Tasmanian yacht Alive has won the Division A ORCi handicap category of the Australian Yachting Championship which ended in Sydney yesterday.

The powerful Reichel/Pugh 66 is owned by Derwent Sailing Squadron member Phil Turner and skippered by fellow DSS member Duncan Hine.

With young Hobart sailor Oli Nicholas on the helm, Alive fought back with two wins yesterday to take the ORCi championship by one point Karl Kwok’s New Zealand-flagged Team Beau Geste.

Kwok,  a former Sydney Hobart Race winner,  packed his yacht with international sailings stars, including skipper Paul Cayald and Gavin Brady, to win his fourth consecutive Australian Yachting Championship under IRC ratings.

Despite a two hour postponement, two races were completed on the fourth and final day of the Championships in 5 – 7 knots.

The final race in a solid 7 knots became a nail biter between Alive and Team Beau Geste, going into the race tied in ORCi for Division A.

Alive and her crew that included seven Tasmanians were victorious, carving  themselves into yachting history as the inaugural winners in Division A ORCi for this event.

“We’re chuffed with our win! We raced well today and enjoyed ourselves at this event,” skipper Duncan Hine said after the final race.

“Our boat is really made for offshore sailing so we think we did well with the varied type of racing over the last four days. We’re happy to be the inaugural winners.”

Team Beau Geste dominated the IRC handicap category, winning all but the last race to finish well clear of Sydney yacht Nine Dragons and Alive.

The Australian Yachting Championship is Australian Sailing’s major keelboat event of the year with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia running the event. Conditions off the Sydney coastline were generally light to moderate with lumpy seas.

Words:  Peter Campbell

Photos:  Andrea Francolini

27 March 2017

Owner/skipper Shaun Tiedemann already has big plans for next season with harbour racing champion yacht Philosopher, contesting the 2018 Australian Yachting Championships and the Festival of Sails in Victoria.

Philosopher, sailed by Tiedemann and his crew of under 25 year old talented sailors, yesterday won the Combined Clubs Harbour Series 2016-2017 in the AMS and IRC rated categories on the River Derwent.

“My plan is to contest the Australian Yachting Championships at Sandringham Yacht Club in mid-January 2018,  followed by the Festival of Sails at Royal Geelong Yacht Club later in the month,”  Tiedemann said after a day of frustrating racing on the Derwent.

The final Harbour race of the 2017-2017 summer yachting season was sailed in fickle northerly winds of under 10 knots.

Race officer Grant Sutton made the right call and sent Divisions 1 and 2 on a long harbour course rather than two short windward/leeward races.

All divisions started in a light northerly breeze,  heading upwind to a windward mark off Kangaroo Bluff with Division 1,4 and 6 heading downwind to the Tranmere mark, while Division 2 went to Punches Reef mark.

Soon after the start large windless holes started to appear on the course as the sea-breeze attempted to fight its way up the river against the weakening northerly.  Eventually,  the sea-breeze filled and all yachts had a spinnaker run to the finish line off the Bellerive Yacht Club’s box  on Victoria Esplanade.

Philosopher finished third on corrected time in both the AMS and IRC categories of Division 1,  sufficient to win AMS by two points from Jeff Cordell’s Mumm 36, B&G Advantage.  Tas Paints, Ian Stewart’s Mumm 36 finished third overall after winning the final race.

Philosopher had a more comfortable win in the IRC category, with a nine point win from B&G Advantage with War Games, Wayne Banks-Smith’s Farr 40 winning the last race to finish third overall.

Under PHS scoring in Division 1,  overall victory went to Toby Richardson’s X&Y from Tas Paints and War Games.

In Division 2 (PHS), Chris Sheehan sailed his Young 88 Saga to its fourth win of the season to clinch victory from Young Lion (Steve Chau and Scott  Brain),  also a Young 88,  third overall being Trouble (Dave Willans).

Division 4 was decided on a countback between Neville Georgeson’s Hornet and Charles Peacock’s classic yacht Serica.  Third overall was the 8metre class yacht Juana, with Jock Young at the helm which won yesterday's final race.

