Etchells Cowes Fleet Ice Bucket at Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club
by Dave Maclean 9 Oct 2023 09:06 PDT
7-8 October 2023
The closing regatta of the Cowes Etchells fleet, the Ice Bucket, was raced over the weekend of 7th & 8th October. Being the final regatta, with a somewhat wintry name, the fleet was reduced to 6 starters.
Racing on Saturday however was truly champagne. 14-16 kts from the west, sunshine, but a choppy sea. The CCYC race team ran three quick races, all of which were tight, and intense. On the Sunday, conditions were warm and still, and no races were completed.
Across the season we have seen some truly excellent Youth teams [U29] competing, and it was great to see Ted Blowers and the Audrey team take first place on the basis of the Saturday results. This is worth recognition of the contribution of Ted's various Audrey teams, and Shaun Frolich's Exabyte team were graceful in defeat by final race rank only.
Highly competitive Youth teams are an integral part of Etchells Cowes, and we were happy to have teams from RTYC on Mano, and from Edinburgh Universities on Man's Best Friend, skippered by Oliver Maclean:
"Ice Bucket was our third event in the Etchells, after doing both Cowes Week and the Nationals. We have loved every part of Etchells, from the Cowes set up, the racing, coaching and quality of events has been top notch. We are doing this primarily alongside our university sailing which is a lot to balance but it is great to get to know a class that could be a great option once we graduate.
Being a Scottish based crew, we make the 8 hour commute down the country for every time we sail. It is a lot, but helps us focus on why we are there and commit to working on specifics every time we head out. In our first few events we have made a lot of mistakes in the boat, in all aspects. Boat handling, set up and tactics, but the advice and coaching from the fleet has helped us improve and learn from our hiccups. Highlights include a kite wrap from the lead of the race in Cowes Week, and a man overboard quickly followed by a Chinese gybe at the nationals (lucky that nobody caught on video)."
We were extremely happy to have Andrew "Dog" Palfrey donate some world class coaching to the fleet over the weekend. Dog put together a quite incredible package of video, photo and analysis from the Rib Saturday, then held a masterclass feedback session on Sunday. The detail, insight and utility was greatly appreciate by all. Thank you Dog, the Legend.