Jeremy Fish sails to excessive wins

by Steve Harrison on 26 Mar 2008 Jeremy Fish in 2XSIV cleaned up the Bay Chandlery Off-the Beach series and the Elwick Hotel Sabre series in the 2008 Huon Tasmanian Salmon Port Esperance Regatta at Dover this Easter.

Held over the Easter weekend the 2008 Huon Tasmanian Salmon Port Esperance Regatta exceeded even the expectations left by last year’s event. Perfect weather, close racing and fine food were enjoyed by the crews of the seventy-three keel-boats, cruisers and dinghies which competed in the three day event.

Introduced for the first time at the regatta for the first time last year the Bay Chandlery Series this time saw a healthy fleet of 16 entries including an impressive 11 Sabres, justifying their own one-design class within the mixed fleet yardstick regatta.

The Elwick Hotel Race 1 got underway on Saturday afternoon in a light 5 knot south-easterly. With the first leg to Charity Island providing an outgoing tide and differing pressure lines, the fleet split tacks on the first beat. From Race 1 it was apparent that the Sabre series was to be dominated by Jeremy Fish, Matt Westland (Alchemy) and his son Arie Westland (Tenacity) with Justin Barr’s OK Dinghy Epoxy Warrior thrown into the mix for the yardstick series.

Epoxy Warrior took the honours in race 1 from 2XSIV, Alchemy and Tenacity.

The Scott Hardware Race 2 was a combined start with the Little Watch Shop Skippers Dinghy Race of the Huon Tasmanian Salmon Port Esperance Series for Keel Boats. Winds below five knots and shifting from all angles of the compass saw the race postponed by over half an hour until a light south-easterly ghosted in. Though the pressure filled in it remained a frustrating boat length beyond most competitors on the downhill slide to Knobby’s Point where the entire fleet bunched up at the mark. With the pressure finally filling in and only five minutes separating first from last after an hour’s racing it was not only the grin from ear to ear which signalled that little Nelson Brown in the Sabot Red Alert had taken the honours in the yardstick class. In the Sabre class 2XSIV won from Tenacity and Itszaboat (Eric Szabo).

In Race 3, the Tasmanian Private Realty BK Price Trophy the fleet was greeted with more pressure on the line, but some were hampered by some very late starters in the Riseley Cottage Classic and Cruising Race. As in the previous two races it was the Lightweight Sharpie Cookie’s Monster (Peter Cook) which led the fleet with Epoxy Warrior close behind. Some close racing was had in the middle of the fleet between brother and sister Eric and Phillipa Szabo in the Sabres Itszaboat and Szabre and Aleksanders and Silka Price in the Sabots Oceanic and Priceless.

Yardstick results saw the win going to Justin Barr in Epoxy Warrior from Aleksanders Price (Oceanic) and Edmund Hargreaves (Hardrock). Sabre honours went again to Jeremy Fish, Matt Westland and Arie Westland.

After racing the crews and locals enjoyed fine food, music and festivities on the foreshore under a clear sunny sky and moonlit night.