Prominent ocean racing yachtsman and former Melges 32 one-design national champion Greg ‘Enzo’ Prescott’s newly-acquired SB20, 2Unlimited, made an winning debut in Thursday evening’s opening Summer Pennant.
Prescott wasn’t aboard, however, with mainsheet hand Ollie Nicholas taking the helm in the skipper’s absence.
“Ollie sailed an excellent first race; he got a good start, went right and covered the fleet,” was the compliment paid by Nick Rogers.
“Steve Catchpool in Hypertronics got ahead of him briefly, but a few tactical manoeuvres and Ollie regained the lead and won the first race with 2Unlimited.”
2Unlimited won by just five seconds from Hypertronics with Brainwave (Scott Brain) third in the 10 boat fleet.
Rogers made amends for his fifth in race one by taking out race two by 30 seconds, a comfortable winning margin after winning the start.
“We got a good start at the boat end and from there were able to dictate the race,” Rogers said. “It was a superb evening for sailing, mild and sunny with a 10 knot sea breeze,” he declared.
2Unlimited finished the evening with 1-2 scorecard while Karabos had a 5-1 result and Hypertronics (Stephen Catchpool) a 4-2 score.
Other newcomers to the 23-boat fleet of SB20s were Blue Grill, sailed by brothers Scott, Ron and Bruce Granville, and Fruit Machine, skippered by orchardist and cider-maker Andrew Smith.
Hobart’s SB20 racing fleet now totals 23 boats with the season comprising 14 Summer Pennant race days from now until the end of February 2016. In addition, the programme includes the Audi Showdown, three Sprint Series and the Crown Series which will be the Tasmanian championships.
Unlike the other racing divisions in Hobart, the SB20s conduct their Summer Pennant each Thursday evening, with two windward/leeward races conducted by the club designated to run that evening’s twilight divisional racing.
Racing on the same course as the S20s were five of the RYCT’s fleet of Elliott 6, contesting the new Metre one-design series.
North Sails’ Stewart Gray, sailing Elliott 2, finished the evening with a first and second, while George Peacock, won race two after a third in race two at the helm of Audi.
Just seconds separated the first two boats in each race, Peacock winning the first race by just four seconds from Gray, whose winning margin in race two was 13 seconds ahead of Nelson Brown, helming Peter Johnston.
Among the young sailors competing was Sam Abel, who recently won the International Cadet World Championship in Italy. At the helm of Elliott 3, Sam had a third and an fourth place.
Peter Campbell
9 October 2015
