Bellerive Yacht Club Winter Series - Saga of sailing for Chris Sheehan

by Peter Campbell on 25 Aug 2014 Longtime Bellerive Yacht Club member Chris Sheehan has added another trophy to his ten year association with his Young 88, Saga, winning Division two of the Club’s Winter Series which ended on Sunday.

A fleet of 27 boats turned out for the final race of the Eastern Autobody-sponsored series, sailed on an unseasonably warm and sunny winter days on the Derwent. Race officers got the fleet away in just three-four knots of wind, but after a slow first round, the breeze kicked in to a steady 10-12 knots.

Saga ended up winning Division two by a comfortable four points while Gavin Adamson just hung on to win Division one with his Mumm 36 Madness and Andrew Dalby won Division three overall with his veteran half tonner Kharis.

Chris Sheehan is a Life Member of BYC, a member of the Club since 1979, with a close involvement in race administration as well as being a consistently fine helmsman. He is also a member of the Board.

As he has done throughout the Winter Series, Chris steered Saga to an excellent start on Sunday and led the fleet around the course to take line honours, placing fourth on corrected time to clinch an overall victory by four points from last race winner Pyxis (Chris Hadrill) and another two points to Rousabout (Grahame Inglis).

'I was in the original partnership that owned Saga back in 2001, buying the others out in 2007,' Sheehan said today. 'The Young 88 is an excellent boat to sail….we have now nine Young 88s in Hobart and we are looking at a Young 88 championship or at least a special race day.'

Sheehan has now become a fleet owner, purchasing the SB20 North Sails to race this summer 'just for something different' in the expanding fleet that now totals 23 boats. He will also crew aboard Ian Stewart’s Mumm 36 Tas Paints.

In Division one, Gavin Adamson’s Madness from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, finished only ninth on corrected time in the final race, but had enough points in the bank to win the Winter Series by just one point from Tas Paints, another Mumm 36.

Up until yesterday Madness had had a consistently improving scorecard of seven-four-one-one, while Tas Paints’ final scorecard was one-two-eight-four-seven. Third place overall went to the Sydney 38 Ciao Baby II (Gary Cripps).

Division one winner yesterday was Fish Frenzy (John Wearne) from Pirate’s Pride and Black Magic, skippered by BYC Commodore Graham Mansfield.

Andrew Dalby’s 25-year-old (or thereabouts) Kharis, designed and built to the old half ton rule, held off a late run by Ragtime, skippered by veteran Tom Kirkland, to take out the Winter Series division three pointscore.

Kharis won the first two races and followed this with a sixth and two thirds for a net eight points, while Ragtime finished just two points back on 10 points, also winning two Winter races and sailing consistently well with a third, a fifth and sixth in the other races. Third overall went to Magnum (Colin Gray) on 12 points.

The final race of the Winter Series went to Vitamin Sea (Wayne Pitt) from Ragtime and Innovator (Ian Smith).

Results

Eastern Autobody BYC Winter Series 2014

Series Results [Division 1] up to Race 5 (Drops = 1)

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		7883	Madness	Gavin Adamson	13.0	[9.0]	1.0	1.0	4.0	7.0
2		2900	Tas Paints	Ian Stewart	14.0	7.0	4.0	[8.0]	2.0	1.0
3		SM6083	Ciao Baby II	Gary Cripps	16.0	4.0	2.0	3.0	7.0	[9.0]
4		5441	Host Plus	Jeff Cordell	18.0	8.0	7.0	[9.0]	1.0	2.0
5		8100	Fish Frenzy	John Wearne	18.5	1.0	[8.0]	6.0	6.0	5.5
6		3733	Wild West	Michael Denny	19.0	5.0	5.0	[12.0C]	5.0	4.0
7		N9	Pirates Pride	Peter Masterton	20.0	2.0	6.0	2.0	10.0	[10.0]
8		6137	Black Magic	Graham Mansfield	22.0	3.0	9.0	7.0	[9.0]	3.0
9		M45	Obsession	David Creese	25.0	10.0	[12.0C]	4.0	3.0	8.0
10		AUS6151	Cleopatra	Matthew Denholm	28.0	12.0C	3.0	5.0	8.0	[12.0C]
11		2555	Natelle II	Glen Roper	34.5	6.0	12.0C	[12.0C]	11.0	5.5

Eastern Autobody BYC Winter Series 2014

Series Results [Division 2] for Division 2 up to Race 5 (Drops = 1)

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		513	Saga	Chris Sheehan	8.0	4.0	1.0	2.0	[6.0]	1.0
2		350	Pyxis	Chris Hadrill	12.0	1.0	5.0	[9.0]	1.0	5.0
3		111	Rousabout	Grahame Inglis	14.0	3.0	[11.0C]	3.0	4.0	4.0
4	2.0S	8806	Wildfire	Team Wildfire	16.0	[11.0C]	6.0	6.0	2.0	2.0
5		271	Just In Time	Mick Sheehan	16.0	2.0	4.0	7.0	3.0	[7.0]
6		1	Trouble	Dave Willans	16.5	6.5	2.0	[8.0A]	5.0	3.0
7		M5885	Twitch	Twitch Syndicate	22.5	6.5	3.0	[8.0]	7.0	6.0
8		M88	Hot Prospect	Ian Marshall	25.0	5.0	7.0	5.0	[9.0]	8.0
9		4606	Miss Conduct	Brian Fleming	29.0	11.0C	[11.0C]	1.0	8.0	9.0
10		40000	Talisman	James Anderson	42.0	11.0C	11.0C	10.0	10.0	[11.0C]

Eastern Autobody BYC Winter Series 2014

Series Results [Division 3] for Division 3 up to Race 5 (Drops = 1)

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		H11	Kharis	Andrew Dalby	8.0	3.0	3.0	[6.0]	1.0	1.0
2		66	Ragtime	Tom Kirkland	10.0	1.0	5.0	1.0	[6.0]	3.0
3		AA111	Magnum	Colin Gray	12.0	[6.0]	1.0	3.0	4.0	4.0
4		834	Off-Piste	Paul Einoder	13.0	[13.0C]	2.0	4.0	5.0	2.0
5		725	Piya	Robert Laughlin	17.0	5.0	4.0	5.0	3.0	[6.0]
6		4589	Kama	Don.Rod Cushion	21.0	7.0	[8.0]	7.0	2.0	5.0
7		2001	Odyssey 2001	Steve Logan	24.0	4.0	6.0	[14.0C]	7.0	7.0
8		323	Innovator	Ian Smith	25.0	2.0	7.0	8.0	[10.0]	8.0
9		AUS137	Whistler J	Jacqui Guy	36.0	13.0C	13.0C	2.0	8.0	[13.0C]
10		33	Mischief	Kif Weber	43.0	8.0	13.0C	[14.0C]	13.0C	9.0
11		3227	Trick Cyclist	Jamie Lawrence	45.0	13.0C	13.0C	[14.0C]	9.0	10.0

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