Camet leads Etchells North Americans

San Diego, CA (August 17, 2017) – Twenty-nine teams met the starting gun when the 2017 Etchells North American Championship got underway today, with the fleet rolling through three of the eight races planned.

Posting all top four scores earned Alex Camet the early lead, but his team of Ben Mitchell and Patrick Powell have only a three point lead on Argyle Campbell who won two of the three races.

Leading the 11-boat Corinthian division is Keith Whittemore with crew Brian Thomas, Kevin Downey, and Peter Busch.

Racing was held on the Coronado Roads in sunny, warm weather complete with the San Diego skyline as a stunning backdrop to the day. Racing was slightly delayed at the start of the day as the wind picked up. After one general recall, the wind remained about 10-12 knots, and racing continued uninterrupted.

“We had a nice, fun, conservative day and we tried to avoid big scores which went well for us,” noted leader Alex Camet. “Argyle Campbell is doing really well. He has two firsts so we’re watching him. We noticed today that a lot of competitors had two good races and one bad one.

“It was long day, but to reiterate, we’re trying to stay conservative, sail smart, keep our options open, and try not to find ourselves in a bad position.”

Campbell shared what he learned throughout the day. “It was a tricky day of sailing and it turned out that the right side of the course was favored all day. We didn’t figure that out until the second race by accident – we had a horrible start. We tacked and went behind everybody and all of the sudden were on the right side. By the time we got we got up the course, we were in first place and we managed to stay in first place.”

In third with 21 points is Steve Benjamin and his team of Michael Menninger, Dave Hughes, and Ian Liberty (USA 1228). Benjamin has won this event for the past two years and is hunting for a third win this weekend.

Racing is planned for August 17 to 19.

Event information – Race details – Results

Day One Preliminary Results (Top 10 of 29; 3 races)
1. Alex Camet / Ben Mitchell / Patrick Powell – 4 -2 -3 ; 9
2. Argyle Campbell / Luke Lawrence / Brian Janney / Anton Schmid – 10 -1 -1 ; 12
3. Steve Benjamin / Michael Menninger / Dave Hughes / Ian Liberty – 2 -10 -9 ; 21
4. Eric Doyle / Payson Infelise / Ezra Culver – 3 -14 -4 ; 21
5. Jim Cunningham / Jeff Madrigali / Mark Ivey / Serena Vilage – 11 -4 -7 ; 22
6. Scott Kaufman / Jesse Kirkland / Lucas Calabrase / Austen Anderson – 6 -3 -15 ; 24
7. Jeanne-Claude Strong / Seve Jarvin / Marcus Burke / Tiana Wittey – 15 -11 -2 ; 28
8. Tom Carruthers / Chris Busch / Willem Van Waay – 1 -18 -12 ; 31
9. Marvin Beckmann / Jeff Eiber / Matt Steven – 13 -13 -5 ; 31
10. Shannon W Bush / Brad Boston / Phil Trinter – 7 -7 -18 ; 32

Source: SDYC