clean start mid-line which he used to cover the fleet. Mead had a good start 3 boats down from Razmilovic and these two sailed off at speed such that when Mead tacked for the layline Razmilovic only had to tack under him and lead to the top mark. Left proved to be a disaster for Gimson, in a private little header after the start he found himself sailed over by the pack and became trapped and unable to tack, such that he ended up well overstood when he finally got onto port. Bailey had given up to much line bias and although his approach to the mark on port was pretty much spot and he was just able to get round the pack inside him as the fleet converged on the top mark, Razmilovic was long gone. By now some of the gusts were pretty momentous and in one, Bailey picked up the front edge of a real puff and from being just ahead of Mead he planned right up to Razmilovic. At one stage it looked as though he might get past Razmilovic. It wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the regatta but with a great gybe under pressure, the team on GBR1333 put the issue to bed to sail off with the South Coast Championships.

The top 3 boats were all built by David Heritage in Cowes and for anyone interested in joining the class David has 2nd hand boats available as well as a hull in the mould ready to pop out a beautiful new hull in time for the 2011 Worlds in San Diego, the 2012 Worlds in Sydney and the 2013 Worlds in Italy...! The fleet is back on the water for the Red Funnel Championships this weekend and then for the Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy hosted by the RYS at the end of May.

Full results at

http://www.rcyc.co.uk/sitedata/Misc/Results/SC--Series-Results-2010.PDF