Tasmania’s champion in the one-design SB20 class was decided over the weekend on the River Derwent as part of the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta.
Tasmania’s largest regatta saw close to 150 boats, involving more than 600 sailors, young and old, contesting three days of close racing to decide to top boats in nine keelboat divisions and ten skiff and dinghy classes.
New Tasmanian champion in the high performance SB20 sports boat class is Frazer Read, sailing Pinch. Read is a former ‘gun’ sailor in the iconic Sharpie class and is a regular competitor in the SB20s.
Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye) held a point lead after day one of the SB20 States, starting the regatta with a convincing 1-1-4-2,
DSS entrants in the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta, Wild West and War Games
However, Noye placed 9-3-3 on day two while Pinch had two wins and a fourth, giving Read a net 11 points to Noye’s 14 points. Team Musto (George Peacock) finished third overall on 17 points, while Export Roo (Michael Cooper) was a close fourth on 19 points.
In the wake of the heavy campaigning for the words in January, only 14 boats entered the State championship.
First place under PHS scoring went to Power of Athena (Anna Reid) while Felicity Allison from the DSS steered Cook Your Own Dinner to two fifth places, finishing eighth overall.
The SB20s and Dragons, as did other classes, experienced some hard sailing on Saturday when the nor’wester gusted to 25 knots.
On Sunday, racing on most courses was delayed for an hour, but a south-easterly breeze filled in to 18 knots by midday before fading away mid-afternoon.
The entire fleet in Division 2, Sailing with Spinnakers, failed to finish their last race while the final race for the SB20s was abandoned.
Prominent Derwent Sailing Squadron member Wayne Banks-Smith had a great weekend, steering his Farr 40 War Games to line honours in all seven Racing Division races and winning the PHS and IRC categories on corrected time. David Aplin’s Whistler won the AMS category.
Complete results and further articles are on the Bellerive Yacht Club website www.byc.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jane Austin
19 February 2018
Bellerive Yacht Club member Chris Sheehan today sailed his Young 88 Saga to victory in the Royal Hobart Regatta’s historic sailing trophy, the Lipton Cup.
The Cup is decided on the best corrected time under PHS scoring by yachts in all four divisions of the Combined Clubs summer pennant series.
Multiple, but unsuccessful America’s Cup challenger Sir Thomas Lipton presented the cup for competition between yachts on the River Derwent in 1912. Initially it was given to the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania who late dedicated it to the Royal Hobart Yacht Club.
The support of the Combined Clubs in recent years has brought yachting back into the Royal Hobart Regatta, now 180 years old, with the fleet today sailing past the regatta grounds to round a mark just south of the Tasman Bridge.
To decide the Lipton Cup, all divisions today sailed the same course around river marks on a day when the wind fluctuated from 0 to 18 knots in strength and from WNW to SW (and in between) during the afternoon.
X&Y, fastest boat in today's Lipton Cup race.
Saga won line and handicap honours in Group 3 with a PHS corrected time of one hour 14 minutes and 42 seconds, just 16 seconds lower than Group 4 winner Innovator (Ian Smith and Dean Aberley).
In Combined Club pennant results, Saga won Group 3 PHS from Silicon Ship (Gordon Clark and David Wyatt), third place going to Madman’s Woodyard (Andrew Wise).
Saga also won the AMS category of Group 3, beating Steve Chau’s Young Lion and Rumbeat (Justin Barr).
Fastest boat in the entire fleet was Toby Richardson’s X&Y which also took first place in Group 1 PHS from the Farr 40 Wired (Sam Boyes) and War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith).
Under AMS scoring, Jeff Cordell’s B&G Advantage, took first place in Group 1 from Philosopher (Shaun Tiedeman) and Tas Paints (Ian Stewart).
Fronting up on the race course again after competing in the Bruny Island circumnavigation race on Saturday, Philosopher won the Group 1 IRC category, as the Sydney 36cr did in the Bruny race. B&G Advantage placed second, War Games third.
The flukey winds caught out several Group 1 boats with Filepro finishing 11th in fleet, Wild West 12th and Madness 13th across the line in the 13 boat fleet.
The syndicate-owned Twitch had an outright PHS win in Group 2, taking the honours by just 50 seconds on corrected time from Illusion (David Brett), the two crossing the line 55 seconds apart. Illusion won Group 3 AMS from 42 South (Mark Ballard).
