Sailing South heads for Isle of Caves
by Peter Campbell on 4 Jan 2007
The fleet heads down the Derwent Andrea Francolini Photography
http://www.afrancolini.com/
The IRC and PHS racing fleets in the 2007 Boag's Sailing South Race Week this morning headed down the River Derwent in the distance race of the series, the 47 nautical mile race to the Isle of Caves and return.
They will head out into Storm Bay and then set course in the moderate to fresh nor'easter across Frederik Henry Bay to the Isle of Caves, near Dodges Ferry, with the leaders rounding the Iron Pot, at the mouth of the Derwent, less than an hour after the start.
The course to the Isle of Caves will be a dead beat to windward, but after rounding the island the fleet will have a fast spinnaker run back to the Iron Pot, followed by a beat to windward up the river to the finish off Point Cartwright. The forecast is for the nor'easter to freshen from 10 to 20 knots, with flat seas.
After the spinnaker start this morning, just south of the John Garrow Light, IRC pointscore leader Quantum Racing (Ray Roberts) headed out into midstream whilst Flirt (Chris Dare) and Ichi Ban (Matt Allen) elected to sail closer to the western shore on starboard before gybing out into the river. As expected, the 70-footer Ichi Ban had established a big lead by the Iron Pot.
Meanwhile, the Cruising Division fleet is sailing two short windward/leeward races in mid-river.
Once again, the Derwent is packed with sailing boats, the Lasers and Cadet Dinghies sailing the final races of their Australian championships, while B-14s and NS-14s are also racing today.
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