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Competition Tightens at Etchells North Americans in San Diego
Saturday, May 17, 2025
The 2025 Etchells North American Championship continued with 3 more races on Saturday. Conditions were more favorable for racing today with wind in the 8 - 12 kt range. Several dark clouds and rain cells moved across the course creating extra shifty conditions throughout the day. The regatta is utilizing Varakos RaceSense for electronic starts which has worked out very well for the competitors and race committee. The fleet appreciated the efficiency of automated OCS calls and the resulting extra sailing time rather than overly competitive starts ending in general recalls. Race 4 was a clean start, Race 5 had one OCS and Race 6 had three.
Four teams posted all top 10 finishes on Race Day 2 as the standings tightened up at the top and the throwout score came into play. The new overall leader Luke Lawrence (Bayou Hustler) with crew Brian Ledbetter and John Kostecki now hold a 5 point lead over Day 1 leader Simon Cooke (New Order). The other teams making up the top 5 in the standings also posted all top 10 finishes today: Peter Duncan (Oatmeal) in 3rd, Jim Cunningham (Lifted) in 4th, and Craig Mense (Freedom) in 5th.
When commenting on today’s racing, regatta leading skipper Luke Lawrence stated “The sailing was beautiful and the racing was a lot of fun. We are looking forward to another amazing day off the coast of San Diego tomorrow. This place is so cool!”
Less than a week ago Luke got a call from Austin Sperry, asking if Luke could fill in to skipper his Etchells as he wasn’t going to be available for this Championship. Two days later, Luke was on a flight to San Diego and was figuring out the racing plan with his crew for this weekend, John Kostecki and Brian Ledbetter. Luke hadn’t sailed with John before, but had spent lots of time on the water with Brian who was Luke’s Finn coach for years through high level international competitions.
Luke explained that “every boat is set up differently on the bow, and we’re learning how to do it in the first week on this boat. Brian’s local knowledge has been invaluable. We all have great comms on the boat, keeping it tranquillo. We’re laughing the whole time out there, actually going from extremely intense back to laughter. I give a lot of credit to Austin for keeping the program moving forward even though he couldn’t make it this week.”
Luke Lawrence was 3rd overall in last year’s North American Championship, just two points off the lead in what was an incredibly close regatta, while sailing with his regular team Andrew Macrae and Tomas Hornos.
Craig Mense from Chicago Yacht Club said “We finished the day cold, tired, but happy. All appreciative of the hospitality of SDYC, and the challenge of the conditions and all these wonderful competitors.”
While Cunningham is 10 points off the lead, his throwout score of 10 is the best of the fleet and may help him climb in the standings on the final day as everyone else has a higher posted discard to contend with. Last year’s North American champion John Dane also had a strong day (8 - 12 - 4) and climbed to 6th overall.
Jim Cunningham said “Today’s racing was challenging, but at the same time a lot of fun. We started the day with oscillating southerly breezes that worked their way to the right throughout the day. All three races today were highly competitive. These North Americans are living up to expectations with very high-quality and tight racing. With the leaderboard filled with very good teams and the scores close it really is anyone’s regatta going into tomorrow’s final day.”
The Championship will conclude on Sunday with two final races, followed by the award ceremony at San Diego Yacht Club.
SDYC would like to thank the Etchells North American Championship sponsors - North Sails, Cutwater Spirits, Maui Brewing, the Bay Club Hotel & Marina, Vakaros and Sailors for the Sea - for making this event possible.
