Crown Series 2010- Intrigue and Invincible duel for IRC, AMS honours

by Peter Campbell on 27 Feb 2010 Cross river rivals Invincible (Harold Clark) and Intrigue (Don Calvert) are again duelling for top rating honours in the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta being sailed this weekend on Hobart's River Derwent.

After four of the scheduled six races for the strong Division 1 fleet, the Farr 1104 Invincible has a 1-3-1-2 scorecard under AMS ratings to be on 7 points, three clear of the Castro 40 Intrigue which has placed 6-1-2-1 for 9 points.

Under IRC ratings, Intrigue is the overall leader with placings of 6-1-1-1 for 9 points, two points clear of Invincible which has 11 points from placings of 3-4-2-2.

Intrigue, from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, held the IRC title until dislaced by Bellerive Yacht Club's Invincible last year. AMS is a new rating division this year.

Intrigue also heads the PHS pointscore with 15 points from The Fork in the Road (Gary Smith and Geoff White) and Silver Mist (Andrew Smith) which are both on 22 points.

One race, a non-spinnaker twilight race was sailed on Friday evening and today the fleet sailed three back-to-back races on a river whipped into a sea of steep whitecaps by a 20-28 knot southerly blowing against the strong ebbing tide. Two more races remain to be sailed for the Division 1 fleet on Sunday.

Sailing conditions were demanding on boats and crews today with several boats performing spectacular broaches.

Bellerive Yacht Club's Taspaints, Ian Stewart's Mumm 36, snapped her carbon fibre spinnaker pole and ripped her headsail in race one and missed the second race today as she returned to the club for replacement pole. She had placed third in PHS in the first race of the day but placed only 11th when she returned to the course for the third race of the day.

The Farr 40s raced at the top edge of their class windspeed limit of 25 knots but generally coped with the demanding conditions. The exception was Hughie Lewis' Euro Central which suffered a major broach running downwind under spinnaker which saw Lewis and two other crew tossed overboard, fortunately hanging on to the life lines and sheets.

The last of three races for the Farr 40s today saw one of the closest finishes ever on the River Derwent, with just one second.'about an inch' according to one crewman.separating the winner POW (Craig Clifford) and Voodoo Chile (Andrew Hunn) as they charged across the finish line under bulging spinnakers.

The three races today produced three different winners - Voodoo Chile taking out the first, Wired the second and POW the third. With Voodoo Chile declared the winner of Friday evening's twilight race, race one of the regatta, following the disqualification of War Games and Wired, she now leads the regatta overall with a 1-1-2-2 scorecard for a total of 6 points. POW is second on 10 points, Wired third on 13 points.

Other yacht divisions sailed two races today following the Friday night twilight race.

In the 9 Metre division, Shadowfax (Matt Westland) won the first race from Trouble (Dave Willans) by just three seconds on corrected time, with Rousabout (Graham Inglis). In the second race, Rousabout took line and handicap honours from Footloose (Stewart Geeves) and Shadow fax and with two wins, Rousabout is the overall leader going into the final day of the regatta.

Division 3 has seen three winners in three races. Quebrada (Tim Maddock) won the Friday evening race, Tinahy (Julius Szolik) the first race today and Hi Fibre (Warren Aird) the second race of the day.

Similarly, the Half Ton division has produced three different winners with Silicon Ship (Walter Knoop) winning the Friday evening race, Steelin' Time the first race today and Mako (Jim Bedford) the second race.

The Performance Cruising Division, with a fleet of 15 has seen keen competition, with half the fleet also competing under AMS ratings. On Friday evening veteran yachtsman Ernest Targett sailed Birngana to a PHS victory and he repeated that success in the first of two races today. Third race PHS winner was The Saint (John Lewis and Nick Broad).

The Performance Cruising Division also has an AMS category with about half the fleet holding an AMS rating. On Friday evening the winner was Rod Viney's Prion from Stephen Keal's Cyclone and Tony Harman's Masquerade.

Today saw Cyclone score a close corrected time win from Masquerade and Blue Chip (Stuart Denny) in the first race while the second race went to Blue Chip from Prion and Cyclone. The final two races on Sunday will decide both PHS and AMS winners.

The Crown Series caters also for specifically 'cruising' yachts, with a Cruising Red and a Cruising Green division, each sailing one race on Friday evening and another today.

In Cruising Red today, first place went to Innovator (I Smith & M Jones) from Camlot Way (Steve Mannering) and Cirrus (Andrew Montgomery). Division Green saw Viting (Bob Wilson) win on corrected time from Jelly Roll (M Brazendale & J Mikul) and Temeraire IV (Rick Wise).