Optimistic sailing start for skipper Andrew Hunn

by Peter Campbell on 6 Nov 2010 Champion Hobart yachtsman Andrew Hunn got some unusual sail training today before today’s Bellerive Yacht Club pennant racing in his state-of-the-art Farr 40 Voodoo Chile.

Hunn squeezed his tall frame into his son Isaac’s tiny Optimist dinghy for an off-the-beach sail at Sandy Bay Sailing’s learn-to-sail day off Nutgrove Beach – and promptly capsized!

'I think I’m a little too big for an Opti, but they are great fun for the kids to sail,' a very wet Hunn said. 'Perhaps it will give me some good training for this afternoon in the Farr 40.'

It certainly did, as Hunn steered Voodoo Chile to two firsts and two seconds in the four windward/leeward races, sharing the honours with Wired (Stephen Boyes).

Sailing in an east-south-easterly seabreeze that freshened to 16 knots, gusting to 18 knots, Wired won the first two races, beating Voodoo Chile by just nine seconds in race two, but Hunn won the next two, Wired placing second both times, the margin just eight seconds in the third race.

Boyes and Hunn, along with co-owner Lloyd Clark, plan to take their yachts to Sydney next year to contest the Australian and World championships in March.

All other divisions sailed a distance race today, with Bellerive Yacht Club sending the fleet down the Derwent to Ralph’s Bay before each division went to various rounding marks. Division 1 boats sailed a 23 nautical mile course down to Pierson’s Point, just inside the d’Entrecasteaux Channel, other divisions shorter courses, before returning to finish off Bellerive.

Being able to carry an asymmetric spinnaker from Ralph’s Bay down to Pierson’s Point proved a winning factor in Division 1 for Michael Denny’s modified Mount Gay 30 Wild West, winning on PHS corrected time from Harold Clark’s Invincible, which took first place under AMS handicaps.

For the first time, an AMS rating division was included in Division 2, with the Adams 10 The Saint (John Lewis & Nick Broad) taking the honours as well as placing second on PHS to Serica (Charles Peacock).

Division 3 saw a close result, both across the line and on corrected time with Alibi II (Rod Williams) beating Innovator (Ian Smith & Mike Jones) by nine seconds, but Innovator reversing the result on corrected time to win by 51 seconds.

The 9m Division went to Wildfire (Malcolm Robinson), Silicon Chip (Walter Knoop) won the Half Ton division, while the Cruising Division went to Steve Mannering’s Camlet Way.