Ramrod, Tilt take Maria Island Race handicap honours

by Peter Campbell on 20 Nov 2016 Ramrod, built down the Huon of timber and fibreglass almost 20 years ago, yesterday was declared overall AMS winner of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s 180 nautical mile TasPorts Maria Island Yacht Race.

Hobart chartered accountant and RYCT member Tim Maddock bought the modified Scott Kaufman-designed 36-footer about a year ago after some five seasons of sailing as mainsheet trimmer on 45-footer The Fork in the Road.

Line honours winner Tilt, Peter Cretan’s Martens 49, took out two handicap categories, PHS and IRC, but AMS is the major rated category.

“This was our first Maria Island Race with Ramrod and our next big race is the Launceston to Hobart in which I have sailed four times previously with line The Fork in Road,” Maddock said yesterday after results were confirmed.

This was the 69th running of the Maria Island Race, originally introduced as a qualifying race for the Sydney Hobart which this will be conducted for the 72nd time. In this year’s race, there was one Sydney Hobart entrant and 10 Launceston to Hobart entrants.

Ramrod won the AMS category of the Maria Island Race from Derwent Sailing Squadron rivals, club general manager Shaun Tiedemann’s Sydney 35cr, Philosopher, and sailing manager Michael Denney’s Bakewell-White Z39, Wild West, which was second across the line.

Under PHS scoring, Tilt won on corrected time from Ramrod and Wild West and in the IRC category Tilt placed first, Philosopher second and Wild West third.

“Friday night’s crossing of Storm Bay to Tasman Island probably played a significant role in our success, getting us up with big guns,” recalled Maddock.

“We gybed a lot in the 28-30 knot westerly and rounded Tasman at 11.55pm, second in fleet,” he added. “Coming back from Maria Island the winds were light until we reached Fortesque Bay where the breeze swung to the west at 10-15 knots.”

Ramrod was third boat to finish the 180 nautical mile course, 39 minutes astern of Wild West, followed by Philosopher and Sydney Hobart entrant Cromarty Magellan (Richard Grant).

The first four boats to finish crossed the line off Castray before midnight Saturday, with most of the finishing in early hours of Sunday morning. The exception was Kaiulani which finished shortly after 1pm yesterday.