DSS Winter Series - Family crew sails Obsession to outright victory

by Peter Campbell on 27 Jul 2014 Derwent Sailing Squadron’s Winter Series 2014 - Obsession victory in today’s Derwent Sailing Squadron’s Winter Series race on the River Derwent was a real family affair by a crew of just four, owner-skipper David Creese being joined by his wife Allison and teenage sons Dion (15) and Lachie (13) in winning line and handicap honours in Division 1.

Obsession, a Turkish-designed Mat 12, surprisingly outsailed the fleet despite competing as a non-spinnaker entrant, the result good tactical sailing in picking the best of a variable breeze, maintaining constant boatspeed and, obviously, a good crew combination.

The Bellerive Yacht Club entrant got the gun from DSS entrant War Games, Wayne Banks-Smith’s Farr 40 and X&Y, Toby Richardson’s Barrett 38 from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, sailing in only her second race. The three finished in the same order on corrected time.

'It was a great family result today, very good for the boys as they are learning to sail hands-on without a big crew aboard,' skipper and father David Creese said after the win.

'Lachie was on main, Dion trimming the headsail and doing bow work,' added Creese who, with wife Allison sailed Obsession to victory in the recent DSS Autumn Two-Handed Series.

'Every time War Games and X&Y got ahead on the spinnaker runs and ran into a hole, we would catch them and on the last work to the finish of the shortened course, they appeared to go match-racing, heading to the west in Sandy Bay.

'We maintained boatspeed in the dying breeze and just fell across the line, comfortably ahead while finished just seconds apart.

Creese plans to contest this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race with Obsession, sailing without his family with a crew of ten for the long ocean race. 'But we will continue contesting the winter race as a family team,' he added.

In Division 2, Spare Time (Shane Powell) scored an outright win, taking first place on corrected time from DSS Commodore Ron Bugg, sailing Electeric, with Wildfire (Team Wildfire) third.

Division 3 also saw the line honours winner take out first place on corrected time, with Graham Hall’s Serenity clearing out from the fleet to finish more than 17 minutes ahead of Kharis (Terry Dalby) with non-spinnaker entrant Vistula (Greg Biskup) placed third.

The flukey winds today limited the SB20 fleet to one race with Stephen Catchpool’s Hypertronics taking honours in both One Design and PHS scoring.

In One Design racing, Hypertronics crossed the line just five seconds ahead of Karabos (Nick Rogers) with North Sails (Kirsty Skipper) just 19 seconds further astern and just over four minutes covering the entire fleet. Hypertronics took first place on PHS fro, North Sails and Brainwave (Scott Brain).

After three out of five race days in the Winter Series and six races sailed, North Sails and Brainwave share the top of the One Design leader board on 13 points, with Karabos on 19 points and Nautilus Marine Insurance (Hughie Lewis) on 20 points.

Nautilus Marine Insurance heads the PHS pointscore on 14 points, with Brainwave on 16 points and North Sails 21 points.

Results

DSS Winter Series 2014

Hosted By Derwent Sailing Squadron Inc

CLEANLIFT MARINE

Updated:  27/07/2014  11:46:46 AM

Series Results [PHS] for Division 1 up to Race 3

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		222	WARGAMES	Wayne Banks-Smith	7.0	2.0	1.0	4.0
2		6401	FANG TO THE MAX	Fred Barrett	8.0	4.0	3.0	1.0
3	2.0S	6385	WINSTEAD WINES	Neil Snare	16.0	6.0	2.0	8.0
4		SM6083	CIAO BABY II	Gary Cripps	16.0	5.0	6.0	5.0
5		6577	ILLUSION	David Brett	19.0	8.0	9.0	2.0
6	3.0S	440	ELIZA	Kevin Jacobson	20.0	3.0	10.0	7.0
7		10	PLANET X	Mick Rowley	20.0	7.0	7.0	6.0
8		3938	WINGS THREE	Peter Haros	20.5	9.5	8.0	3.0
9		6197	PISCES	David Taylor	23.5	9.5	5.0	9.0
10	1.0S	M45	OBSESSION N/S	David Creese	26.0	1.0	13.0C	12.0R
11		5887	TEMPTATION	Steve Harrison	26.0	12.0R	4.0	10.0
12		7883	MADNESS	G.Adamson J.Frawley	39.0	13.0C	13.0C	13.0C

Series Results [PHS] for Division 2 up to Race 3

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1	2.0S	4688	VASCO	Graeme Harrington	10.0	4.0	2.0	4.0
2		8806	WILDFIRE	Team Wildfire	10.0	3.0	4.0	3.0
3		399	HI-VIS	Matt Westland	11.0	6.0	3.0	2.0
4	1.0S	111	ROUSABOUT	Derek Inglis	12.0	10.0	1.0	1.0
5		3140	SPARE TIME	Shane Powell	12.0	1.0	6.0	5.0
6		401	WHICH WAY UP	Steve Davison	19.0	8.0	5.0	6.0
7		447	ATILLA	John Hunn	24.0	9.0	7.0	8.0
8		H447	COOL CHANGE	Chris Bobbi	26.0	5.0	14.0C	7.0
9		326	ELECTERIC	Ron Bugg	30.0	2.0	14.0C	14.0C
10		105	DIVINE MADNESS	Paul Turner	33.0	7.0	14.0C	12.0F
11		150	HORNET	Neville Georgeson	37.0	14.0C	14.0C	9.0
12		412	ZORRO	Steve Bradford	38.0	14.0C	14.0C	10.0
13		5416	BLIZZARD	Matt Bugg	42.0	14.0C	14.0C	14.0C

Series Results [PHS] for Division 3 up to Race 3

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		H32	SERENITY	Graham Hall	5.0	1.0	1.0	3.0
2		6605	VISTULA N/S	Greg Biskup	6.0	3.0	2.0	1.0
3		1181	KINDRED SPIRIT	Peter Alcock	13.0	5.0	3.0	5.0
4		834	OFF-PISTE	Paul Einoder6	14.0	6.0	4.0	4.0
5		66	RAGTIME	Tom Kirkland	17.0	4.0	11.0C	2.0
6		H11	KHARIS	Terry Dalby	23.0	2.0	11.0C	10.0
7		278	AFFINITY	Peter Thompson	24.0	7.0	11.0C	6.0
8		339	VITAMINSEA	Wayne Pitt	28.0	8.0	11.0C	9.0
9		33	MISCHIEF	Kif Weber	29.0	11.0C	11.0C	7.0
10		46	WAYATIH	Allan Morgan	30.0	11.0C	11.0C	8.0

(Ties: S=Score R=Race B= Bettered. Penalties: A=ARB B=BFD C=DNC D=DNE E=ESP F=DNF G=RDG I=DPI L=Late Entrant M=DGM N=ENP O=OCS P=Protest Q=DSQ R=RET S=DNS T=TLE U=DUT V=AVG X=EXC Z=ZFP Y=SCP #=NoData [x.y]=Discarded)