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| 'Nik Burfoot (left) and Mark Johnson who teamed with Jud Smith to win the 2008 Etchells North Americans - 2008 Etchells North American Championship'
Mark Johnson
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Sydney Fleet Etchells sailors Mark Johnson and Nik Burfoot have teamed up with champion US helmsman Jud Smith to score an historic win in the 2008 Etchells North American Championship sailed on The Chesapeake off Annapolis this past week.
Their victory, sailing a new boat, Roulette, representing the Sydney Fleet and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, is part of an extensively planned program aimed at winning the 2009 Audi Etchells World Champion in Melbourne in March next year.
With Jud Smith, a five-times Etchells North American champion, 2006 World Champion and several times Worlds placegetter, steering and Mark Johnson and Nik Burfoot as crew, Roulette had a scorecard of 4-1-5-1-1-2 to finish with 9 points.
This left the RSYS entrant eight points clear of the champion Canadian sailor Hank Lammens, a Olympic representative and two-times Finn Gold Cup winner, and a formidable 30-boat fleet that included past Olympic and America's Cup sailors as well as former Etchells champions.
Lammens, whose crew comprised Etchells builder Dirk Kneulman and Dwayne Smithers, had a scorecard of 1-14-4-3-2-7 to finish on 17 points in the 30 boat fleet. Third place went to Allan Terhune Jr from Eastport Yacht on 25 points, one point ahead of Newport Harbour's Argyle Campbell on 26 points.
'When you look at some of the past Etchells North American champions, Hans Fogh, Dennis Conner, Jud Smith, Russell Coutes, John Kostecki, just to name a few, this is a most prestigious event, ' an elated Mark Johnson said in Sydney yesterday after returning from the USA.
'For Jud it was his fifth North American title in a row, but for Nik and I, our greatest international result in Etchells, although we finished eighth in a borrowed boat at the North Americans in Chicago last year.'
Johnson said the first three days on The Chesapeake had been light and shifty, races in which someone could come out of the left or out of the right and win.'our aim was to avoid a shocker'.
'To win the second race of the North Americans after only a couple of hours aboard the new boat was exhilerating,' added Johnson. 'Then the breeze freshened to 16-18 knots for the next three days and Jud, who enjoys sailing in a breeze, steered us to two more wins and a second.
'That meant that we did not have to sail in the seventh race which, in any case, was abandoned the following day because of lack of breeze.'
Mark Johnson has been sailing in Etchells for about ten years, originally with David Sturrock and then, over the past couple of seasons, skippering his own boat Roulette, which he bought from the late Jim Annand, one of the founders of the Etchells in Sydney.
Nik Burfoot, a former World Laser Champion and Olympic team reserve from New Zealand, who now lives in Sydney, also sailed with Sturrock, going on to join Johnson in Roulette.
Johnson said the plan to contest the 2009 World Championship in Melbourne had evolved from his first meeting Jud Smith at the 2006 Worlds in Fremantle.
'Last November we came up with a deal to have a new Etchells built (by Dirk Kneulman of Ontario Yachts) which Jud would sail at the 2007 Worlds in Chicago, where he finished third overall. We now own it in partnership.
'Jud has become a member of the Sydney Etchells Fleet and as a former World Champion is automatically eligible for the Worlds in Melbourne, which means that the Sydney Fleet will have up to 11 representatives.
'The new boat is now in a container on its way to Australia and Jud will join us sailing the boat in the Squadron's three-race Mini Regatta on Saturday, 22 November. We are planning this as an Etchells training weekend with Jud giving his expertise to the Sydney Fleet,' Johnson added.
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The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron entrant Roulette on its way to victory in the Etchells North American Championships - 2008 Etchells North American Championship - Mark Johnson |
by Peter Campbell
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