Racing got underway at the Etchells World Championship organised by the Royal Yacht Squadron, with one race held just off Hill Head in The Solent.
A light but stable 7-9 knots from the south-southeast were the conditions for most of the day. The intention to run a second race was curtailed by the breeze dropping, but there was satisfaction in finally getting world championship racing for the 42 Etchells teams.
Steve Benjamin’s Stella Blue (USA 1427) carved out a lead from the 1st top mark and held off the competition to take the 1st race win at the 2022 Etchells Worlds. Andrew Lawson’s Corinthian team racing No Dramas (GBR 1490) was 2nd. Martin Hill’s Australian team on Lisa Rose (AUS 1505) completing the Race One podium. 2nd to No Dramas in the Corinthian Division was Barry Parkin’s Bungee Smuggler (USA 1424) and 3rd was Hugh Greville’s Hera (USA 1221).
Today’s race-winning skipper Steve Benjamin won the Worlds in 2017 and is once again racing in Cowes with 2 of his crew from that triumph; Dave Hughes and Ian Liberty.
Steve said:
“I don’t look around, but I could see at the start we only had five or so boats to the left of us, so most of the fleet went right. I didn’t see a lot of the boats until we tacked onto Port, which was a bit of a worry”
“The boat felt fast, and we thought we had good breeze where we were, and it was great to be first to the top mark. We only made a few tacks in this race, so everything went very well today but it is only Race One.”
Just 2 boat lengths behind Stella Blue at the finish was Andrew Lawson’s No Dramas. Andrew works the bow, while Billy Russell is on trim and Graham Vials is on the helm. Lawson and Vials race in the Flying Fifteen Class, in which Vials is a four-time world champion, but he only stepped into an Etchells this year.
Results from the 2022 Etchells Worlds Championship: https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=15098
