Magic 25 casts light weather spell on River Derwent

by Peter Campbell on 5 Jul 2015 The only Magic 25 sports boat currently racing in Tasmania made an auspicious debut today in the Royal Yacht of Tasmania/The Good Guys Winter Series Winter Series race two.

Patrick Copeland lodged a casual entry for his Magic 25 Rough Justice only last Friday, it first race on Hobart’s River Derwent.

It proved a smart move, as the light five - eight knot nor’westerly breeze proved ideal for the light displacement sports boat which managed to maintain boatspeed when other heavier boats came to a dead stop with no wind.

With light snow falling on Mount Wellington, the temperature still just 9º C in Hobart (probably 6º C on the water) the Winter Series continues to attract a good fleet of hardy sailors out for a Sunday morning dash (or drift) around the buoys.

Rough Justice led around the first windward mark and continued to open up her break on the fleet, eventually crossing the finish line almost eight minutes ahead of the nearest boat, the Sydney 38 Ciao Baby II.

On corrected time in Division two Rough Justice’s margin was even greater, 10 minutes and 14 seconds ahead of Wildfire (Malcolm Robinson) with third place going to Ciao Baby II (Gary Cripps).

Iain Murray designed the 7.46m LOA sports boat for catamaran-builders, Hobie, as a new venture into monohulls. It excelled in the light breeze today, both upwind and downwind, where a large asymmetric spinnaker proved a winner.

Division three also saw an easy outright win, first place going to Graham Hall’s Serenity which finished more than eight minutes ahead of Vistula (Gregory Biskup). The winning handicap margin was, however, less than two minutes.

Third place went to Kindred Spirit, skippered by Alastair Douglas.

After two races in the RYCT’s Winter Series Wildfire (Malcolm Robinson) and Young (Scott Brain and Steve Chau) are on four points each in Division two while in Division three Vistula (Gregory Biskup) holds a one point lead from Serenity (Graham Hall).