In Division 6, Innovator (Ian Smith and David Aberle) won the pennant from Alibi II (Rod Williams) and Kindred Spirit (Peter Alcock).  Egenue (Nigel Johnston) won the last race.

Words: Peter Campbell

Photos:  Peter Watson

26 March 2017

 

 

 

Two world championships in the SB20 one-design sports boat class are now firmly in the sights of prominent Hobart yachtsman Michael Cooper – the first on The Solent off Cowes in England, the second on Hobart’s River Derwent.

On the Derwent today, Cooper steered Export Roo to a convincing win in the SB20 Tasmanian State championship, extending his two-point lead at the end of day one to a winning eight point margin.

Cooper steered his European-based SB20, also named Export Roo to fifth place in last year’s World championships as Cascais, Portugal.

Consistency throughout the regatta was a key fact in the victory for Cooper and his crew, David Chapman and Sam Tiedemann.

A win in the first race today, sailed in the freshest breeze of the weekend, gave Export Roo at extra boost towards victory.

With a scorecard of 3-2-5-2-1-4-(10) Export Roo finished with a net score of 17 points, comfortably clear of Karabos (Nick Rogers) who lifted from fourth at the end of day one to second on 25 points from a score of 7-(21)-1-8-4-2-3.

Third place overall went to Balios (Matthew Pilkington on 28 points (1-(18)-1-8-4-2-3) with Porco Rosso, skippered by former top New South Wales Laser sailor Richard Howard, fourth on 31 points.

Throughout the regatta races were decided by seconds with the depth of the 31 boat fleet indicated by the fact that there were six different winners of the seven races only Pinch (Frazer Read) notching up two wins, Other race winners were Export Roo, Karabos, Difficult Woman (Rob Gough) and 2Unlimited (Greg Prescott).  Ten different boats shared in the top three race placings.

The top-scoring women’s crew was Kirsty Gray and the crew of Pride of Athena who finished 20^th overall.

“This has been a good shakedown for sailors and race officers for next January’s worlds here in Hobart,” commented experienced race officer Ian Ross.  “I think the starts of today’s three races were the best starts I have seen.”

Race officers got an eighth race under way but the influence of a sea-breeze against the dying nor’wester forced them to abandon the race.

At one stage yachts were hard on the wind while at the other end of the leg boats were running under spinnaker.

The SB20 Australian championship will be sailed on Hobart’s River Derwent with the Worlds here in early January 2018.

Words:  Peter Campbell

Photos;  Jane Austin

19 March 2017

Consistent sailing has placed Michael Cooper and his crew of Export Roo at the top of the leader-board after the first four races today in the SB20 Tasmanian State championship on the River Derwent.

Cooper returned to top form in winning the SB20's final summer pennant last Thursday evening and has maintained that on day one of the states.

Sailing in initially light NNW winds that varied during the day before veering to the NE and freshening to 15-18knots, Export Roo has a score of 5-2-3-2 for 12 points.

Two points back on 14 points is Paul McCartney's Porco Rosso, helmed by Richard Howard, with a score of 2-3-6-3 .

In third place overall is Balios (Matthew Pilkington) on 26 points with a 1-18-5-2 scorecard with Karabos (Nick Rogers) next on 27 points, scoring a 20 second win in the shortened race 3 giving Karabos' score after boost. Karabos scorecard reads 7-11-1-8.

Greg Prescott's 2Unlimited won the last race of the day to be fifth overall, followed by Difficult Woman (Rob Gough).

Racing started in a light NNW breeze on a warm and sunny Hobart day, conditions that continued through to race three, with RO Nick Hutton shortening course.

In the earlier races, good starts were the key to success and best three starters ended up 1,2,3 at the finish.

By the time race four began,  the breeze had veered to the NE,  freshening to 15-18 knots and providing the best sailing of the day.

Race winners today were Balios, Pinch (Frazer Read), Karabos and 2Unlimited with the crew of 2Unlimited revelling the fresh breeze.

Top woman sailor after four races is Kirsty Gray and her all-women crew of Pride of Athena, in 17^th place overall.

