Lisa Blackwood’s challenge at Int'l 2.4 metre Australian Championship

by Peter Campbell on 4 Apr 2010 Hobart yachtswoman Lisa Blackwood is challenging experienced class champions for the Australian title in the International 2.4 metre class yachts being sailed on the River Derwent from the Derwent Sailing Club this weekend.

With two races to sail in this single-handed displacement yacht that is also one of the three disciplines for Paralympic sailing, she is only three points behind four-times national champion Michael Leydon and two-times Paralympian Peter Thompson, from the Canberra,

Yet Lisa has been sailing a 2.4-metre class boat for only six months, although she is an accomplished helmsperson in various classes and an Australian champion with sailing radio controlled yachts.

After six races over the past two days, Michael Leydon, sailing Octopod II from Canberra’s YMCA Sailing Club, is on a net 9 points from a win, three seconds and a third (his discard race so far).

The former dinghy sailor has been sailing 2.4 metre class boats for the past 12 years after starting as training partner for club mate Peter Thompson, who represented Australia at the Sydney and Athens Paralympic Games

Thompson, sailing Morna, has had three wins, a third and two fifth places for 11 points, while Lisa Blackwood has had a 6-1-4-2-2-3 score in Happy Days for 12 points.

In today’s last race, sailed in a southerly breeze of 10 knots and a choppy River Derwent, the Tasmanian was leading after the first windward/leeward round, but the two veterans from Canberra outsailed her on the second beat to windward.

Conditions on the Derwent were again ideal for the 2.4s, but Canberra sailor Peter Richards was forced to beach his boat at Sandy Bay during the final race when it filled with water. Inbuilt buoyancy kept the boat afloat and it was later towed back the DSS by a patrol boat.

The national championship for the International 2.4 metre class is an open event, but the fleet includes a number of disabled sailors, including Tasmanian Matthew Bugg, a paraplegic who is considered a strong prospect to represent Australia at the London 2012 Paralympics.

After an impressive 4-3-7 on Good Friday, Bugg had a luckless second day, including being disqualified as OCS (on course side) after breaking the start in race four. His other placings today, sailing Supermodel, included a seventh and fifth, but even after discarding the OCS he has dropped to sixth overall on 27 points.