Champion sailors lining up for Tasmanian Match Racing encounter

by Peter Campbell on 11 Jun 2010 The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania will be hosting the 2010 Tasmanian Racing Championship on the Derwent this coming weekend, 12-13 June, providing its fleet of Elliott 5.9s for the competition.

Nine teams representing the RYCT, Derwent Sailing Squadron, Montrose Bay Yacht Club, the Dinghy Group Juniors and Team Wired have nominated in what is shaping up to be clash between Tasmania’s young tyros of sailing and the senior yachting champions.

The Tasmanian championship has been revived as a lead-up to the Australian Match Racing Championship which the Club will host in November, along with the Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship.

Heading the fleet for the Tasmanian Championship is Nick Rogers, the International Dragon class champion and six-times winner of the Sayonara Cup match racing challenge.

However, he will face strong competition from champion young dinghy helmsmen Rohan Langford, Zac Pullen, Sam Morgan and Elliott Noye, along with Tasmanian women’s fleet racing champion Lisa Blackwood, the only woman in the fleet.

Crew members from two of Hobart’s Farr 40 fleet have also put together teams, Team Wired comprising Sam Boyes as helmsman with Jacob Cromer and Anthony Ozols as crew, and an RYCT team with Rod Chamberlain, mainsheet hand on Voodoo Chile, as helmsman and Stephen ‘Rowdie’ McCullum and Rowan Clark as crew.

Performances in the Tasmanian championship will be guide as to who will represent the State in the Australian Match Racing Championship, now scheduled by Yachting Australia for 14-17 November, followed by the Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship from 18-21 November.

The format this weekend will comprise two round-robins to determine the semi-finalists and, ultimately, the two teams for the final.