Sailing South victory Intrigue

by Peter Campbell on 5 Jan 2006 Veteran Tasmanian yachtsman Don Calvert and his 21-year-old wooden boat Intrigue today displayed their ongoing sailing ability with a brilliant IRC handicap win in the distance race of Sailing South Race Week.

Calvert, who has been racing boats on Hobart’s Derwent River for more than 60 years, finished third across the finish line, beating the state-of-the-art Farr 40 One Design class boat Euro Central (Hughie Lewis) by just four seconds.

On corrected time, Calvert won by just over a minute from arch-rival and Sydney-based fellow Tasmanian Roger Hickman, sailing the former Sydney Hobart Race winner Wild Rose.

Third place went to another Tasmanian boat, David Rees’ Sydney 38 Whistler, whose crew included former Fireball world champion and Lightweight Sharpie national champion Stewart Hamilton.

In contrast to yesterday’s white maelstrom of wild water, Hobart’s broad Derwent River was almost a mill pond this morning as racing resumed in the Boag’s Sailing South Race Week with a distance race out into Storm Bay for the IRC and PHS divisions and two harbour races for the Cruiser classes.

Winds were light, with the maximum strength of 14 knots - compared with 70 knots on the adometer at the CSIRO's satellite receiving disk on Droughty Hill on eastern shore of the Derwent recorded at 10am yesterday.

The start for the IRC and PHS Division 1 fleets saw some aggressive tactics and at least two collisions. Sirromet Life Style Wines, the defending Sailing South champion skippered by Michael Spies, and Ray Roberts’ Quantum Racing collided near the outer end of line. There was also a collision between Quantum Racing and third-placed Whistler.

Sirromet’s spinnaker pole appeared to get caught in Quantum Racing’s life rails and stranchions, with the pole later breaking as the yacht gybed its spinnaker rounding the Iron Pot at the mouth of the Derwent where the fleet headed out to Little Betsey Island in Storm Bay.

Stephen Boyes, skipper of the Farr 40 One Design, Wired, has also lodged a protest again Quantum Racing and Whistler, claiming the incident had prevented him from gybing. Results are provisional, pending the hearing of protests this evening.

Based on provisional results after two races, Sirromet placed fourth to maintain an overall pointscore lead in Sailing South Race Week whilst Quantum Racing was back in 10th place despite taking line honours. Provisional points in the IRC division have Sirromet Life Style Wine on 5 points from Wild Rose on 6 points and Intrigue on 8 points.

The Victorian yacht Granny Apple, skippered by Leigh Bone, broke its mast on the way back up the Derwent, but returned to the RYCT without assistance.