Crown Series Bellerive Regatta - Three impressive wins

by Peter Campbell on 24 Feb 2013 Crown Series Bellerive Regatta 2013 today saw Australian International Cadet champion Sam Tiedemann reiterate the helming skills he showed in the nationals last December with three impressive wins today.

A dozen Cadets are contesting the two regatta for dinghy classes, with close competition in each of the three races sailed on the Derwent today.

While he came out the winner, Tiedemann had strong competition and his wins were just by seconds in two races in the light to moderate north-easterly breeze.

In race one won Tiedemann, helming Phoenix, beat former Australian champion Samantha Bailey in Impulse by 20 seconds. In race two he won more comfortably from Meltemi 2 (Oliver Burnell), but in third race, his winning margin, again beating Samantha Bailey, was just 16 seconds.

The Sabot class had a good turn-out, too, with Joshua Ragg, sailing White Knuckle Ride, winning two of the three races, the other race going to Pacemaker (Nicholas Smart).

In race one today, White Knuckle Ride won by two seconds from Guided Missile (Joshua Harris); in race two Pacemaker had a one second win from Guided Missile with White Knuckle Ride back in fourth place.

However, Joshua Ragg was in front in race three, winning comfortably from Whisper (Josh Jones) and Pacemaker.

Optimist sailor Hugh Hickling, won all three races of the Mixed Division for Optimists and Firebugs, with Rupert Hamilton also doing well in his Optimist while Max Gluskie gave plenty of opposition in his Firebug.

The small but competitive fleet of Sabres, an adult dinghy, saw Jeremy Fish win two races and Andrew Roberts take out the other race, with tomorrow’s racing the decider.

The 420’s saw a new crew combination of Anna Vaughan on the helm of Feel Addicted and her father Michael crewing Feel Addicted in what virtually a match racing with the more experienced Lachlan Hargreaves and his crew of Usual Suspects. Anna and Michael are better known as Laser Radial sailors, but Anna is keen to venture into a fast double-handed dinghy.

Unfortunately, most dinghy classes attracted small fleets, with The Hitcher (Robbie Hunt) winning all three races in the B14s, with the Davis family sharing the top honours in the NS14s, Peter winning one and his daughter Katherine taking out two firsts.

In the absence of Australian champion Bruce Rose, the Paper Tiger catamarans saw Steve Price, sailing Romper Stomper win two races, the third going to Mac Attack (Andrew Barnard).