Despite constant rain and poor visibility the final race of the Etchells World Championship in Cowes on Saturday was an absolute stunner.

At last the wind had moderated although conditions were still extremely testing with constant shifts in the south-westerly breeze which varied from 8 to 15 knots as the bands of rain came through.

2006 World Champion Jud Smith, sailing USA1361 with David McClintock and Steve Girling, bowed out of his tenure as World Champion in true style by giving the rest of the fleet a master class in Etchells sailing to win the final race and take second overall. But the day belonged to Andy Beadsworth, Oscar Strugstad and Simon Fry, sailing GBR1361, as they took on and ultimately trounced Ante Razmilovic, Jez Fanstone and Stuart Flinn sailing GBR1333, in a stunning final show down for the championship.

At the prizegiving ceremony outgoing World Champion Jud Smith, for whom this is a fifth second place at an Etchells Worlds, paid tribute to the new world champions declaring them worthy winners and thanking them and the rest of the fleet for a great competition.

An elated Andy Beadsworth paid tribute to his co-owner Oscar Strugstad and team mate Simon Fry: “Simon and I had a crack at it last year with a different co-owner as a last minute thing and we were competitive. At that time we were already committed to this programme which was very much targeted at trying to win these worlds. We talked about doing something with Oscar and discussed whether he drove or I drove or what ever and we decided that trying to win the worlds was our goal and this was the best way we could do it together as a team. Since then we’ve worked hard to put the programme together in the best way we possibly could.

“We bought the boat in America at the beginning of the year and did Miami, then came back here and did all of the UK events. We’ve had great competition from the UK fleet which has been vital in helping us to raise our game to this level. I think the thing I’m most proud of in winning this Worlds is that we led on the opening day and we’ve led every day since so I feel we can be very happy with ourselves.

Overall Results

1 GBR 1361, Andy Beadsworth 1 6 (7) 3 4 1 3 – 18 points
2 USA 1351, Jud Smith (10) 2 2 6 8 6 1 – 25 points
3 GBR 1333, Ante Razmilovic 5 (15) 3 1 6 3 11 – 29 points
4 GBR 1332, James Howells 3 5 9 4 2 (18) 8 – 31 points
5 USA 1306, Tom Hughes 6 (28) 6 12 3 9 2 – 38 points
6 AUS 1215, Noel Drennan (26) 1 10 7 11 4 10 – 43 points
7 NZL 1058, Jon Andrews 4 8 11 8 13 7 (14) – 51 points
8 GBR 1340, Nils Razmilovic 2 34 1 (46) 7 5 5 – 54 points
9 USA 1327, Peter Duncan (33) 23 4 5 16 2 6 – 56 points
10 AUS 1244, Jake Gunther 23 (26) 5 13 9 10 4 – 64 points