Group 4 saw another outright win for Innovator (Ian Smith and Dean Aberley), second place on PHS scoring going to Spinner (Peter Limb) and Wayatih (Allan Morgan).
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Peter Watson & Peter Campbell
12 February 2018
The River Derwent’s newest addition to its racing fleet, the Melges 32 Crusader, scored her first win on the river in today’s Combined Clubs series.
It was only her second pennant race since Huon Yacht Club and Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania member Scott Sharp bought the fast boat from the mainland only weeks ago.
Crusader turned in an impressive race over the 30 nautical mile course, winning Group 1 PHS on corrected time after finishing second in fleet, only 55 seconds astern of the Bakewell-White 45 The Fork in the Road (Gary Smith). The Melges 32 as yet does not have an AMS or IRC rating.
The win is a significant lead-up to the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta in two weeks’ time when widely experienced Bellerive Yacht Club member Troy Grafton joins the crew of Crusader.
Former Sydney Hobart racer She's Apples Two finished second in IRC.
Crusader was fourth around the leeward mark off Yellow Bluff on North Bruny, astern of Wired (Sam Boyes), The Fork in the Road (Gary Smith) and Wild West (Mike Denney) but Wired had problems hoisting its spinnaker and was overtaken by the other yachts.
On the long spinnaker run back to Hobart, The Fork in the Road opened up a good lead but the light displacement Melges 32 got within 55 seconds at the finish off Castray Esplanade.
Crusader won Group 1 PHS from the Farr 40 Heatwave (Stephen Keal) and Ian Stewart’s Mumm 36 Tas Paints.
Under AMS scoring, Group 1 went to Jeff Cordell’s B&G Advantage, also a Mumm 36, with Tas Paints second and Don Calvert’s Castro 40 Intrigue third.
Cruise ship passengers hd a great view of the start of today's race.
Tas Paints won the IRC category from Marcus McKay’s She’s Apples Two and B&G Advantage.
The Group 2 and 3 fleet’s leeward mark was Bull Bay, a course of 25 nautical miles while Group 4 went to Seacroft Bay and return.
In Group 2, the classic Eight Metre yacht Juana (Jock Young) took line honours and first place under PHS scoring from 42 South (Mark Ballard) and Natelle II (Glen Roper).
Group 2 AMS first place went to Illusion (David Brett) from 42 South and Wings Three (Peter Haros).
Chris Sheehan, back on board his Young 88 Saga after the SB20 Worlds, took out the Line/PHS/AMS treble in Group 3. Saga won AMS from Young Lion (Steve Chau) and Silicon Ship (Gordon Clark and David Wyatt) and PHS from Rousabout (Derek Inglis) and Young Lion.
In Group 4, first place on PHS scoring went to Wayatih (Allan Morgan) by more than nine minutes on corrected time from Free n Easy (Rob Jones) and Astralobe (Peter Bosworth).
After six races in the Combined Clubs summer pennant series of 2017-18, Intrigue is heading both the AMS and IRC rating pointscore in Group 1.
Group 3 start in today's Combined Club race/
In AMS, Intrigue has a net 10 points, with Wild West on 14 points and B&G Advantage on 15 points. In IRC Intrigue and Tas Paints both have 13 points, with Doctor Who (Rod Jackman) on 15 points.
Tas Paints heads Group 1 PHS with 19 points, Doctor Who has 23 points and Filepro (Tim Gadsby) is on 26 points.
In Group 2, Wings Three leads AMS scoring with 8 points, 42 South has 10 points and Jiyuu (Peter Davis) 14 points. Under PHS, Juana has a net 7 points, 42 South 13 and Twitch (Twitch Syndicate) 15 points.
Derwent Sailing Squadron Commodore Steve Chau leads Group 3 in both the AMS and PHS categories with his Young 88 Young Lion.
Many boats sailed close in to Long Beach and Lower Sandy Bay.
Under AMS Young Lion has 5 points to Saga’s 11 points and Silicon Ship’s 16 points. Under PHS, Young Lion has a net 18 points, Kamehameha (Frank Chatterton) and Serica (Charles Peacock) both have 22 points.
Kindred Spirit’s run of wins in Group 4 ended with a fifth place today but she retains the overall lead with a net 12 points. Free n Easy is second with 14 points, Astralobe third on 16.5 points.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Peter Campbell & Michelle Denney
3 February 2018
