Crown Series Bellerive Regatta - Perfect start for keelboats and SB20s

by Peter Campbell on 23 Feb 2013 Hobart’s River Derwent this evening turned on perfect weather for sailing as 75 keelboats and SB20 sports boats contested the opening twilight race of the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta.

A 12-15 knot north-easterly breeze gave the fleet ample room on an otherwise empty harbour, with close results in each of the eight fleets.

In Racing Group 1, the Farr 1104 Invincible, skippered by Darren Clark, took honours for the Bellerive Yacht Club, organisers of the regatta, winning both the AMS and IRC categories on corrected time.

Gary Smith’s powerful 45-footer, The Fork in the Road, took line honours but ended up mid-fleet on corrected time under PHS and AMS scoring.

Invincible won the AMS category from the Mumm 36 Tas Paints (Ian Stewart) and the Castro 40 Intrigue (Don Calvert) and took out IRC from Intrigue and The Fork in the Road.

Under PHS scoring, first place went to Tas Paints from the Farr 40 Tilford Auto Group (Hughie Lewis) with Invincible third on corrected time.

The SB20 excelled in the fresh breeze with Scott Brain sailing Brainwave to a 19 second win over Wedgewood (David Graney), third place going to Steve Catchpool’s Hypertronics. This was the first race of the SB20 State championship.

Racing Group 2 saw Trouble (Dave Willans) first on line and handicap, winning on corrected tie from Half Hearted (Chad Grafton) and Silicon Ship (G Clark and D Wyatt).

In the Performance Cruising groups, Rod Viney’s Prion had a 15 second win on AMS scoring for Division 6 from Wings Three (Peter Haros), third place going to Red Jacket (Ambrose Coad). Under PHS scoring, the winner was Alchemy (Matt Westland) by 31 seconds from Wings Three which took second place by just one second from Red Jacket.

In another close result, the Performance Cruising Group 3 went to Free ‘n Easy (Bob Jones) by 25 seconds on corrected time from Piya (Rob Laughlin), third place going to Epoxy Warrior (Ross Mannering).

Another Mannering, Steve, took out the Cruising Red race with Camlet Way, winning from Louise (L Scott and G Harrington) and Temeraire IV (Rick Ware).

The Cruising Non-Spinnaker division went to Chatterbox (Andrew Wilson) from Tarangau (David Paine) and Cirrus (Andrew Montgomery).

Day two of the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta, with off-the-beach classes and trailable yachts joining the keelboats and sportsboats, is scheduled to get under way at 10am on Saturday, with several back-to-back races scheduled for all divisions and classes.