Two yachts built to the classic metre design, Serica and Juana, added a touch of nostalgia to yesterday’s Combined Clubs Harbour racing on the River Derwent, and there could more of them next month.
Juana, a ‘modern’ 8-metre class yacht with state-of-the-art keel and rudder but retaining the classic hull lines and rig, took line honours in Group 4, with Jock Young on the helm.
However, the smaller 6-metre, Serica, skippered by veteran Charles Peacock, won the race on PHS handicaps after chasing Juana around the course.
Bellerive Yacht Club has included a classic yachts division in next month’s Crown Series regatta and hopes to attract two more ‘eights’, Juanita and Varg, to join Juana and Serica.
Juana added her classic lines to the Combined Clubs racijg.
In Group 1, Wayne Banks-Smith’s Farr 40, War Games outsailed the fleet in the light and variable breeze to take line honours in the shortened course around harbour marks.
War Games also took first place on corrected time in the PHS and IRC categories, winning PHS from Jeff Cordell’s Mumm 36 B&G Advantage and Gary Cripps’ Sydney 38, Ciao Baby II.
In the IRC category, War Games won from B&G Advantage and Gavin Adamson’s Mumm 36, Madness, while the AMS category saw a win for B&G Advantage from TasPaints (Ian Stewart) and Madness.
Only two boats started in Group 2 with Trouble (Dave Willans) winning from Wildfire (Malcolm Robinson) by 16 seconds on corrected time.
In Group 6, Alibi II (Rod Williams) had an outright win, taking and line and handicap honours. Innovator (Ian Smith and D Aberle) placed second handicap, third went to Ingenue (Nigel Johnston).
War Games won Group 1 line honours, PHS and IRC>
On Melbourne’s Port Phillip, yesterday Tasmanian yacht Philosopher, Shaun Tiedemann’s Sydney 36cr, made a promising start to the Festival of Sails regatta, with a fleet of around 200 boats competing in the Williamstown to Geelong passage race.
Sailing in the most competitive Rating 1 division, Philosopher finished second on corrected time under AMS scoring and third under IRC scoring.
The Sandringham Yacht Club entrant Alchemist, Michael Manson’s Archambault 31, won both handicap categories, with Peter Sorenson and Gordon Ketelby’s latest boat, Philosophers, a Cookson 12 second, and the Tasmanian boat, Philosopher, third.
Sorenson previously owned Philosopher (then called Philosopher’s Dream) but sold the boat to Shaun Tiedemann 18 months ago after winning its division of fhe Australian Yachting Championships at Hamilton Island.
The Festival of Sails regatta continues through the coming week with racing on Corio Bay.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jimmy Emms
22 January 2016
Tasmanian yacht Philosopher, Shaun Tiedemann’s Sydney 36cr, made a promising start to the Festival of Sails regatta today with a fleet of around 200 boats competing in the Williamstown to Geelong passage race.
Sailing in the most competitive Rating 1 division, Philosopher finished second on corrected time under AMS scoring and third under IRC scoring.
The Sandringham Yacht Club entrant Alchemist, Michael Manson’s Archambault 31, won both handicap categories.
Sydney yachtsmen Peter Sorenson and Gordon Ketelby’s latest boat, Philosophers, a Cookson 12, placed second in IRC, with Philosopher, third.
Festival of Sails 2017 - start of the passage race from Williamstown to Geelong.
Sorenson previously owned Philosopher (then called Philosopher’s Dream) but sold the boat to Shaun Tiedemann 18 months ago after winning its division of fhe Australian Yachting Championships at Hamilton Island.
With about 200 boats on the two line start of Williamstown for windward start there was much jostling and drama including a crashing collision between Make My Jay, a J24 from Sandringham and Shane Kearns’ S&S 34 Komatsu Azzuro from Sydney.
With a broken spinnaker pole and other damage Azzuro has been forced to withdraw from the Festival of Sails regatta which continues through the coming week with racing on Corio Bay.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Steb Fisher
21 January 2017
If the SB20 one-design sports boat ‘Grand Slam’ on the Derwent last Sunday was any example, Hobart is in for exciting and exceptionally close racing in the Worlds, to be sailed here on the Derwent in January 2018.
Unfortunately, a gale on the Saturday reduced the competition to five races on the Sunday for a fleet that included SB20 crews from Queensland and Victoria.
Sunday also produced a fresh to strong nor’-wester of 15-20 knots. gusting to 28 knots, leading to a number of retirements before the last race.
The five races produced five individual winners, with the series going to RYCT member Nick Rogers at the helm of Karabos.
Rogers and his crew of Andrew Roberts and Simon Burrows sailed a consistent series, finishing with 15 points from a scorecard of 3-1-2-7-2.
“We had some incredible sailing, but five races in one day in that nor’wester proved very tiring,” commented the former Dragon world champion after Sunday’s racing.
Runner-up was current State champion Brainwave (Scott Brain) on 19 points, who did not win a race but also sailed consistently with 2-3-5-3-6, third place going to Pinch (Frazer Read) on 20 points (6-5-6-2-1).
Close astern came Queenslander Rod Jones, sailing CARS-Storage, to finishing with 21 points, closely followed by Aeolus (Brett Cooper) on 24 points, which included winning the first race.
Jones, who first introduced the SB20 class one-design sports boats into Australia said after the series that he was most impressed at the depth of talent in the fleet.
Victorian Chris Dare, who placed fourth in the SB20 worlds in Portugal last year, finished sixth overall, including winning race four.
