New Etchells World Champ

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Jud Smith, the three times North American Etchells champion and four times Worlds runner up took the gun in the eighth and final race to win the 2006 Audi Etchells World Championship off Freemantle West Australia today. Smith and his crew of Canadian Dirk Kneulman and New Zealanders Andrew Wills and Thomas Saunders, crossed the finish line as the Star Spangled Banner boomed from the Black Swan, the very same tender that boomed out Men at Work back in 1983.

Reasons this is so interesting to me are:

1) Handsome Jack is an Etchells
2) Crewman Dirk Kneulman is Canadian
3) Dirk owns Ontario Yachts and builds Etchells
4) Handsome Jack was built at Ontario Yachts
5) We raced against Dirk this summer while he was practicing for Worlds
6) Dirk is also an Etchells World Champion
7) Jud's boat is called Feng Shui

*The note about the “Star Spangled Banner” means, of course, that Jud Smith is an American.
*The note about “Men at Work” is in reference to the Australians winning the America’s Cup – the first time the Americans ever lost.