Tilford Auto Winter Series - Close racing on chilly River Derwent

by Peter Campbell on 9 Aug 2015 With snow-capped Mount Wellington as a backdrop, the fleet in the Bellerive Yacht Club/Tilford Auto Group Winter Series today enjoyed the closest racing of the winter, both in boat-for-boat racing and in handicap results.

The outcome, with just one race to complete the Winter Series, is tied pointscores in Divisions one and three. The final race is scheduled for 30 August.

BYC has been fortunate that it has been able to run all four races to date whereas the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and the Derwent Sailing Squadron have each lost a day because of bad weather with Derwent lashed by gales the previous two Sundays.

Today produced another good, albeit, very chilly morning for racing on Hobart’s River Derwent, with BYC sailing manager describing the conditions as…”a good breeze form the North, about 12 knots gusting to 15, but very very cold! Seven degrees ambient air temp, felt like zero degrees with wind chill.”

Division one came down to a virtual match race between the two Mumm 36s, Jeff Cordell’s Host Plus and Ian Stewart’s Tas Paints, as they sailed tack for tack and gybe for gybe around the course.

After 94 minutes of racing Host Plus beat Tas Paints across the finish line by a mere 11 seconds.

On corrected time, Division one went to the classic International Eight Metre class yacht Juana, with Jock Young on the helm, by a margin of five seconds from Gary Cripps’ Sydney 39 Ciao Baby II. Host Plus placed third, with Tas Paints sixth.

After four races in the Winter Series, Juana and Planet X (Mick Rowley) are equal in standings with a net seven points, with Tas Paints on eight points.

Casual entry The Shack (Tony Hurd) won Division three on handicap, but top honours among the series entrants went to Paul Einoder’s Off-Piste, which also had fastest time.

Ragtime (Tom Kirkland) took second points and Kama (Don Cushion) third points. They are now on equal standings in the Winter Series pointscore, both with eight points, with N-Yacht (P Wilkinson/G Frame) on nine points.

Dave Willans steered Trouble to its second consecutive handicap win in the Division two, also taking fastest time, and now has a comfortable lead in the pointscore with a net 5.5 points.

Second overall after four races is Pyxis (Chris Hadrill) on a net 11 points, while sharing third in standings place overall on 12 points are Footloose (Stewart Geeves) and Just in Time (Mick Sheehan). Half a point back, on 12.5 points, is Twitch (Twitch Syndicate).

In today’s Division two race, Trouble won on corrected time by five seconds from Twitch with another 13 seconds to Footloose.