Havoc of Iain Murray, Colin Beashel and Richie Allanson is the 2019 Etchells Australian Champion.
Overnight leader, Gen XY of Matthew Chew, Brian Donovan, Ben Vercoe and Mitchell Kennedy were taken out at the start of the final race (R7) for being On Course Side.
After The Log, with Mark Bradford, Vaughan Prentice, Darren Hutchinson, and Mitch Miller on board, had led at the first weather mark rounding, it was Havoc with Colin Beashel, who was doing main, with Richie Allanson on the bow and Iain Murray as Skipper who took the lead at the second rounding.
Iain Murray was clearly very happy with the win, “Been sailing Etchells that long and I think the memory is not what it was, so to get a national title is great, as I have not sailed that many of them (but has won at least five State titles). It is nice to come up here and win, and great to be sailing with Richie again, and Colin who I have been sailing against since we were ten years of age, so it has been a long journey.”
Winner of the Corinthian Division was Animal House of Dirk Van Der Struyf, Ben O’Brien and James Hannah who had not sailed together before. The finished in 8th spot overall.
Etchells Australian Championship – Final Leaders after 7 races (27 entries)
1st AUS 1461 Havoc Iain Murray 1 – – 18 pts
2nd AUS 864 Gen XY Matthew Chew UFD – – 20 pts
3rd AUS 1449 Lisa Rose Martin Hill 9 – – 33 pts
4th AUS 1383 Triad Kirwan Robb -13 – – 35 pts
5th AUS 947 Magpie Graeme Taylor 3 – – 38 pts
6th HKG 1428 Les Freaks Sont Chics Noel Drennan 8 – – 41 pts
7th AUS 1446 Our Thing David Turton -15 – – 44 pts
8th AUS 832 Animal House Dirk Van Der Struyf 4 – – 47 pts
9th AUS 1445 The Cure Raymond Smith 12 – – 54 pts
10th AUS 853 Iris V Peter McNeill 2 – – 55 pts
