2nd March 2009
By Peter Campbell
Royal Sydney Squadron fleet member David Clark and his crew of Andrew Smith and Sean Langman have won the International Etchells Port Phillip Championships sailed over the weekend in a lead-up to World Championships on the bay, starting next Sunday, 8 March.
'Our goal going into this regatta was not so much to focus on the final result, but to get some rhythm in our sailing, particularly in our race management which we seemed to have achieved, so we are pretty happy,' Clark said.
Clark finished the regatta with 21 points after a second and a seventh on day one, then two sixths on Sunday. Next on the results were Melbourne’s John Bertrand and his team of Ben Ainslie and Andrew Palfrey, who finished five points behind Clark on 26.
Photo by Kylie Wilson
At the end of day one Bertrand carried a fourth and a first. In Sunday’s racing he finished sixteenth in the third race before climbing back up to fifth in the final race of the two-day event.
In third place overall and winner of the final race of the regatta was the four-man team of Damien King, Simon Cunnington, James Ware and Andrew Butler of Melbourne.
The fleet of 44 Etchells raced on Sunday in shifty, soft breezes which took to the later part of the afternoon to settle.
Previous World Champion Jud Smith seemed to have woken up from his jet-lag to finish fourth in both of Sunday’s races. Given both some more time to adjust his body clock and more on-water training with his crew, Smth is likely to be found in the top results throughout next week’s Worlds.
Among other Sydney skippers contesting the Prince Phillip Champion, Jarvis Tilly placed ninth, Rupert Henry 16th, Matt McCann 26th, Jan Muysken 28th and Roger Hickman 33nd. NSW champion Rob Brown, from the Pittwater fleet, placed fourth overall.
The international fleet now have one week to get ready for the Audi Etchells World Championship. Racing on Melbourne’s Port Phillip starts Sunday 8 March and concludes Saturday 14 March.
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