Vintage yacht Saona ‘grand champion’ of Cygnet Regatta

by Peter Campbell on 8 Mar 2009
The 74-year-old cruising ketch Saona, skippered by Kettering Yacht Club member Ben Marriss, has been awarded the trophy for ‘grand champion’ of the 2009 Cygnet Regatta, sailed over the weekend and marking the 145th anniversary of the first regatta on the Huon River.

The vintage ketch, designed by prominent American naval architect Phillip Rhodes and built in Hobart in 1935, was chosen for her consistently good performances over the three-race regatta, which included winning the passage race sailed in galeforce winds on Saturday from Kettering to Cygnet.

The regatta was held conditions ranging from Saturday’s westerly gale to today’s ideal 10-15 knot south-easterly seabreeze, with 59 boats turning out for the final round-the-buoys race on the Huon River.

As the Regatta champion, Saona was not eligible for any divisional trophies, with the Regatta committee’s objective being to spread the prizes between as many yachts as possible in the record 102 boat fleet of keelboats and multihulls.

In today’s race, Archie, Sally Rattle’s Archambault 35 from the Derwent Sailing Squadron, but sailing under the burgee of the Port Cygnet Sailing Club, won Division 1 on corrected time from ‘Bout Time, Mike Church’s modified S80 from Kettering.

Third place went to the Etchells class yacht The Leading Edge, skippered by Prince Philip Dragon national champion yachtsman Nick Rogers, also sailing for Port Cygnet.

Dianne Barkas skippered her Sydney 38 Asylum to line honours in the final race, as she did in the passage race from Kettering.

Division 2 saw the handicap victory go to Aurora, Malcolm Croxton’s 34-foot cruising boat from Kettering, with second place to Trim, a US-designed catboat skippered by Peter Manthorpe, and third to Molly Coddle, Adrian Molleson’s Adams-designed Traditional 36 from the Derwent Sailing Squadron.

Winner of the Derwent class over the regatta was Ross Berkmann’s Merlin from Port Cygnet Sailing Club while the Bill Wrapp Memorial Trophy for vintage yachts went to Saona.

'Today we saw 59 boats competing in the race around the buoys off the Port Cygnet Sailing Club, an excellent turn-out after the battering they received in Saturday’s race down from Kettering,' Regatta secretary Phil Jeffs said this evening.

'The sun broke through about midday and we all enjoyed a great sail in a seabreeze that came up the bay, freshening to 15 knots near the end of the race,' added Jeffs, who still managed to get afloat in a ‘couta boat, despite his heavy load of voluntary duties as regatta secretary, handicapper and results co-ordinator.