Tasmania’s Export Roo, skippered by Michael Cooper, has lost the 2017 SB20 world championship title by just two points after a final day of frustrating competition on The Solent, off Cowes, England.

In a surprise result, prominent British yachtsman Jerry Hill came from fifth place going into the last Gold fleet race day to snatch overall victory with a win in the only race sailed.

Despite the last race loss, Export Roo sailed a fine series against an international fleet of 79 boats. The performance of Cooper and his crew of David Chapman and Gerry Mitchel augers well for the next SB20 worlds, to be sailed on Hobart’s River Derwent next January.

In between sailing, the Tasmanian crews have been promoting the Hobart worlds with European sailors and are confident at least 20 boats will be shipped here to join the local fleet of 45 SB20s making a total fleet of 65 plus.

Just one race was sailed on The Solent on the final day, in light winds, with prominent British SB20 sailor Jerry Hill clinching victory with a win in Sportsboatworld.com.

The light, shifty breeze held out long enough for team Sportsboat.com to secure a strong lead before the rest of the Gold fleet well into a windless hole.  Sadly, a further race was not possible, giving Export Roo no opportunity to regain the overall lead.

Hill had a net score in the Gold fleet racing of 32 points with placings of 5-13-4-1-1 discarding his qualifying score of 21 points.

Export Roo placed 3-2-10-24-14 after going into the finals with a qualifying score of 5.

Third place went to the French boat Give Me Five (Robin Follin) with a net 39 points.

Jerry Hill had indicated earlier that he will coming to Hobart to  contest the 2018 worlds on the Derwent, and now he has to defend his world title.

Next best placed of the Tasmanian boats was Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye) which placed 13^th overall, finishing 10^th in the final Gold fleet race.

Difficult Woman (Rob Gough) finished 18^th overall, Black (Nick Rogers) 23^rd and the RSYS entrant Brazen (Jervis Tilly) 33^rd in the Gold fleet.

In the silver fleet Hypertronics (Stephen Catchpool) finished 11^th overall with a third in the last race. Smigger (Andrew Smith) placed 16^th, placing ninth in the last race.

The Australian team of Export Roo, Porco Rosso and Difficult Woman placed second to Great Britain in the Nations Cup, Nick Rogers in Black placing fourth overall in the Masters results and Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye) finished fifth out of 62 boats for the Corinthian trophy.

Words:  Peter Campbell

Photos:  Australian SB20 team

2 September 2017

 

Eight Australians, seven from Tasmania, are among the 80-plus international helmsmen who will contest the 2017 SB20 one-design sportsboat world championship in the UK next week.

Britain’s most exclusive yacht club, the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, is conducting the championship on The Solent,  the intensely tidal, sandbank-strewn waterway between the Isle of Wight and the South Coast of England.

Apart from sailing to win, the role of the Hobart sailors will be to ‘hard sell’ the 2018 worlds to be sailed on the River Derwent in January next.  To be run jointly by the Royal Yacht of Tasmania and Derwent Sailing Squadron, a fleet of at least 65 boats is being predicted.

The 2017 SB20 worlds start on Monday, 28 August (UK time) and run through to the following Friday, 1 September.  Twelve races have been scheduled and because of the size of the fleet the RYS may elect to divide it into two qualifying fleets.

The Australian boats entered are:  Black (Nick Rogers), Brazen (Jervis Tilly),  Difficult Woman (Rob Gough), Export Roo (Michael Cooper), Hypertronics (Stephen Catchpool), Phantom Menace (Andrew Smith) and Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye).

All are from River Derwent fleet except Tilly who sails out of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

Another prominent SB20 sailor from Hobart, Paul Burnell, will helm a British yacht Marvel, as he did in the recent Cowes Week SB20 Grand Slam.

As a lead-up to the worlds, four other Tasmanian crews contested the Grand Slam with Elliott Noye steered Porto Rosso to a close second to the British yacht Xcellent, scoring two firsts, two seconds and four third places, beaten for first overall by just two points.

Michael Cooper finished a close third in Export Roo, also winning one race, Australian SB20 class president Stephen Catchpool placed ninth in the 31-boat fleet with Hypertronics. Andrew Smith, sailing a boat called Smigger, finished 17 overall.

