Bertrand wins Etchells

America's Cup hero kicks butt at the ANZDL New Zealand Etchells Nationals reports Anne Hinton

The fleet at the ANZDL New Zealand Etchells National Championships, sailing from Gulf Harbour Yacht Club on the Hauraki Gulf, was very competitive this year. John Bertrand from Australia won the event sailing Dean Barker’s boat, but using his own sails. The previous year’s winner, Dennis Conner, came in fourth. Relative newcomer to the class, Team New Zealand's Cameron Appleton, who only started campaigning an Etchells a year ago, ran Bertrand a close second. Local sailor Grant Turnbull was only three points behind Appleton in third place.

“We were preparing for the Royal Match Race [in Copenhagen on 9 May], against Jesper Bank and a crew including Prince Frederik of Denmark - part of the celebrations of the marriage of Prince Frederik to Tasmanian Mary Donaldson] today”, said Bertrand, after racing. “It was all on for young and old [Appleton is Bertrand’s junior by more than 30 years!] It was a good shoot out. Cameron’s no slouch, so it was great to cross swords with him and give it a go.” Bertrand claims that he hasn’t match raced with this much intensity since 1995.

“In that last race we had to have one boat between us [between Bertrand and Appleton, in order for Bertrand to win the Championships].” In the last start, Bertrand said, he tried to circle such that there might be some obstruction(s) between the two boats. “During the race, we had a good run and he caught right up. We had a good match race on the second beat to windward. We had some tacks and then we had a long haul out to the layline. We were able to open up. We had about half a boatlength halfway up that second beat, but then we were able to extend to about three boatlengths. There was enough for, at the top mark, three or four boats to slip in between us and he. On the fourth leg we positioned ourselves such that we were gassing him and he fell back.”

“The boom broke on the second run on the gybe. She exploded and then it was a difficult decision as to whether we could go upwind. We were able to make a jury rig from the end of the boom out towards the transom, which pulled the boom out somewhat and we had downward pressure by the existing mainsheet and we were able to set the mainsail up reasonably well actually. Our speed didn’t drop off too much. We pipped Dennis Conner [who had earlier been one of several boats to blow a kite in the last race] on the line [and gained second place in the race].”

Conner and Bertrand started next to each other in almost every race. “We seem to have a similar mind-share. We see the weather in a similar vein. We have won this event once before and Dennis has also won it”, said Bertrand.

Bertrand also praised runner up, Cameron Appleton, saying that the young Kiwi had done a “brilliant job” and that he is “destined for great things in the world of yachting”.

Appleton gave his viewpoint: “We wanted to win this as it would have made a nice little clean streak for me. The last four regattas I’ve done, I’ve won, so it would have been pretty nice if I could have won this, but we got taught a few lessons by the master.”

“We both knew what we had to do to each other. Going into the last race we knew that we could only finish one place behind him [Bertrand]. Two would have tied it up and we would have lost on the countback, so basically we either had to beat him or end up right on his stern.

“We sailed our race, rounded the top mark about five boats behind Bertrand. Caught right up on the run. Then we both sailed each other off the course. He had a mind to get us further back in the fleet, beyond our drop [i.e. worse than eighth place]. We knew we had to be in front of that. Then he got round a group of four boats at the top mark and we had to dip them all. We were both on port. So he got a break. After that he got a real break with his boom, but that didn’t seem to slow him down.

“We were rooting for Dennis [at the finish] to make sure he got him [ie beat Bertrand to the finish], as that would have closed it up. But in the end we needed to be right on his stern. We had to pull out the impossible. All the guys that were around us weren’t going to give up that easily, so we had to hope that things went our way and they did in a way. Those guys [Bertrand and his crew] deserved it. But we’re after the bigger one [the World Championships]! We know we’re capable of mixing it up up at the front." Appleton finished fourth at the Worlds last year.

At the ANZDL New Zealand Etchells National Championships this year Oracle BMW Racing was represented in the skippers of two Australian boats. Mark Bradford finished fifth, sailing a chartered boat. He had been second in the 2002 Etchells Worlds at Gulf Harbour. Unlike Bertrand he hasn’t sailed an Etchells much so far this year, only doing the Nationals in Adelaide in January, but he will compete in the Australian Mid-winter championships, three pre-Worlds regattas and the Worlds in Mooloolaba. Bradford’s time in the early part of this year has been taken up with Oracle BMW Racing duties. He will be crewing for Gavin Brady in the Congressional Cup, but Mark’s main duties with Oracle BMW are as mainsail trimmer and traveller adjuster.

Another Australian visitor, also with Oracle BMW Racing, was Noel Drennan. By his standards, Drennan’s ninth place, in his own boat, was one to put behind him. He did his first Etchells regatta in 1979, but has only had his current boat for a year and got together with crew members Bill Browne and Ernest Lawrence last Christmas. Both Bradford and Drennan had sponsorship in kind from their America’s Cup supporters, Oracle and BMW.

Results:

Pos	Sail no.	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Disc	Tot
1	AUS 1244	John Bertrand	4	1	1	1	5	4	2	5	13
2	NZL 1184	Cameron Appleton	8	2	2	2	1	2	6	8	15
3	NZL 892	Grant Turnbull	OCS	3	3	5	3	3	1	20	18
4	NZL 1227	Dennis Conner	12	7	5	3	7	5	3	12	30
5	AUS 504	Mark Bradford	1	15	4	10	6	8	4	15	33
6	NZL 809	Brian Jones	5	5	6	4	4	16	9	16	33
7	NZL 991	Cameron Thorpe	3	6	9	6	9	6	8	9	38
8	NZL 1058	Jon Andrews	2	4	10	12	10	9	12	12	47
9	AUS 1030	Noel Drennan	11	12	OCS	8	2	10	5	20	48
10	NZL 1240	John St Clair Brown	6	8	8	11	12	7	13	13	52
11	NZL 814	Lindsay Kennedy	9	9	12	9	13	1	14	14	53
12	NZL 1083	Rob Croft/Tom Warren	14	10	7	7	11	11	11	14	57
13	NZL 295	Nathan Williams	7	13	11	14	8	12	7	14	58
14	NZL 246	Roger Crabtree	15	14	14	13	15	13	10	15	79
15	NZL 1077	Charles St Clair Brown	10	11	13	18	DNF	DNC	DNC	20	92
16	NZL 729	Paul Verry	16	17	15	17	17	14	15	17	94
17	NZL 746	Ned Smith	13	DNF	OCS	DNC	14	15	DNF	20	102
18	NZL 590	Grant Simmonds	17	16	17	16	16	DNC	DNC	20	102
19	NZL 779	Peter Delaney	OCS	18	16	15	18	DNC	DNC	20	107