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