The other race winner was Honey Badger (Paul Burnell), taking out race three and finishing sixth overall.
Top placed all-women crew was Pride of Athena, skippered by Kirsty Gray, finishing 10th overall.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Michelle Denney
Emotional Rescue (Michael Hutchinson) and Mr Burger (Wings Three) have been declared joint overall winners of the National Pies 10th Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race.
In a decision that must reflect the Wisdom of Solomon, the racing rules jury have clearly recognised the sailing skills of Hutchinson’s Emotional Rescue and the seamanship of Haros’ Mr Burger.
The 10th L2H proved to be one of the slowest on record with the fleet virtually becalmed in thick fog off the Tasmanian East Coast.
Provisionally, Emotional Rescue had been listed as overall winner of the 285 nautical mile race, but Mr Burger lodged an appeal with the jury, seeking redress for time lost in going to the aid of Rumbeat.
Mr Burger...alias Wings Three
Rumbeat had lost steering near Waterhouse Island in Bass Strait and Mr Burger took the yacht in tow, losing time and positions in the fleet.
The L2H jury granted Mr Burger, a Northshore 38, redress for the time lost and also granted redress to another yacht, Young One, for also standing by Ramrod.
The end result, announced by the Derwent Sailing Squadron at the prizegiving, was that Mr Burger has won AMS 1 handicap category and that Emotional Rescue has placed first in AMS 2 Both had the same corrected time after the application of the redresses.
Young One, Gerard Smith’s Young 88, was officially placed third under AMS overall standings, also winning PHS overall and PHS1 with Mr Burger winning PHS2.
The Victorian yacht Absolut, Richard Gates’s Archambault 35, was overall winner of the IRC category, winning from Masquerade (Tony Harman) and B&G Advantage (Jeff Cordell).
Line honours went to Tilt, Peter and Catherine Cretan’s Martens 49 after a five-boat battle around Tasman Island and across Storm Bay. The Fork in the Road (Gary Smith), B&G Advantage (Jeff Cordell), Wild West (Michael and Michelle Denney) and Tilt each held the lead at one stage.
Remarkably, Tilt sailed the final 35 nautical miles without a mainsail, the crew hoisting a cruising headsail up the track and trimming to perfection her huge Code 0.
Tilt’s elapsed time for the 285 nautical mile was 2 days 7 hours 43 minutes and 59 seconds, with The Fork in Road’s time being 2 days 08 hours 06 minutes and 22 seconds
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Michelle Denney/Peter Campbell
3 January 2017
Shaun Tiedemann’s Philosopher yesterday proved herself to be this summer’s champion yacht of Hobart’s River Derwent, out-sailing a crack fleet to become King of the Derwent for 2016.
With Shaun’s son Sam on the helm, Philosopher was named King of the Derwent after winning the IRC handicap category of the National Pies King of the Derwent regatta.
The yacht, its owner and young crew of ex-dinghy sailors, are now off the Geelong to compete against some of Australia top racing yachts in the grand prix racing division at the huge Festival of Sails on Corio Bay.
A fleet of 41 Sydney Hobart, Melbourne to Hobart and Launceston to Hobart and local harbour racing yachts contested the KOD, 15 in the major IRC rating category.
Absolut from Victoria won IRC series.
Philosopher won the KOD overall from National Pies L2H IRC category winner, Absolut, Richard Gates Archambault 35 from Victoria. Local harbour racer, War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith) placed third on corrected time
To emphasise her outstanding performance, Philosopher also won the larger AMS rating division from Young One (Gerard Smith) and Absolut.
In the PHS category, first place on corrected time went to one of the smallest boats in the fleet, Malcolm Cooper’s Kaiulani from Michael Hutchinson’s Emotional Rescue and Young One.
While Philosopher collected the silverware as King of the Derwent, Tasmania’s current biggest and fastest racing yacht, the Reichel/Pugh 66 Alive, swept all before her in a stunning line honours victory.
After a week of mist, rain and fog, Hobart turned on perfect weather for the National Pies King of the Derwent, with 41 starters and a large spectator fleet.
Kaiulani won PHS division of the KOD>
Owned by Derwent Sailing Squadron member Phil Turner and skippered by Duncan Hine, also a DSS member, Alive does most of her racing in the Pacific, Queensland and South East Asia.
In the years that Alive contests the Sydney Hobart, the owner keeps her in Hobart to do races such as the KOD and the historic Bruny Island Race.
In yesterday’s KOD fleet there were few boats that could match her upwind power in the 16-18 knot sea breeze, nor her downwind running under massive spinnaker.
In a spectacular example of power sailing, Alive took line honours by a huge margin of almost four minutes from Gary Smith’s The Fork in the Road and Wayne Banks-Smith’s War Games. On corrected IRC ratings, Alive placed sixth.
After a week of mist, rain and fog, Hobart turned on perfect weather for the National Pies King of the Derwent, with a total of 41 starters and a large spectator fleet.
The King of the Derwent was the last of three races that comprised the National Pies Series, the others being the Beauty Point to Low Head Dash and the Launceston to Hobart.
In the PHS division, Malcolm Cooper’s Kaiulani won the series from Emotional Rescue (Michael Hutchinson) and Young One (Gerard Smith).
In the AMS division, first place went to Emotional Rescue, second to Absolut (Richard Gates) and third to Mr Burger (Peter Haros).
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos; Michelle Denney
2 January 2017
