Maria Island Yacht Race - Footloose confirmed as winner

by Peter Campbell on 22 Nov 2010 Maria Island Yacht Race - The smallest boat in the fleet, Footloose, sailed by one of the youngest crews, sailed out of a gloomy dawn on the River Derwent on Sunday to an overall handicap win in the 190 nautical mile Tasports 63rd Maria Island Yacht Race.

Slipping inside the John Garrow Light off lower Sandy Bay just after sunrise, the Young 88, skippered by Stewart Geeves, carried her spinnaker all the way up the Derwent to clinch the AMS handicap division and overall first place.

For Geeves personally it was a particularly rewarding victory, skippering his own boat for the first time in some 20-plus Maria Island Races.

In a race that favoured the smaller boats on corrected time because of the generally light to moderate conditions, Footloose was one of the first to enjoy the building 15 knot southerly that blasted most of the fleet home in the early hours of the morning.

Footloose is a consistently well sailed boat but skipper Geeves had a relatively young and new crew for the long distance ocean race to Maria Island, off the Tasmanian east coast.

Sailing with him were Nick Smith, Richard McMinn, Cheryl Sward, Judy Micklewright and Catherine Vickers, their sail handling skills proving vital over the final legs across Storm Bay and up the Derwent. Next to Geeves, Micklewright was the most experienced ocean racing crew aboard, returning to racing after moving to Hobart from Sydney.

The Maria Island Race was Footloose’s major victory since Stewart Geeves and Kaye Roberts bought the Young 88 in 2008. Her other big win was in the Cock of the Huon in 2009. Footloose is a timber Young 88, built in Launceston in 1984 by Milner Yacht Constructions.

Principal race officer, the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s Vice Commodore Roger Martin, confirmed this evening that on corrected time Footloose had won the AMS division and overall first place from Peter Haros’ Northshore 38 Wings Three and the MBD36 Whistler, skippered by David Reese.

Footloose failed by just under seven minutes to displace Wings Three from top berth in the PHS handicap division. Third place went to Nat Morgan’s Lexcen-designed Hot August Night.

The crew of Whistler added to their successes of the past year by winning the IRC division from the Ker 11.3 Dump Truck (Justin Wells) and the Sydney 38 Ciao Baby II (Steve Chau).

Line honours went to the DK46 Dekadence, skippered by David Creese, Commodore of the Bellerive Yacht Club, after a race long duel with Andrew Hunn’s Cape/Barrett 40 Mr Kite from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Dekadence closed on fleet leader Mr Kite as they sailed back across Storm Bay on Saturday evening, where, north of Cape Raoul 'both yachts spent a very ugly two hours becalmed, being lurched around amongst big cross swell and being sucked into towards the shore', Commodore Creese recalled after finishing.

Finally, Dekadence broke away and had built up a 2.5 nautical mile lead by the Iron Pot. But the race was not over with Mr Kite sailing to within 200 metres of Dekadence off lower Sandy Bay just after midnight, before 'we hooked into a very light north easterly to sneak away be first home.'