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The Australian SB20 fleet returns to the River Derwent this weekend to contest the 2018 Australian Championship. The Derwent Sailing Squadron will host the three-day regatta, sponsored by Performance Automobiles Subaru, which is shaping up to be a hotly contested event. This event comes after a spectacularly successful 2018 SB20 World Championship held earlier this year. (more…)

The late Elson Kiddle,  skilled yachtsman and good friend to so many in the Hobart yachting fraternity, would have been delighted by the performance yesterday of Intrigue, the yacht on which he sailed most of his life.

Intrigue, skippered by longtime friend Don Calvert, won the Division 1 AMS category of the Combined Clubs Summer Pennant in a day of challenging sailing on the Derwent and Storm Bay.

Summer Pennant race four was dedicated to the memory of Kiddle, who died alone in rugged bushland in Hobart’s Lenah Valley last weekend.

The entire fleet yesterday flew black ribbons from their backstays, with veteran yachtsman Don Calvert’s win with Intrigue a special tribute to Kiddle, who had sailed aboard Intrigue for 33 years, including at the Admiral’s Cup in England in 1985.

In other Division 1 results Doctor Who (Rod Jackman) won her third out of four races in Division 1 under IRC scoring while the PHS category went to the Mumm 36 Heatwave (Matthew Keal).

In the AMS category Intrigue won from Shaun Tiedemann’s Philosopher and Heatwave, while Doctor Who took out IRC again from Philosopher and Intrigue.

In Division PHS, Heatwave won from Doctor Who and Peter Cretan’s Tilt.

Mike Pritchard’s Cookson 50 Oskana took line honours on a day of miserable weather – a south to south-wester breeze of 20 knots gusting to 30 knots down river and in Storm Bay, a temperature of 14 degrees (felt like 8 degrees) and cold, misty rain. Only 31 of the 52 Pennant entries turned up for the start of the long race.

In a post-race decision, the Hanse 400e Illusion has been automatically disqualified from Division 2 of yesterday’s Summer Pennant race for sailing through a Sandy Bay Sailing Club start line for tiny Optimist junior sailing dinghies.

Illusion, owned and skippered by David Brett, was leading the Division 2 fleet as she sailed under spinnaker up the Derwent towards the finish off Castray Esplanade.

Combined Clubs race officer Biddy Badanach said Sandy Bay Sailing Club had been forced to abandon the start for the Optimists, sailed one-up by juniors mostly aged under 12.

“The automatic disqualification of Illusion should serve as a lesson to all yachtsmen that they must respect the start and finish lines of other clubs using the river,” Badenach added.

Today, Ilusion’s owner/skipper David Brett wrote on Facebook that Illusion was very sorry for the incident at Optimist’s start line. “We were under extreme difficulty with jibe gone wrong and judged safest route was to maintain course through the line. Apologies to all involved,” Brett wrote.

In Division 2, Natelle Two (Glen Roper) won both PHS and IRC, and Wings Three (Peter Haros) took out AMS.

In Division 2IRC, Natelle Two, a past Sydney Hobart ocean racing yacht won from Wings Three (Peter Haros) and Rumbeat (Ross Mannering) while Natelle Two won PHS from Wings Three and Southern Swordfish (Ian Stewart).

Division 3 produced a double handicap win for Stewart Geeves’ Footloose, the Young 88 taking out IRC and PHS, somewhat making up for the frustrations of the Maria Island Race.

Under IRC, Footloose took top honours from Moonshadow (Anthony Ellis) and Groove (Will Justo) while in PHS the Young 88 won from Moonshadow and Serica (Charles Peacock).

Division 3 AMS winner was Young One (Nathan Mills and Jay Nibbs) with Footloose second and Moonshadow third.

In Division 4, Camlet Way (Stephen Mannering) scored another impressive victory, winning from Astralabe (Peter Bosworth) and Innovator (Smith/Aberley).

Words:  Peter Campbell

Photos: Peter Watson, Peter Campbell

25 November 2018

The doyen of Hobart keelboat racing, Don Calvert, has given himself an early 83rd birthday present, scoring a hat-trick of wins with his 34-year-old yacht Intrigue in the Combined Clubs Summer Pennant on the River Derwent.

Skillfully skippered in the variable River Derwent breezes by the near 83-year-old Calvert (his birthday is on 26 November) Intrigue on Saturday took first place on corrected time in all three Division 1 handicap categories, IRC, AMS and PHS,

This in itself is a rare achievement in the highly competitive River Derwent fleet, but one must remember that Intrigue was built back in 1985 from Tasmanian timbers and owner/skipper Calvert has been racing boats on the river for something like 70 years.

It would seem he can sense every shift in the breeze, judging by Intrigue’s remarkable performance, outsailing several bigger boats around the river course to finish seventh in the 45 boat fleet.

Since being launched Intrigue has seldom missed winning a summer pennant and, of course, the Castro 40 and Don represented Australia at the famous Admiral’s Cup at Cowes, England, in 1985.

Yesterday saw Intrigue excel both downwind and upwind (to the finish) to win the IRC category of Division 1 from Madness (Gavin Adamson) and Doctor Who (Rod Jackman).

Under AMS scoring, Intrigue won from B&G Advantage (Jeff Cordell) and Madness and under PHS, the top three were Intrigue, Madness and B&G Advantage.

In other IRC results, Wings Three (Peter Haros) won Division 2 and Young Lion (Steve Chau) took out Division 3.

Wings Three won Division 2 IMS from Rumbeat (Justin Barr) and Illusion (David Brett) and the PHS category from Juana (Jock Young) and Illusion.

In Division 3 Young Lion added an AMS win, placing first on corrected time from Young One (Nathan Mills and Jay Nibbs) and Groove (Will Justo).

Under PHS scoring, the Division 3 went to Groove with Trouble (Mark Millhouse) taking second place and Wildfire (Team Wildfire) third,

Division 4 produced a new winner for the season, with Hornet (Neville Georgeson) scoring an outright win.  Second on corrected time was Spinner (Peter Limb) while third went to Wayatih (Allan Morgan).

Race three attracted 45 starters from the fleet of  52 yachts entered in the Combined Clubs Summer Pennant, the largest fleet of the season so far, on a cool day that saw the breeze swing from the north-west to the west and finally to a freshening sou’wester.

The river race did little to suggest who might be the favourites for IRC handicap honours in next weekend’s Maria Island Race.

Maria Island Race entrant Mike Pritchard’s Oskana took line honours from harbour racer X&Y (Toby Richardson) while The Fork in the Road (Gary Smith) finished third, just four seconds ahead of the harbour racing Farr 40, War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith).

On corrected times, however, Oskana placed 11th on IRC handicapping while other the Maria Island entries, Philosopher, Shaun Tiedemann’s Sydney 36cr,  placed sixth and Zephyr (Ian Johnston) 12th in Division 1.

In Division 2, Wings Three (Peter Haros) had a great day including winning on IRC while Ilusion placed third.

Mischief (Duncan MacGill) which has entered PHS and IRC in the Maria Island Race, finished last in Division 3 PHS and sixth in AMS today.

Fifteen yachts have entered the Maria Island Race which starts off Castray Esplanade next Friday evening, with 2Unlimited, Greg Prescott’s modified Farr 40 a late entry.

This will be the first race for Prescott with his newly acquired boat, the former Farr 40 one-design champion Estate Master, which he has entered for the 74th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Words and photos: Peter Campbell

12 November 2018

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