Some of the world’s best professional and amateur sailors will fight it out on the same race course later this month as the 2024 Etchells Worlds get started in Fremantle, Western Australia.
Victorian Etchells sailor and Tiger22 crew Nigel Abbott, who has sailed the class for more than 20 years, said one of the best features of the Etchells class was the tight racing between both professionals and amateurs in one-design boats.
“We’ve got some semi-professional Victorian sailors attending the (Worlds) but we shouldn’t forget about the club racers from Brighton, Geelong and Metung who are coming over West, which is really what it’s all about,” he said.
“It’s not a top end thing, it’s an everybody thing.”
Abbott said the class was continuing to strengthen across Australia, with high-level competition and growing fleet sizes in many states.
“You’ve got national champions and world champions in the fleet in Sydney, and in Melbourne we’ve got a lot of talent, obviously with the likes of John Bertrand,” he said.
“There’s no negative in doing our training block (in Melbourne) as long as we mix with the so called ‘senior fleet’ in Sydney when we can.”
The regatta starts on 15 March and runs through until 22 March with racing happening from the Fremantle Sailing Club.
The event is hosted by the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club and is supported by Fremantle Sailing Club and Royal Perth Yacht Club.
Event media for this regatta has been made possible thanks to the support of HillPDA Consulting.
For more information head to https://www.etchellsworldsfremantle.com/
