Crown Series Bellerive Regatta 2011 final day roundup

by Peter Campbell on 27 Feb 2011 Crown Series Bellerive Regatta 2011 Final Day.

Bellerive Yacht Club stalwart Jeff Cordell today overcame a racing rules infringement and a countback to win the coveted IRC rating category of Division 1 of the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta with his Mumm 36 Host Plus Executive.

The Crown Series Bellerive Regatta, on Hobart’s River Derwent, attracted more than 180 keelboats, sports boats, dinghies, skiffs and catamarans, involving some 1200 sailors, young and old, and at least 100 volunteer officials.

While the weather was inclement on Saturday, today produced sunshine and a freshening sea breeze which provided excellent racing on the broad reaches of the Derwent.

Cordell also won the Mumm 36 ‘worlds’, an annual clash with arch-rival Ian Stewart, sailing Tas Paints, at this big regatta on the River Derwent.

The prize this year was the winner buying the beers and the loser wearing a glittering ‘coronet’ (tiara) at the prizegiving at Bellerive Yacht Club.

The IRC title result went down to the seventh and final race after Cordell accepted a penalty resulting from a mark rounding incident in race six involving Tas Paints and another rival, Harold Clark’s Farr 1104 Invincible.

Cordell then sailed a perfect final race in the 12-15 knot seabreeze to finish the IRC scores equal with Invincible on 19 points. However, with three heat wins in the seven race regatta to Invincible’s two heat wins, Host Plus Executive won IRC on a countback.

Third place went to Don Calvert’s Castro 40 Intrigue from the Royal Yacht Club Tasmania.

Host Plus Executive also won the Division 1 PHS handicap category, but this time by a comfortable six point margin from Sally Rattle’s Archie from the Derwent Sailing Squadron, third place going to Tas Paints.

However, Clark and Invincible proved too good under AMS handicaps, winning this category from Greg Prescott’s Melges 32 2 Unlimited from the RYCT, third place going to BYC member Hughie Lewis’ Farr 40 Tilford Auto Group.

Queensland sailors gave the locals a lesson in sailing the International SB3 sports boats with Phil Gray from Mooloolaba steering Gold Coast skipper Rod Jones’ Club Marine Blue to victory in the inaugural Tasmanian championship for the one-design class, sailed as part of the regatta.

Club Marine Blue won three heats of the six counted, with Brett Cooper steering Harcourts into second place overall with a consistent series of four seconds and a third, apart from an OCS penalty for being a premature starter in race two. Third place went to Toll Shipping (Nick Rogers) who won two of the six races.

The other race winner was A-Play, skippered by Victorian Stephen Fries, one of four mainland crews in the 11 boat fleet.

Other overall keelboat division winners for the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta were Street Car (Peter Bingham) in Division 3, Elsewhere (Scott Lovell) in Cruising Red, Masquerade (Tony Harman) in Performance Cruising, Cyclone (Steven Keal) in AMS Performance Cruising, Half Hearted (Chad Grafton), Wildfire (John Ettershank) in the 9 metre division, Ridgeway Dragon (Steven Shield) in the Dragon class, Kari (Richard Grant) in Trailable Yachts division and Shaw Contracting (David Shepherd) in the Sports Boat division.

Results were extremely close, with Street Car beating Another Toy (Greg Rowlings) by just one point in Division 3, Elsewhere (Scott Wilson) winning the Cruising Red division on a countback from Vite (Rob Wilson) with just one point to third placed Cirrus (Andrew Montgomery).

Cyclone won the Performance Cruising AMS category on a countback from Masquerade, while Wildfire took out the 9-metre division from Trouble (Dave Willans) by one point.

Just one point separated Kari (Richard Grant) and Femme Fatale (John Penman) in the Trailable Yacht class, with another point to More Mischief (Mike Darby).

Shaw Contracting (David Shepherd) dominated the Sports Boats division four wins and a third place, winning comfortably from Resin Dog (Sam Edmunds) and Fang to the Max (Fred Barrett).

Tony Harman (Masquerade) won the Don Rust Memorial Trophy, adjudged as the best performance by a Bellerive Yacht Club boat in the Regatta.

Masquerade won the Performance Cruising division from a fleet of 22 boats with a 3-3-9-1-5 scorecard, 11 points clear of Xcite (Robin White) and Cyclone (Steven Keal). The division saw five different winners – Masquerade, Cyclone, Cleopatra, skippered by Scott Sharp from the Huon Yacht Club, and Jibe Talkin, skippered by John Mills, Vice Commodore of the Bellerive Yacht Website