10:44 PM Sun 18 Oct 2009 GMT
While the invitation is informal and the weekend just a series of club races, there will be nothing casual about November's Etchells weekend regatta at Lake Macquarie.
Following on from the success of the Lake Macquarie fleet's October Spring Regatta, the local fleet are inviting the sailors back on the weekend of 28 and 29 November for one more chance to fine tune their Lake sailing skills before the start of the national championship in January.
John Bertrand and his crew of fellow Olympians, Anthony Nossiter and Tom Slingsby, will be using the weekend regatta to tickle-up their team work further after taking out the Spring Regatta ahead of former Etchells World Champion and Lake Macquarie sailor, Peter McNeill.
Event organiser Mark Phillips said the event came about after discussions in the bar after racing at the October Regatta 'due to the fact that there were a few people prepared to leave their boats at the club if we could put on some races for them prior to the Nationals.' The Spring Regatta attracted a solid fleet of 35 boats.
'We normally have two windward leeward races every Saturday. So all we were proposing is that we put on another two similar races on the Sunday. The idea was floated with the Springs competitors and a few people expressed an interest. Since we have regular fleet numbers racing of 16 to 17 boats every weekend, we only need a few more to get boat numbers like 20 or more.'
Other Etchells sailors planning to compete in November are Melbourne's Tim Ede and Ian Johnson, Sydney's Rob Brown and Mornington's Grant Warrington.
For more information, contact Lake Macquarie Yacht Club on (02) 4945 0022.
by Tracey Johnstone
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Troughton Island, WA