Rob Gough’s final preparation for the SB20 worlds was to compete in the International Moth worlds on Italy’s Lake Garda where he again the won the world masters championship in the foiler Moths.

Nick Rogers, who introduced the SB20 class to Hobart, is expected to be a strong contender of a new boat called Black.  He has won many championships in SB20 as well as world championships in other classes.

While the majority of entries for the worlds are from the UK, other nations represented include Ireland, Portugal, France, Australia, Singapore, Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, Abu Dhabi/Dubai and Italy.

Words:  Peter Campbell

Photos:  Jane Austin

26 August 2017

 

 

Tasmanian SB20 one-design sports boats, Export Roo and Porco Rosso,  are equal first on points after day one of class racing at historic Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England.

Export Roo, skippered by Michael Cooper,  had two second places while Porto Rosso, with Elliott Noye on the helm had a third and a win in the almost entirely British fleet.

Cowes Week is being used by Cooper, Noye,  Stephen Catchpool (Hypertronics) and Andrew Smith (Smigger) as part of their lead-up to the 2017 World championships on The Solent in late August.

The Tasmanian crews coped well with the tricky sailing conditions of The Solent, a west-south-westerly breeze with the current at the top mark at least three knots flowing against the boats.

Tacking up the shore to escape the strong tide each of the Australian boats hit the bottom several times. “I’ve never experienced hitting the bottom so many times in a race before,” commented Cooper, who has contested the past two World championships with impressive results.

Reporting from Cowes, Hobart marine photographer Jane Austin quoted Cooper, Catchpool and Paul McCartney, owner and crew member of Porco Rosso.

Race one start line was off the Royal Yacht Squadron, along with close to one thousand other boats in a multitude of other classes that make up the UK’s traditional regatta.

Paul McCartney commented: “This is about learning to sail The Solent. In the first race, we rounded in first but a navigational error took us back to third. In the second, we came off the start and went right - that's where the breeze seemed to be.

“It went very very soft - it was very hard to keep the boat moving particularly through all this chop and swell. We kept at it and managed to stay up the front. The shortened course - we were very pleased with that".

Michael Cooper said he had never experienced hitting the bottom so many times in a race before. I think we hit it five times - most of the fleet hit it at some point.

“And that's what you have to do - you hit the bottom and you tack because the tide runs so strong down the shore. It was a long race, it was round the bay racing so we ended up on the other shore, then we prepared for the second race which was windward/leewards.

“The Aussies sailed really well - they were consistent - most of them were up there at the top mark in most races. It was good to see the Hobart fleet is on the pace." (Hobart will host the 2018 Worlds next January).

SB20 Australian class president Stephen Catchpool summarised the day:  "Difficult racing - strong tides - had to tack up the shore - we scraped the bottom two to three times.

“Never really sure how far we could go in. We went for a reach and a run and picked up quite a few places, finished in 15 places.

“Race Two - got a good start – one-mile beats - we were fifth to the top mark on the first lap, seventh on the second lap and they shortened at the bottom; we had a bad gybe at the bottom and we lost two places.

“Tomorrow is going to be very windy. Hopefully we won't be tacking up that shore in 25-20 knots. we have a better idea now than we did this morning about where we can and can't go. it's really not very well marked. There are little oil containers floating along the shore which apparently mean you can't go too close as its too shallow - but we thought they were lobster pots.”

As SB20 Australian president said: "The Aussies are doing very well with a first, second and third Four Australians in the top 10 - I think we are performing pretty well.”

South-westerly winds of 6-20 knots, gusting to 25 knots are predicted for day two of Cowes Week.

On Lake Garda, Italy, Tasmanian Rob Gough has finished 25^th overall in the gold fleet at the foiler Moth World championship. Results are not available for the Masters division but Gough was at the top of leader board going into the gold fleet racing.

Gough’s next sailing campaign will be the SB20 Worlds at Cowes, sailing Difficult Woman.

Words:  Jane Austin/Peter Campbell

Photos: Jane Austin

30 July 2017

After 35 years of sailing a Sharpie, including contesting 27 Australian championships, South Australian sailor Derek McCloud has finally won his first Nationals in the iconic class – at the age of 63.
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Bellerive yachtsman Tony Williams’ decision to give the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race a miss this summer paid handsome dividends yesterday when his IMX 38 ocean racing yacht Martela won the iconic King of the Derwent race on Hobart’s River Derwent.
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A fleet of 30 boats, ten more than last year, has entered the ninth annual Derwent Sailing Squadron/National Pies Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race, which starts from Beauty Point on the Tamar River on December 27.

