Windy day for Crown Series Bellerive Regatta

by Peter Campbell on 22 Feb 2014 In the 10th Crown Series Bellerive Regatta on Hobart’s River Derwent today wild broaches by keelboats and sports boats, broken rudders, a swamped small keelboat, and dozens of capsized dinghies and catamarans marked a spectacular day of sailing.

South-westerly winds that ranged in strength from 5 to 25 knots and switched direction up to 60 degrees saw major placings change from race to race on a day that underlined the seamanship skills of Tasmanian sailors, young and old.

The bigger boats had a splendid day of sailing as the temperature rose and the sun shone in the afternoon, but catamaran and dinghy classes were reduced by the strong winds and disqualifications for failing to sail the correct courses.

The SB20 sports boats provided the most spectacular racing, surfing downwind under spinnakers as winds peaked at 25 knots in some of their six races for their Tasmanian championship.

Former world champion Dragon class sailor Nick Rogers heads the series after scoring three wins out of six races. Racing was so close in race five that Brett Cooper’s Three Musketeers and Wedgewood, skippered by Victorian Stephen Fries, dead-heated for first place with Karabos and Building Concepts (Sam Teidemann) dead-heated for third, just ten seconds astern.

After six races, Karabos is on 11.5 points, Three Musketeers 21.5, Wedgewood 22.5 and Mind Games (Phil Reid) 23 points.

In the Racing 1 keelboat division, David Rees followed up his second place in Friday’s twilight race with 6-2-1 score yesterday under AMS corrected time. In the IRC category he has had a win on Friday and a 3-2-1 score yesterday.

After four races Whistler leads Racing 1 AMS with 11 points from Host Plus Executive (Jeff Cordell) on 14 points with Invincible (Darren Clark) and Intrigue (Don Calvert) both on 15 points. Under IRC scoring Whistler has a one point lead from Intrigue.

Masquerade (Tony Harman) heads the PHS scoreboard by two points from Whistler and Silver Mist (Andrew Sutherland).

Biggest keelboat division at the regatta is Performance Cruising, with three different winners under PHS scoring so far: Insatiable (Lisa Guy and Patrick Hyman) in race one on Friday and yesterday Excite (Robin White) and Ciao Baby II (Gary Cripps).

Excite heads the PHS pointscore with 8 points after a 5-1-2 score card, with Chicas (John Lewis) on 18.5 points and BYC Commodore John Mills’ Nexedge third on 19 points.

The strong winds reduced the Paper Tiger fleet from nine to six boats over four hectic heats, with former national champion Bruce Rose sailing The Apprentice to three wins and a third.

Other classes, including Firebugs, Optimists, International Cadets, also saw many boats not compete as the winds strengthened with a short choppy seaway on the river. There were a number of disqualifications for not sailing the proper course.

In the International 2.4 class, one boat was swamped by the waves, but support boats were on the ready to assist boats in difficulties.