Scott Kaufman a 50-year member of the Club has won the 2019 Etchells North American Championship in Shore Acres, TX.

In the 17-boat event, Kaufman with crew Lucas Calabrese, Austen Anderson, and Diego Stefani (above) finished tied with Marvin Beckmann after seven races but got the title on countback. Two points back in third was Shannon Bush with Bruce Burton in fourth overall and claiming the Corinthian title.

The event, organized at Houston Yacht Club by class stalwart Marvin Beckman and his wife Melodye, saw monsoonal type conditions as a very active front stalled just north of Houston. The night before the first races saw rainfall accumulations as high as 20cm. Mark Foster, PRO and his team did a great job to get seven races in over three days under difficult and variable conditions. Mark will be the PRO for the upcoming Worlds in Corpus.

After the event, Kaufman was very complimentary of his team who have been together for just a year. He also explained his philosophy on racing and boat prep (Kaufman is a renowned naval architect).

“Sailboat racing is getting hundreds of little details right. Before the event we spent two days just working on our boat refining and making some of the systems work a little better and more smoothly. We probably worked on twenty different items. One small example is we have taken our pump out of the bow of the boat. The exit for the water now runs aft near where I sit. I think at times this can take up to 20 pounds of weight out of the forward portion of the boat.”

This year’s title win marks the third North American Championship that Kaufman has consecutively claimed.