The Christmas Cup Regatta was sailed from Royal Brighton Yacht Club (RBYC) over 13-15 December 2024 ahead of the Etchells Pre-World and World Championship that will take place at the same venue from 3-5 and 9-14 January 2025 respectively.
22 boats took to the race track on the first day of competition, and by the final day, Magpie AUS1486 skippered by stand-in helm and team coach Richard Clarke, with co-owner James Mayo and Ben Lamb had put the regatta away with two races to spare.
“Still got to nail the big one,” said James Mayo of the win for the Magpie team who are current World Champions in the class.
“We are learning a lot of things, and have a lot of confidence and a lot of belief, but you’ve got to keep on improving, we have to keep raising the bar, and we think we are doing that”.
“We’ve got a really good coach in Richard Clarke, four-time world champion. He sailed with us so he got to actually understand us a lot more and that will certainly give him a lot of insights, a lot of value to add on ways we can improve on different parts of the race course”.
James Mayo, also as co-skipper of Master Lock Comanche, where usual Magpie skipper Graeme Taylor is also a helm, has a busy summer ahead with less than ten days to the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart. Mayo commented on the strength of the team around them to ensure both programs can be ready and they are ready for what is coming.
“Hopefully the big boat is a shorter ride so that gives us a nice four or five day window,” said Mayo. “I am personally in the best shape of my life as we knew what was coming, and Lamby is 40 and super fit too. We are focussed fully on the big boat now, and have a really good team around the Master Lock Comanche. Everyone from the full-timers to the navigators, and Richie Allanson who won the last Etchells World Championship with us is helping out with the sail program,” he added.
On the final day of the Christmas Cup Regatta, Peter “Billy” Merrington won two-from-two races on First Tracks AUS1485, to finish in second place, with his long-term crew Ian McKillop and William Parker.
“We have been doing a fair bit of training by ourselves and with our Sydney based partners, so it was good to get to Melbourne and reacquaint ourselves with the Brighton track, we haven’t sailed there for quite a while,” Merrington said of the sailing.
“Also good to test ourselves against some of the Melbourne based boats. Bertrand and the Tiger guys have been working pretty hard on their tuning,” he mentioned of the local boats.
“Really good initiative by RBYC to have this pre-Christmas regatta so we could all be on the same track ahead of the Worlds,” he praised the RBYC on their pro-activeness to provide racing on the World Championship track.
“We have a good squad – Will, Ian and I. We have been working hard and we are pretty happy with our boat speed so it was nice to finish off the regatta well also going into the Christmas break”.
Coverage of the Etchells Pre-World and World Championship will be available on social media and on all of your top sailing news platforms thanks to Hill PDA Consulting, with additional sponsorship from Visit Victoria, Musto, and North Sails.
Vakaros are also sponsoring the 2025 Etchells World Championship, providing their world-leading Race Sense system, which is used at the highest levels in our sport to ensure that sailors have more time racing. Not only does Vakaros assist with finishes and scoring, it ensures competitors can compare the same data and have the best starting instrumentation, which includes immediate OCS notifications.
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