Etchells Worlds – Chew and Smith hit the front

Two dramatic wins rearranged the leaderboard on day 4 of the Etchells World Championship in Brisbane, Australia.

The new leader is Matthew Chew (AUS864) who won the first race of the day and followed it with third place in the second race, won by European Champion Lawrie Smith (GBR1434).

Chew sailing with Brian Donovan, Ben Vercoe and Ashley Deeks took race 5 ahead of Jay Cross (USA1464) with Smith in third place. John Bertrand (AUS1440) was in fourth with Scott Kaufman (USA 1198) taking fifth.

Race 6 saw Smith sailing with Richard Parslow, Goncalo Ribeiro and Pedro Andrade snatch victory on the final run, with Martin Hill (AUS1440) in second and Chew taking third to match Smith’s scoreline for the day.

Chew now has a seven point championship lead ahead of Mark Thornburrow (HKG1406) who had an 18 – 5 score, with Jay Cross (USA1464) in third place but 27 points off the two leaders.

Britain’s Smith is now in fourth place overall, six points off the podium places and carrying some high scores.

Martin Hill (AUS1449) who led after day 2, added another second place, but a 49 in race 5 did him no favours and he drops to back to fifth overall.

In sixth place is Chris Hampton (AUS1443) after a 45 – 6 score for the day.

Etchells World Championship – Leaders after Race 6 (94 entries)
1st AUS 864 Matthew Chew 6 17 2 13 1 3 – – 42 pts
2nd HKG 1406 Mark Thornburrow 9 8 4 5 18 5 – – 49 pts
3rd USA 1464 Jay Cross 13 5 22 16 2 18 – – 76 pts
4th GBR 1434 Lawrie Smith 20 29 6 23 3 1 – – 82 pts
5th AUS 1449 Martin Hill 2 2 21 6 49 2 – – 82 pts
6th AUS 1443 Chris Hampton 15 1 17 15 45 6 – – 99 pts
7th AUS 1440 John Bertrand 5 16 3 20 4 59 – – 107 pts
8th AUS 1377 Jud Smith 4 14 11 10 40 28 – – 107 pts
9th AUS 1332 Peter Merrington 38 7 1 2 29 37 – – 114 pts
10th USA 926 Peter Duncan 24 3 7 35 17 29 – – 115 pts
11th AUS 1383 William Voerman 25 31 5 21 27 15 – – 124 pts
12th USA 1427 Stephen Benjamin 18 20 44 31 7 8 – – 128 pts
13th AUS 1306 Grant Crowle 7 12 47 44 22 9 – – 141 pts
14th AUS 1435 Jeanne-Claude Strong 39 9 42 1 32 25 – – 148 pts
15th AUS 1436 Doug Flynn 21 45 15 7 55 10 – – 153 pts
16th AUS 924 Damien King 48 6 16 17 37 35 – – 159 pts
17th AUS 1330 Bruce Ferguson 3 15 69 34 26 19 – – 166 pts
18th AUS 870 Peter Conde 32 36 9 33 34 22 – – 166 pts
19th HKG 884 Martin Kaye 27 11 53 11 36 32 – – 170 pts
20th USA 1198 Scott Kaufman 11 38 68 28 5 24 – – 174 pts
Full results here