Tasmanian yachtsman Shaun Tiedemann and his young, but highly experienced crew, today sailed Hobart’s ‘gun boat’ Philosopher to its second consecutive IRC rating win in the prestigious Australian Yachting Championships on Victoria’s Port Phillip.
Philosopher, a Sydney 36cr, will now go for a unique hat-trick in the 2020 championships to be sailed on Hobart’s River Derwent and Storm Bay on 3-5 January next year, immediately following the 75th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
In January 2018, Philosopher became the first Tasmanian boat to win an IRC title at the Australian Yachting Championships and has now won back-to-back titles.
In an outstanding summer of sailing for the Derwent Sailing Squadron club manager, Philosopher has also won IRC overall honours in the Maria Island and Launceston to Hobart races this season.
The young crew of Philosopher (not counting the owner/skipper) has an average of 23 and a wealth of sailing successes in off-the-beach classes, high performance skiffs and sports boats before joining the racing yacht.
The winning crew, in addition to the owner/skipper, comprised his son Sam as helmsman, along with Elliott Noye, Alec Bailey, Oli Burnell, Chris Jones, Tom Stearnes and Will Sargent.
“They are all ex-Cadet sailors, including my son Sam, and they’ve come back to keelboat sailing on Philosopher, which is important for the sport. I get to sail with my son and he gets to sail with his mates,” a proud Shaun Tiedemann said this evening.
In a day when the temperature soared to the mid-30s on the bay, with light and fickle winds, only seconds separated the three IRC Division E boats, Philosopher, fellow Tasmanian David Aplin’s MBD36, Whistler, and Chutzpah38, skippered by renowned Victorian yachtsman Bruce Taylor.
Chutzpah won the first two races of the day, Whistler took out the third and final race, but Philosopher’s 2-(3)-2 was sufficient for her to retain her Australian IRC championship by three points, having scored three wins and a second place on the previous two days.
Whistler had a great series, beaten for second place by Chutzpah on a countback, with a series score of 2-2-(3)-3-1-3-2-1. In the final race Whistler beat Philosopher across the finish line by just one second and won on corrected time by 17 seconds.
Whistler’s owner/skipper David Aplin commented at the end of the regatta: "We are really happy with how we went. As the regatta went on. we improved and we were stoked to end up winning two of the races.
“We have a great team onboard and now know what we need to work on in preparation for next year’s IRC championships in Hobart.” Whistler’s programme is also to contest the 75th Rolex Sydney Hobart next December.
Navigator Jo Breen added: "The racing was brilliant. Even though the fleet was small, the results reflect just how close it was out there. We continued to improve as the regatta went on."
IRC Division 1 of the Australian Yachting Championships went to Australian Sailing President Matt Allen, sailing his TP52 Ichi Ban after a close-fought series against runner-up Hooligan (Marcus Blackmore).
IRC Division 2, saw an almost unbeaten record by Ray Robert’s Team Hollywood which won seven straight races only to finish second in the final race.
Most yachts in the Australian Yachting Championships, including Philosopher and Whistler, will contest the huge Festival of Sails regatta at Royal Geelong Yacht Club over the Australia Day weekend.
Philosopher will contest the full-on IRC Racing division while Whistler sail in the Cruising division with her AMS rating.
Words: Peter Campbell, Lisa Ratcliff
Photos: Caitlin Baxter
24 January 2019
Launched back in 1975, Glenn Roper’s elderly yacht Natelle Two today showed she still has a spring in her bow wave, winning both the PHS and the IRC categories of Division 2 in the Combined Clubs Summer Pennant race. (more…)
Derwent Sailing Squadron last weekend achieved a unique tally of ocean racing victories, its members and their yachts scoring overall handicap wins in the Rolex Sydney Hobart, the Melbourne to Hobart, and the Squadron’s own race, the Riverdale Estate Wines L2H (Launceston to Hobart).
DSS member’s boats also took line honours in the Melbourne to Hobart and the Melbourne to Hobart Westcoaster, a club tally of ocean race wins unprecedented in Australia, perhaps internationally.
Alive, a Reichel Pugh 66 owned by Phillip Turner and skippered by Duncan Hine, became only the third Tasmanian yacht to win the Tattersalls Cup as overall winner of the Rolex Sydney Hobart.
Since acquiring the ‘pocket maxi’ four years ago, Turner and Hine have notched up a string of national and international wins, including a record-breaking Melbourne to Vanuatu race and now the nation’s most coveted ocean racing trophy, the Tattersalls Cup.
On Wednesday, the powerful Alive spreadeagled the fleet in the Derwent Boat Sales King of the Derwent, the iconic round-the-buoys race for yachts post the ocean races.
Turner and Hine are now planning an ocean racing campaign in the USA culminating with the TransPac race from California to Hawaii in March 2019.
Philosopher, a Sydney 36cr owned and skippered by Shaun Tiedemann, with his son Sam as principal helmsman, won the Riversdale Estate Wines L2H at its first attempt, following winning the Maria Island Race in November.
Philosopher is a current Australian IRC champion and later this month will be sailed to Melbourne to defend that title on Port Philip before again contesting the Geelong Festival of Sail regatta.
A feature of the sailing campaign by Shaun Tiedemann has been to run a youthful crew for inshore racing, adding more experienced offshore sailors for the L2H. His son Sam is a former National champion in International Cadets and several other crew graduated from Cadets.
Whistler, a MBD36 owned by David Aplin, made a clean sweep of handicap honours, IRC, AMS and PHS, in the Melbourne to Hobart West Coaster, adding to her long list of successes in offshore racing, including the Maria Island Race and the Three Peaks Race.
She also won the Ocean Club of Victoria’s Sovereign Series with her high ranking results in the Cock of the Bay, the Melbourne to Hobart and the King of the Derwent in which she was runner-up to winner Lawless.
David Aplin has set a rare status as owner/skipper of Whistler…he is the bowman and never touches the tiller, carrying on the role he held when the boat was owned by the late John Hyslop.
“I’ve been the bowman on Whistler for the last 10 years and I didn’t want to change just because I bought the boat….our two helms, Nat Morgan and Tim Jones, are just phenomenal.”
Aplin has big plans for Whistler over the next five years, starting with the 75th Sydney Hobart in 2019, followed by the inaugural Sydney to Auckland race in 2012. Aplin and navigator Jo Breen will then refit Whistler for a double-handed campaign with their sights on the 2023 Melbourne to Osaka double-handed race.
Two other DSS members and their boats, Michael Pritchard with his Cookson 50 Oskana and Gary Smith, skipper the Bakewell-White 46, added to the Squadron’s spoils by taking line honours in the Westcoaster and the L2H.
Oskana rewarded Pritchard and his crew with some magnificent highspeed spinnaker runs down Tasmania’s West Coast to take line honours in the Melbourne to Hobart.
The Fork in the Road survived bursts of 60 knot and more off Tasman Island in the Launceston to Hobart with great steering by Steve Walker and good seamanship by the entire crew to take line honours in the L2H for the seventh time in 12 races.
None of their wins came easy, seamanship being the key to survival in wild storms off Tasman Island and south of Bruny Island.
“This unique series of ocean racing wins by boats from one club are a credit to Hobart’s second oldest and very active yacht club, based in Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay and now boasting the largest club marina in Tasmania,” says ‘Mercury’ yachting writer Peter Campbell who covered these famous races and compiled this report for today’s Boating Page in the newpaper.
Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Peter Watson
5 January 2019
