The Showdown Regatta 2010 - Temptation from deep south of Tasmania

by Peter Campbell on 31 Oct 2010 Port Esperence Sailing Club at Dover in the far south of Tasmanian is arguably the southernmost yacht club in Australia and prominent member Steve Harrison plans to place it firmly in the national spotlight.

He has started on a positive note by sailing his new Thompson 7 Temptation to an overall victory in the hard-fought sports boat division of The Showdown regatta sailed on Hobart’s River Derwent over the weekend.

In his first regatta since with his new boat, Harrison clinched victory with a final day first and third place to overtake series leader Harcourts, Brett Cooper’s SB3 from the host club, the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Temptation finished the six race series with 17 points with Harcourts scoring 22 points and third placegetter Stephen Catchpool’s SB3 Hypertronics on 25 points after winning the final race of his first regatta in the class.

'We are putting a big effort into this campaign, competing in all the Tasmanian Sports Boat Association regattas, and then taking the boat to Geelong, Airlie Beach and possibly the Sydney Harbour Regatta,' said Harrison who also organising the annual Dover Regatta.

'Port Esperence Sailing Club is right behind us with funding the campaign; they are running a raffle at $100 a ticket to buy a promotional sticker on the boat trailer and hull with the raffle winner being offered naming rights for the boat in its regatta races,' he added.

Despite the wet weather, there were few boats that did not front up for today’s final racing. The exception was the sailboards, who collectively decided there was insufficient wind.

They were right, but all other classes did get two or three races in despite the heavy rain and wind that varied from south to nor ‘east and, for the most, between 8-10 knots in strength. Only after all racing finished did the sun shine brightly and the wind blew in from the north-east at 20-25 knots.

Another winning skipper at The Showdown planning a major mainland campaign is Andrew Hunn with the Farr 40 Voodoo Chile, which won a hard-fought series with Wired, helmed by Sam Boyes. Both boats will be entering the 2011 Farr 40 world championship to be sailed in Sydney in March.

In the Showdown, the two Farr 40s finished equal on 10 points, each winning three races, finishing second twice and third once, with Voodoo Chile taking the honour on a count back that had to be decided on which boat beat the other in the final race. The margin in Voodoo Chile’s favour was a comfortable 1 minute and 50 seconds.

The Showdown has also been part of the preparation for two other Hobart sailors to compete in world championships next January: Nick Rogers in the International Dragon class worlds in Melbourne and Jenny Graney in the International Mirror dinghy class worlds in Albany, Western Australia.

Steering Karabos IX, Rogers, from the RYCT won four of the five races at The Showdown while Graney and her crew Susannah Revill, sailing Carpe Diem from the Kingston Beach Sailing Club, also won all but two of the eight races in the Mirror class at The Showdown.

In another impressive effort, paraplegic Matt Bugg won every race in the 2.4m class, sailing Supermodel, underlining his strong prospects of representing Australia at the 2010 London Paralympics.

In the keelboats, Andrew Sutherland’s Farr 37 Silver Mist clinched victory under PHS scoring with a fourth and a first in Division 1 today, also winning the regatta on IRC ratings. However, she could not match Don Calvert’s Castro 40 Intrigue under AMS ratings, the former Admiral’s Cup team yacht coming through the regatta unbeaten.

In Division 2, Peter Bingham sailed his J24 Street Car to a close win from Derek Inglis’ Rouseabout, with a first and a second today while Priscilla (John Dryden) won Division 4.