The skills and enthusiasm of young sailors has contributed to the impressive performance of at least two yachts contesting the Combined Clubs Winter Series, Jazz Player and Crusader.

Jazz Player, a New Zealand designed and built a Bakewell-White Z39, owned and skippered by John Dryden, a member of the Kettering Yacht Club and the Derwent Sailing Squadron, finished second in Division 1 of last Sunday’s race, beaten by just 36 seconds for first place. A close third was the Melges 32 Crusader, helmed by Jacinta Cooper in the absence of husband Brett, the SB20 sportsboat champion. Both boats were crewed predominantly by young sailors, Crusader’s crew including Jacinta’s teenage daughters Indy (14) and Jorja (16).

Apart from John Dryden, the oldest crew member of Jazz Player is aged 23 and the crew boss Finlay Cooper is just 19. Most of the young crew are former dinghy sailors from Kingston Beach Sailing Club, south of Hobart. John Dryden originally bought Jazz Player from her Melbourne owners last year with the aim of doing the next Melbourne to Osaka two-handed race. She arrived at Kettering last October.

“In order to learn what makes Jazz Player tick, we have embarked on a fully-crewed program for this coming season with a focus on a youth crew led by Finlay,” Dryden said yesterday.

“Fin, now 19, has been a critical member of our crew since he was 15. We did our first Launceston to Hobart together on Prion, just days after his 16th birthday. The strength of the crew lies in the fact that they are all eager and focused learners and strong, natural leaders with heaps of initiative and a real commitment to the environment…. reflecting the strength of Tasmanian youth sailing scene and the Channel community which are together developing great kids and able sailors,” Dryden added.

“Jazz is in great hands with these really competent sailors who are always eager to find that extra edge.” Dryden, who is secretary of Kettering Yacht Club, added: “Our next endeavour? We are currently working towards a major ocean race and hopefully that will be the Sydney Hobart. Otherwise, very keen for a highly competitive Launceston to Hobart.”

Finlay Cooper said the crew ranged in age from 18 to 23. “Most of us sailed Lasers at Kingston Beach Sailing although the eldest has recently returned from sailing in tall ships overseas,” he said. “Five of us are still involved at Kingston Beach as instructors in the Tackers program.”

Talking of last Sunday’s second on corrected time of the Cookson 50, Oskana, Fin said Jazz Player had “good boat speed but we need to improve crew work in a few areas.”

The Derwent Sailing Squadron is conducting Sunday’s scheduled third race of the Winter Series with the race starting off Castray Esplanade from 9.40am.

Sunday, 6 September, has been set for a resail of race one of the Combined Clubs Winter Series, which was postponed due to lack of wind.

Interstate, the COVID-19 escalation has seen the cancellation of Hamilton Island Race Week, scheduled for August, due to problems for the race management team coming from New South Wales and Victoria. Airlie Beach Race Week is going ahead as planned as is Magnetic Island Race.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia is still closed due to the Vice Commodore and his partner being infected with the virus. This Sunday’s winter racing has been cancelled and the club is looking at the viability of running the Sydney Gold Coast Race, already rescheduled from July to 1 October.

At this stage the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is going ahead, with the CYCA reviewing the situation in mid-October.

Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Jane Austin, Peter Watson
31 July 2020

Combined Clubs Winter Series 2020 – Race 2

Yacht racing finally returned to the River Derwent today, with the fleet of 53 boats, crewed by 370 sailors, enjoying near perfect racing conditions on a sunny winter’s morning with a 10-15 knot nor’nor’westerly breeze.

The honour of leading the big fleet across the finish line in the Combined Clubs Winter Series went to Mike Pritchard’s Cookson 50, Oskana, a past overall winner of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Carrying her massive Code 0 spinnaker on the reaching and running legs, Oskana led Division 1 from start to finish, winning outright on corrected time by just 36 seconds from John Dryden’s Bakewell-White Z39, Jazz Player. A fine third went to the Melges 32, helmed by Jacinta Cooper in the absence of her husband, SB20 champion Brett Cooper, and her predominantly youth crew of daughters Indy (14) and Jorja (16) Cooper, Howard Tapping (16), Jack Allison (17), Charlie Goodfellow (17) and his father, Richard Goodfellow.

Although they didn’t figure in the top half dozen boats on corrected time in Division 1, the 36-footers figured in some close racing with the Mumm 36, B&G Advantage (Jeff Cordell) placing seventh, Midnight Rambler (Ed Psaltis) eighth, Whistler (Drew Latham) ninth and Heat Wave (Matthew Keal) 10th, all finishing within three minutes.

Bellerive Yacht Club conducted the race, with sailing manager Michael Faure delighted that they had managed to hold the second scheduled race of the Combined Clubs Winter Series after last Sunday’s no wind, no race. “It was a wonderful day for a return to sailing on the Derwent, lovely conditions and a big fleet,” said Mike, who steered his own boat Piya, a venerable Thunderbird 26, into fourth place in Division 4. “We had quite a fresh breeze at the mid-river start but it faded late in the morning with seven boats not finishing in Division 2. Unlike the RYCT and DSS, BYC is using mid-river starts and finishes, sending the divisions on three different versions of the club’s winter races last year.

From the start, Division 1, 2 and 3 went to a windward mark off Rosny Point, with Division 4’s first mark off Kangaroo Bluff. From there the boats had a close reach across the river and then a spinnaker run back across to the Eastern shore.

Division 2 also saw an outright win, with line and handicap honours going to the sports boat Temptation, skippered by Steve Harrison from Australia’s southernmost yacht club, Port Esperance Sailing Club at Dover, 77km south of Hobart. Second place went to the syndicate owned Twitch, a Eureka 31, third to Ian Johnston’s Farr 41MX, Zephyr.

A fleet of 17 boats contested Division 3, with the SB20 Mind Games (Phil Reid) leading the fleet home and winning on corrected time from Just Jones (David Wyatt) and the syndicate-owned Wildfire, a Farr IMS 31.
Division 4 also saw an outright win, Zest (Matt Westland) winning from Another Toy (Michael Kennedy) and Serenity (Graham Hall).

Words: Peter Campbell
Photos: Peter Watson
26 July 2020