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Etchells World Champs

John Bertrand and his crew on Triad from Australia won the 2010 World Championship championship on Saturday 28th August with 1 race to spare, they were pushed hard by Ante Razmilovic who refused to give up competing till the last possible moment on Swedish blue and Ante finished second overall, Eamonn O’Nolan and John Gimson on Holly Scott from the Solent finished 4th winning race 7.The week was primarily sailed in moderate and occasionally fresh breezes in a tidal conditions that were complicated by Lambey Island on the north of the race course, during the week we did have one race day cancelled due to strong winds, and one race abandoned half way through due to boats at the leeward mark being swept past the gate on the tide with no breeze after the leaders Ante and Nils Razmilovic on separate boats had successfully rounded the marks and were on route to the windward mark for the second time, needless to say in the bar afterwards everyone else claimed to be in about 5th place or better when the race was abandoned ?.Both Nils and Ante now living overseas with their families both still count as honoury members of the Solent fleet, and each won a race, Nils had reformed his old crew of Brian and Turkey for the week, and they competed to a high standard in the bars as well as afloat.Julia Bailey on Stampede led race 6 for almost its entire length, and we cheered Julia from our boat when she rounded the leeward mark for the last time, that was just before we saw Bertrand rounding in second place 50 metres behind her, in a shifty breeze that was going to be tough, and unfortunately for Julia, Bertrand won the race adding to his previous 3 wins, and totalled he finished totalling 5 wins from his 8 starts.Some of the crews arrived fresh (wrong expression, “tired” is more appropriate) from the commodores cup, On "Elvis" David Franks had his secret weapon, some 40 kilo’s of 15 year old Fabio from Malta sailing with David as the 4th man (boy) and Fabio never stopped smiling all week.The race management was excellent in what at times was difficult conditions, and ashore Howth Yacht club members and staff both in the bar and the boat park looked after all of us efficiently and with great hospitality, free hot food and beer after racing was the highlight of many a tired, wet crews day.

for us the regatta ended with a 10th position overall which was a dissapointment, we were looking for a top 5 finish and in the end a lack of prepperation let us down, with breakages and the wrong tools on the boat to get it fixed, our posiotons in the first few races. however by the end of the week we pulled it together and managed to post so good top 10 results, dueling with Bertrand during several races. all in all a good experiance, but a dissapointing result. next time get there early and get prepaired, no substitue for good preparation.