Only nine boats and their hardy crews out of 25 entries turned out for this morning’s DSS/Battery World Winter Series on the Derwent, with heavy snow blanketing Mount Wellington, rain squalls and WSW wind gusts of up to 30 knots on the river.
As the race started off Castray there was a brief burst of sunshine but by the time Osaka had reached the windward mark it was pouring rain again with a bone-chilling breeze.
Hobart’s temperature at 9.30am was recorded at 6.1 degrees (felt like -0); by 11am it had climbed to 8.2 (felt like 5 degrees) and the WSW wind gusts that came with the rain were close to 30 knots.
In fact, stronger SWS winds had been forecast by the BOM.
Nevertheless, there were times (brief) when the sun shone and the wind eased, just long enough for those ashore to see Michael Pritchard’s Cookson 50 sweeping across the river under her huge spinnaker.
With virtually no competition in boats speed, Osaka crossed the finish line 39 minutes ahead of David Asplin’s Whistler and Juanita (Jock Young).
On corrected time it had to be Osaka first, with Juanita second and Whistler third in the three-boat fleet.
Division 2 had four starters with Matt Westland’s Zest scoring an outright win from the Latham Syndicates Another Toy and Groove (Will Justo).
Only two boats raced in Division 3 with Serenity (Graham Hall) outsailing Kindred Spirit (Alastair Douglas) for an outright win.
Words and photos: Peter Campbell
8 July 2018
