Coral Reef Yacht Club and Etchells Fleet 20 will host the regatta in Miami, Florida.

After competitive trials involving seven teams racing one design Etchells in the Solent on 15/16 March, three teams of youths aged 18 to 25 have been chosen to race in the 24 boat Cowes Etchells Fleet on fully funded yachts.

Some have said that they find Etchells more than a tad underwhelming. True, Skip Etchells’ design is more than 40 years old, they have aluminium masts, Dacron sails and fractional, symmetrical spinnakers. That’s hardly the coolest stuff going around. However, when you have a different winner for nearly every race, the sport’s greatest returning

Truthfully, we’re not actually talking about Race One of the regatta. Rather, you could probably refer to it as Race Zero, if you like, for it has no direct bearing on the outcome of the 2014 Etchells Victorian Championship. Earlier on in the week, it became very apparent that many of the crews were going to take the opportunity to sail

Well it just has to be a massive thank you. The Garmin Etchells NSW Championship owes a lot to the competitors, the volunteers, the Gosford Sailing Club and everyone has to thank Huey, the God of Wind, too.

So if Valentines Day was all about the love, then the memo did not reach Huey. Yes, the God of Wind had no idea about it all and perhaps could even have been giving everyone mixed messages. There was no breeze to speak of early, then it arrived early afternoon and was quite possibly the fullest it had been all regatta.

It was not hard to end up feeling the love for the Garmin Etchells NSW Championship being run out of Gosford. Yes it was Valentines Day, but that was not the reason. In fact, as you walked around the quay this morning, you may have felt a tension. It was not unrequited and certainly not inappropriate in this PC world. It was not quite fear...