The 285 nautical mile race along Tasmania’s north-west coast, then down the east coast to finish in Hobart’s River Derwent, has attracted entries from southern and northern Tasmania and Victoria and includes two past overall winners of the Sydney Hobart.

Derwent Sailing Squadron Commodore Steve Chau officially launched the 2015 at a barbeque gathering of skippers, crews and their families at the Squadron’s Sandy Bay headquarters on Sunday afternoon.

The official opening underlined one specific attraction of this ‘Tasmanian-grown’ race – it is family-friendly time-wise, enabling Hobart-based skippers and crews deliver their boats to the Tamar Yacht Club in mid-December, then enjoy Christmas at home and then travel north by road at a leisurely pace on Boxing Day for the start.

The Mayor of Launceston, Albert van Zetton will start this year’s L2H from a line near Inspection Head Wharf, Beauty Point, at 1.30pm pm on Sunday, December 27.

The race will finish off Castray Esplanade, Battery Point, Hobart – the same finish line as the Sydney Hobart and Melbourne Hobart races.

Heading the 30-boat fleet is Gary Smith’s Bakewell-White 45, The Fork in the Road, which has taken line honours in the last two races and again favourite to be first home.

However, the biggest boat in the fleet is Mistraal, Jacinta and Brett Cooper’s Beneteau 57, a racer/cruiser.

Jacinta will be the only female skipper in the race, heading a team of family and friends.

Sailing with her parents is 11-year-old daughter Jorja Cooper and joining her will be another 11-year-old, Esther Read, whose father Fraser Read is also sailing on Mistraal.

Both girls sail Optimist dinghies at Sandy Bay Sailing Club and have undertaken extended cruises on their parents’ yachts.

Bellerive Yacht Club Immediate Past Commodore John Mills and Ian Douglas have entered their Lyons 40. Nexedge, which as Micropay Cuckoos Nest won the IMS overall of the gale-battered 1993 Sydney Hobart.

An earlier winner of the Sydney Hobart and still racing under its original name is Ultimate Challenge. When owned and skippered by the famous Victorian yachtsman Lou Abrahams she won the race in 1989.

Ultimate Challenge, a Farr 40 designed to the old IOR rule, is now owned by DSS member Peter Jenkins and has undergone a major refit in preparation for this year’s L2H.

Victoria again will have one representative in the race, the Archambault 31, Remedy, owned by Russell Hibbert from the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron.

Smallest boat in the fleet is Hydraplay, designed as a Mini Transat yacht and with a LOA of just 6.4m. Although the little yacht is below the minimum LOA (Length Overall) for the race committee has given owner/skipper Justin Hickey a dispensation because the yacht was designed and built for long ocean passage races, including the Mini Transat race.

The majority of the fleet represent Hobart yacht clubs but there are two entries from northern clubs, David Allan’s Sydney 38, Obsession and Lawless, Stephen McElwee’s Green 31 both from the Port Dalrymple Yacht Club.

Last year’s overall winner under AMS scoring, Steelin Time, is not competing this year, but runner-up and winner of the PHS division, Paul Einoder’s Beneteau Oceanis 34, Off-Piste, is in the fleet again, as is Malcolm Cooper’s orange-hulled Snook 40, Kaiulani, which won the IRC division in the 2014 race.

Back from Queensland for the L2H is Peter Cretan’s Marten 49, Tilt, a yacht with as-yet untapped potential in long ocean racing.

Competing in the L2H after several recent Sydney Hobarts, is Anthony Williams’ IMX 38, Martela, which has been sailing impressively in recent Hobart long races.

The yacht that won the inaugural race in 2007, Jeff Cordell’s Mumm 36 is again competing – with good prospects of repeating that success. In 2007 she races as Host Plus Executive but Cordell has this season changed the name to B&G Advantage.

For further media information, please contact Peter Campbell, M: 0419 385 028 or E: peter_campbell@bigpond.com