Wired clinches F40 series in Sailing South

by Peter Campbell on 5 Jan 2008
A sailaway win in light northerly winds on Hobart’s Derwent River this morning has almost certainly clinched the F40 division of the Huon Aquaculture Sailing South Regatta 2008 for Stephen Boyes’s Farr 40 One Design, Wired.

With four firsts in four races, the red-hulled Wired is unbeatable although one final race is scheduled this afternoon. However, at 1300 hours the wind had disappeared from the river.

This morning’s race, the fourth of the three-day regatta, was sailed in a 7-8 knot north-easterly breeze, but the wind died away minutes after the last boat in the IRC/PHS Division 1 and the F40s had completed the two-lap windward/leeward course.

Wired got away to a good start after some aggressive luffing at the leeward end of the line which saw arch rival Voodoo Chile, skippered by Andrew Hunn, forced to do a 720 degree penalty turn.

Boyes quickly had Wired to windward of the fleet and won the race by a convincing 1 minute 28 seconds. Voodoo Chile recovered well to finish second, with POW (Craig Clifford) in third place, their first placing of the series.

After four races, Wired is provisionally on 4 points, War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith) 11, Voodoo Chile and Euro Central 15 and POW on 18 points

In IRC division, Roger Hickman powered the Corby 49 Limit away to a fast start from the line, set by PRO ‘Biddy’ Badenach to the south-east of the John Garrow light.

Hickman quickly tacked away to the eastern shore and picked up several favourable windshifts to finish 3 minutes 22 seconds ahead of David Kellett’s Endorfin with another 2 minutes 18 seconds to Tony Kirby’s Patrice Six.

Corrected time results will be announced later this afternoon.

Going into today’s final races, Patrice Six headed the series with 4 points from Limit on 8 points, Endorfin 11 and Silver Mist 12 points.

As the fleet waited for the wind this afternoon, one of the young women crew aboard Limit went waterskiing behind the 49-footer, using a mainsail halyard and a hatch board.