Intrigue wins Maria Island Race for second year

by Peter Campbell on 20 Nov 2005 Young Hobart yachtsman David Calvert has sailed his father Don’s yacht Intrigue to an IRC handicap victory in The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s Maria Island ocean race for the second year in succession.

Intrigue, a Castro 40 which Don Calvert built 26 years ago to represent Australia at the Admiral’s Cup in England, excelled in the relatively flat water sailing and, with her favourable IRC rating for her age, scored a 31 minute win on corrected time from Mark Ballard’s Don Jones designed, Mal Hart built 39 footer Fruit.

Third place went to the line honours winner, Roger Jackman’s Davidson 51 Dr Who, which sailed the 180 nautical mile race that started on Friday evening in just over 25 hours, six hours outside the race record.

Since being optimised to the IRC handicap system a couple of seasons ago, Intrigue has made a significant comeback to harbour and offshore racing out of Hobart.

She has twice been a close runner-up to crack Sydney yachts in the IRC division of the RYCT’s annual Boag’s Sailing Race Week and is expected to contest the 2006 Race Week from 2-5 January.

First place on corrected time in the PHS division went to Whistler, skippered by David Rees, by a mere 39 seconds from Josh Ey’s Quetzalcoatl, with Fruit taking third place. Pippin (David Taylor) placed fourth in both divisions.

Skipper Tony Nicholas and the crew of Quest, Overall winner of the 2002 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, had a frustrating race. Quest was becalmed and overtaken by half the fleet nearing Maria Island on Saturday morning, then sheared a pin in the mainsail halyard lock when leading the fleet back into Storm Bay.

'It was a stop-start race which did not favour the bigger boats on handicap and then the halyard problem cost us the lead again,' Nicholas said today.

'We sent a guy up the mast, but he couldn’t fix the problem and we had to use a spinnaker halyard which forced us to sail home with two reefs in the mainsail.'

Quest and Ian Hall’s Farr South, which finished last in the fleet, will be among four Tasmanian boats in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race while Whistler and Quetzalcoatl will be contesting the Melbourne to Hobart race. Quetzalcoatl, a 42-foooter designed by Don Jones, the designer of the super maxi Skandia, won the West Coaster race last year.

Most of the yachts in the Maria Island race are expected to line up for the 2006 Boag’s Sailing South Race Week, with a strong fleet expected including yachts from Geelong, Melbourne and Sydney.