Forty boats brave mid-winter on the Derwent

by Peter Campbell on 18 Jul 2010 Derwent Sailing Squadron’s third race of its Winter Pennants update: Like winter racing anywhere in Australia, the winds cometh and goeth. On Hobart’s River Derwent, however, there is the added chill of sailing on a mid-winter’s day.

This morning, when the fleet set sail in the Derwent Sailing Squadron’s third race of its Winter Pennants, a cool 12-15 knots breeze was coming down the river and, even if this meant a wind chill factor of about seven degrees, it was pleasant sailing. Most of the mid-week snow on Mount Wellington had also melted.

Certainly better than the opening race of the series, this had to be abandoned because of a total lack of wind.

Today the NNW breeze averaged between 12-15 knots for the morning race, with gusts to 20 knots, but at times fading briefly to less than five knots. However, it was quick race with the fleet of 40 yachts heading for the warmth of the DSS clubhouse soon after 11am after starting from 9.45am – winter breezes on the Derwent are generally better in the mornings!

In fact, Stephen Boyes’ Farr 40 Wired swept around the windward/leeward course in just under 63 minutes despite an altercation with another Farr 40, Voodoo Chile (Andrew Hunn and Lloyd Clark) at the weather mark the first time. Their close encounter continued with Wired finishing 1 minute 25 second ahead at the finish of Division 1.

The day was not without other incidents. Champion Dragon skipper Nick Roger slipped overboard from his new SB3 Toll Shipping, but still kept a firm grip on the tiller extension and was quickly hauled back aboard by his crew. Toll Shipping still managed a third across the line and fifth on handicap in Division 2.

Even more spectacular was the broach by Division 3 boat Grizzly Adams (Joel Bultman) as she neared the leeward mark off Nutgrove Beach, with the kite pulling the boat sidewards past the mark before the crew finally managed the drop.

Division 1 saw a Stephen Chau steer the Sydney 38 Ciao Baby to victory on corrected time from Wired (Stephen Boyes) and Archie (Sally Rattle).

In Division 2, first place went to Andrew Sutherland’s Mem from Lock on Wood, skippered by DSS Commodore Peter Geeves, third place going to the SBS Harcourts, helmed by Brett Cooper.

Division 3 saw an close race around the track between Rotary (Norm Brundle) and Epoxy Warrior (Ross Mannering) with Rotary finished second in the fleet just 29 seconds ahead but increasing the winning margin to 1 minutes 25 seconds on handicap. Third place went to Elliott I (James Anderson) while fastest boat in Division 3 was Storm Petrel (Roger Jackson).