Words:  Peter Campbell

Photos:  Jane Austin

18 March 2017

 

The Burnell boys from Sandy Bay Sailing Club chose the name of their father’s SB20 one-design sports boat – Honey Badger -  a little animal that fights ferociously above its weight.

Honey Badger, the SB20 one-design sport boat,  has proven it can do just that in racing over the summer sailing season for owner/skipper Paul Burnell, his sons Oliver (19) and Toby (18) and 14-year-old Charlie Goodfellow.

The SB20 Tasmanian State championship next weekend is the first of three championship regattas for Hobart’s big SB20 fleet, followed by the Nationals in December and the World championship regatta in early January 2018.

The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and the Derwent Sailing Squadron are jointly running all three championships, with a fleet of 80 boats expected to contest the Worlds.

Going into the final twilight pennant series for the SB20s on the Derwent this Thursday, Honey Badger is third overall in standings.

Then next weekend, March 18-19, the Burnells will take on a fleet of some 35 SB20s, including entries from Queensland and Victoria, in the Tasmanian State championship.

The Burnell family has a long history of competitive sailing out of Sandy Bay Sailing Club; father Paul won two world championships in the International Cadets as a teenager and has sailed in many yachting classes since then.

His sons followed him, both representing Australia several times at a the Cadet worlds.  Charlie Goodfellow is a current Cadet sailor and will represent Australia at the 2017 worlds in The Netherlands.

“We’ve been sailing together on Honey Badger for the past year or so and we all get on well,” Paul Burnell said yesterday. “I’m the old guy in the team….they tell me what to do and where to go…I just steer the boat.”

Paul said the team’s success was largely due to the youth and agility of his crew, “They can jump around the boat so quickly.”

Oliver is the for’ard hand, Toby is on mainsheet and Charlie is the ‘floater’ in the crew, with Paul on the helm, giving an important input from his long-time experience.

“We have had a good season but we need to improve our consistency,” Paul Burnell said.  “In such a strong fleet next weekend, if you make one mistake it can quickly cost you six places.

“We do have another problem leading up the worlds; with the boys all continuing to grow we are getting close to the maximum crew weight for the class,” Paul added. “But we are confident this will be the team we race at the worlds.”

Words:  Peter Campbell

Photo:  Jane Austin

25 March 2017

 

 

SB20 class founder in Tasmania Nick Rogers sailed his brand new boat, again named Karabos, to a first-up win in Thursday’s twilight pennant series.

The win has given Rogers a commanding point score lead going into the final race (or two) of the summer pennant for the one-design, sports boat class next Thursday.

“If there is just one long race next week I will have won the summer pennant, but if there are two shorter races I will have to defend my lead,” Rogers explained yesterday.

Unlike most keelboat divisions that race on Saturday’s, the SB20 have successfully run their summer pennants in conjunction with the twilight races each Thursday evening.

The 45-boat Hobart fleet is by far the biggest SB20 fleet in Australia and ranks as one of the most active in the world.

The Royal Yacht Club Tasmania and the Derwent Sailing Squadron will run the 2018 world championship on the Derwent next summer with at least 80 boats expected to compete.

Roger’s win augers well for his prospects of regaining the SB20 Tasmanian State Championship next weekend, 18-19 March, and strengthens his campaign for the 2017 Worlds to be sailed out of Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England, in late August and beyond that, the worlds in Hobart.

He is among seven crews from Australia which will be competing at Cowes, hoping to also encourage overseas entrants for the 2018 worlds.

Thursday’s win was the second of the summer series for Rogers, giving him a net 30 points after one discard; the second discard will apply after next Thursday’s final race.

Second overall is Greg Prescott sailing 2Unlimited on a net 46 points, closely followed by Paul Burnell’s Honey Badger on 50 points with Rob Gough’s Difficult Woman on 67 points.

Karabos won Thursday’s race by 48 seconds from Pinch (Frazer Read) and Blue Gull (Rod Glanville).

“We had a nice 10 knot south-easterly sea breeze with shifts of about 10 degrees to the left and then the right and my crew of Andrew Roberts and Col Debden picked the shifts each time,” Rogers added. “And the new boat really handled well.”

Words:  Peter Campbell

Photos: Michelle Denney

11 March 2017