Derwent Sailing Squadron members, owner Phillip Turner and skipper Duncan Hine, with a crew of several other Tasmanians, have sailed the RP66 Alive to a record-breaking line honours victory in the Rolex China Sea Race, winning in IRC Division 1 and second overall.

Among the DSS members aboard ALive in her fighting win was Scott Brain, the current Tasmanian SB20 champion, and George Peacock.

Alive contested the 2014 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race finishing sixth in fleet and is also a previous winner of the Melbourne to Noumea Race and the Brisbane to Gladstone Race.
After the 2014 Sydney Hobart, Alive remained in Hobart for several weeks, contesting the King of the Derwent and the Bruny Island Race.
This past year owner Turner, who is based in the Far East, has been racing the yacht in local races.
Alive has written herself in to the record books for the China Sea Race, setting a new record for the race of 47h 31m 08s, 11 minutes and 59 seconds inside Beau Geste's record, set back in the millennium edition.
After an inauspicious harbour start for the fleet, Alive made very slow progress out of a foggy, damp Hong Kong harbour and, had it not taken four hours for the northeast monsoon to kick in, she could have been looking at taking a much larger chunk out of the record.
Once in open water, the breeze picked up and the RP66 had stiff competition for line honours nearly all of the way, with Banuls 60 catamaran MACH2 making impressive gains through the middle stretch of the race.
Both vessels raced close to the rhumbline, but just over 200nm from the start, Alive chose to peel off south to stay off the coast and set up a more westerly approach to Subic Bay, leaving MACH2 to take an inside line.
The tactics paid off for Phillip Turner and while MACH2 sat in the dreaded Luzon hole for 5 hours, making slow progress, Alive benefitted first from the mid-morning sea breeze kicking in.
In Queensland, also over the Easter weekend, the former Hobart yacht Mr Kite has finished third across the line in the Brisbane to Gladstone Race, placing third in IRC Division 1 and winning the PHRF Division 1.
When owner and raced by Hobart yachtsman Andrew Hunn, Mr Kite took line honours twice in the Launceston to Hobart Race.
Peter Campbell
28 March 2016

The Barnes Bay Regatta, traditionally the popular sailing event that wound up the summer yacht racing season, has been ‘re-invented’ and will be held on the last day of daylight saving, Saturday, 2 April.

The Regatta will have new race courses and a new onshore destination on Bruny Island, making the regatta not just for sailors but in the long term, a community event for the historic island south of Hobart.
Due to a clash with another event, the Regatta was cancelled last year, making it opportune for the Kingborough Boating Club to introduce a new racing/cruising format and a move to a more family friendly environment ashore, the old Quarantine Station. .
At the same time, the 2016 Regatta will maintain the historical continuity of the ‘Bruni (sic) Island Regatta’, first reported by the ‘Mercury’ of 5 February 1868, and over the following near 150 years by some graphic newspaper descriptions of events afloat and ashore at various times.
The Barnes Bay Regatta, as it became known, was held annually from the 1920s through to the 1960s and thanks to the efforts of dedicated members of the Kingborough Boating Club it was reinstated as the Barnes Bay Regatta in 2006.
The Regatta this year will comprise three elements: a Saturday morning ‘two points race’ from Wrest Point and Dennes Point; the afternoon Barnes Bay Race; and on Saturday evening the traditional post-race presentation and barbeque ashore at the historic Quarantine Station.
The Wrest Point to Dennes Point Pursuit Race, sponsored by Wrest Point, will see the slower boats start at 9.00am with the faster yachts starting progressively over the following 30 minutes. The finish will be off the jetty at Dennes Point.
The Tassal Barnes Bay Regatta race, starting at 2pm, will take the fleet around a ‘touring’ course within Barnes Bay and across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, with rounding marks off Rosebanks Beach, Woodcutters Point and the Kettering Yacht Club permanent mark in Shelter Cove.
The post-race celebrations ashore will start with a Tassal smoked salmon tasting from 5pm followed by barbeque with BYO drinks and live entertainment and the prizegiving.
The weekend of 2-3 April, the last weekend of daylight saving not only means for many the last day of the summer boating season, but is also popular with holiday home owners on the island.
“With access to the Quarantine Station Reserve, the KBC has taken the opportunity to re-invent the Barnes Bay Regatta as more than an event for sailors, but one to involve the local community of Bruny Island and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel,” Kingborough Boating Club Commodore Peter Williams said this week.

Peter Campbell

The Victorian boat Red, with Queensland’s Glenn Bourke (helm) and crew of owner Robert Jefferies and Mark Bulka this afternoon were crowed Australian champions in the SB20 one-design sport boat class.
(more…)

Hobart’s River Derwent turned on a magnificent sailing day to wind up the summer season of 2015-2016, with more than 100 yachts, off-the-beach classes and catamarans providing a colourful sight on the river. (more…)

Two fine wins today by Tasmanian SB20 one-design sports boat crews of Karabos and Ronald Young Builders and an upheld protest in favour of a third boat from Hobart, Export Roo, have narrowed the gap in the Australian championship.
(more…)

The 2016 SB20 Australian Championship fleet hit the water to start race three of the series just before 4pm this afternoon. (more…)