The River Derwent sparkled in a 15-16 knot down-river breeze for Sunday’s second race in the Derwent Sailing Squadron’s Quantum Autumn Short-handed Series, with just on 40 boats and their crews enjoying a quick dash around the buoys.
The fleet was down slightly on the previous Sunday, due to the long weekend but the competition was close in every division, for line honours and PHS corrected times.
Wayne Banks-Smith steered his Farr 40 War Games to line honours in Division 1 (three-handed spinnaker) and placed second on corrected time to Ian Johnston’s Zephyr, third place going to Ciao Baby II (Gary Cripps).
Division 2 (two-handed spinnaker) attracted a dozen starters with first place going to Paul Einoder’s Beneteau Oceanis 34 Off-Piste, overall winner of the 2015 Launceston to Hobart Race. Second place went to Serenity (Graham Hall), third of Zest (Matt Westland).
Less than a minute separated 42 South (Mark Ballard) and Trouble (Dave Willans) as they duelled for fastest time.
Andrew Sutherland sailed the evergreen Silver Mist to an outright win in Division 3 (two-handed non-spinnaker) with second place going to Jigsaw (Scott Morrison), third to Hydrotherapy (Jim Thorpe).
John Dawson’s L’Etoile also scored an outright win in Division 4 (two-handed non-spinnaker) taking PHS corrected time first place by just nine seconds from Mon Amie (Phil Conyard). Dynamo (Stephen Davidson) placed third.
The SB20 fleet (two-handed spinnaker) saw only five starters today with Export Roo (Michael Cooper) winning outright from Blue Gull (Bruce Glanville) and the well-named Cook Your Own Dinner, with Felicity Allison on the helm.
Peter Campbell
25 April 2016
