Pipe Opener Series - She’s the Culprit’s racing comeback

by Peter Campbell on 16 Sep 2010 Hobart yacht ‘She’s the Culprit’ will return to racing this weekend for the first time since she was forced out of last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race following a collision on Sydney Harbour soon after the start.

The Inglis 39, skippered by Todd Leary, is among 42 yachts entered for the Sargisons Jewellers and Kermandie Hotel 42nd Pipe Opener Series, the traditional weekend of racing conducted by the Derwent Sailing Squadron and Huon Yacht Club to open the racing season in Hobart.

She’s the Culprit’s hull was holed in the collision, with several yachts involved in a subsequent protest and the Sydney yacht Kioni ultimately disqualified.

She’s the Culprit was forced to withdraw, but a Leary is determined to make amends in this year’s 628 nautical mile Sydney Hobart. His campaign starts with the three-race Pipe Opener Series, followed by other local offshore Tasmanian races, including the Maria Island Race.

The Sargisons Jewellers and Kermandie Hotel Pipe Opener Series starts from Hobart at 7.40pm on tomorrow evening, taking the fleet down the River Derwent and into the d’Entrecasteaux Channel. Because of prevailing weather conditions, Derwent Sailing Squadron may finish the night race off Simpsons Point rather than Gordon which will provide more protected conditions.

In Hobart today south-westerly winds have consistently been over 30 knots, gusting to 46 knots early this afternoon. Mount Wellington is blanketed with snow down to 300m and the temperature has not risen above eight degrees. At 4pm it was back down to five degrees.

'However, the bad weather may ease overnight although we expect a heavy swell to be running up the broad reaches of the Channel,' DSS sailing manager Tony Nicholson said late today. 'It is likely that we will finish the night race at Simpsons Bay rather than at Gordon, that is more exposed.'

The second race is the Huon Aquaculture Cock of the Huon, starting and finishing off Shipwrights Point at Port Huon on Saturday afternoon. This is a spectacular race around the buoys on the Huon River, including a new buoy in Hospital Bay near the entrance to the Kermandie River. Another rounding mark is 150m south to south-west of the Huon Yacht Club at Shipwrights Point.

Unlike previous years, this year’s Cock of the Huon will not be a pursuit race, but rather massed starts in three divisions, ten minutes apart from 1.30pm.

The final race will be on Sunday from Port Huon to Gordon after an overnight rendezvous at the Kermandie Marina.

The Pipe Opener has drawn a topclass fleet, including winter pennant winners Pisces (David Taylor) and Dump Truck (Edward Fader and Justin Wells), along with Redback (Dave O’Neill), Cleopatra (Scott Sharp), Tas Paints (Ian Stewart), Whistler (David Rees) and 42 South (Mark Ballard) in Division 1.