Crown Series Bellerive Regatta - Protagonist wins AMS category

by Peter Campbell on 25 Feb 2012 Crown Series Bellerive Regatta is being held this weekend, 25th to 26th February, on Hobart’s River Derwent.

Bellerive yachtsman Colin Denny spends much of his life ashore dealing with Tasmania’s nautical history; afloat, he looks for the very latest in state-of-the-art racing yachts.

Denny is president of the Tasmanian Maritime Museum and a noted nautical historian, but this weekend he is racing his new Beneteau First 40 yacht, The Protagonist, in the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta.

The Protagonist is a French-built sistership to the recent Sydney Hobart overall winner Too True, but this is the first event that Denny has raced the boat with an AMS rating.

Competing in the hotly contested Performance Cruising Division, The Protagonist did not enjoy the light morning breeze today, finishing second around the course and third under AMS ratings.

However, with the nor’easter freshening to 18-20 knots in the afternoon, The Protagonist led the fleet around the course and on corrected time won the AMS category by a comfortable margin.

Overall, The Protagonist is in second place in the Performance Cruising AMS, with Wings Three (Peter Haros) heading the leader board with a 2-1-4 score as against The Protagonist’s 7-3-1.

Under PHS scoring, Sagittarius (John Hall) has scored two wins and a 10th to hold a comfortable lead from Insatiable (Lisa Guy/Patrick Hym) and Total Lock and Alarm, skippered by John Mills, Commodore of the host club, Bellerive Yacht Club.

A massive fleet of 211 sailing boats is contesting the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta over the weekend – 111 keelboats, sports boats and trailable yachts and 101 dinghies, sailboards and catamarans.

Despite the 38 degree plus temperature and blazing sunshine, most of the 850 sailors, young and old, continued racing in the, at-times trying conditions.

Outstanding performance of the regatta so far has been that of Voodoo Chile, Andrew Hunn’s Farr 40, which has won all four races for this one-design class. Second overall is Wired, steered by Dragon sailor Steven Shield, third is War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith).

Group 1 results are subject to a request for redress for the first race today

In Group 1, Tony Lyall’s Transpac 52 struggled in the light airs of the first two races today, but won the third race on IRC corrected time as the breeze freshened to 18-20 knots after a late morning hiatus in which the Derwent turned in a glassy pond.

Highlight the lack of breeze, Cougar II beat Whistler (Jory Linscott) across the line by just 13 seconds, finishing last on corrected time.

Bellereve boat Invincible, steered by Darren Clark, won two of the three races under both AMS and IRC scoring, Don Calvert’s Intrigue winning the other race. Under AMS, Invincible leads Intrigue by 8 points, under IRC only three points separate Invincible and Intrigue.

Racing Group 2 has produced three winners but consistency is the keynote and Half Hearted (Chad Grafton) heads the leaderboard with a 7-1-4 results to led from Wildfire (Team Wildfire) with a 3-2-10 result and Rouseabout (Derek Inglis) with 8-5-2 placings.

In Performance Cruising 3, the J24 Street Car (Peter Bingham) has a 3-2-3 score to lead Greg Rowlings’ Another Toy (2-3-5) but just one point going into Sunday’s racing.

Temeraire IV (Rick Ware) has had three seconds to hold a commanding lead in Cruising Red, while only two points separate Vite (Bob Wilson) and Pierette (Gary Kennedy) in the Cruising non-spinnaker group.

In the SB3 State championship, being sailed as part of the regatta, Prince Philip Cup Dragon champion Nick Rogers won all three races today with Toll Shipping. Rogers has a 10 point lead from Wedgewood (David Graney) with one point to Nest Property (Patrick Copeland)

In the championship racing for sports boats, Stealth (John Herbert) today won two of the three races under the class SMS (Sports Measurement System) scoring system, as well as under PHS scoring, However, only one point separates Stealth and Pure Blonde (Mike Widdowson) with only point to WA Cromarty (Steve Harrison) under the SMS system with the same under PHS scoring.

The trailable yachts are also contesting their Tasmanian championship, with a strong entry from the north as well as local boats. Overall points are close, with Priscilla (John Dryden) from Kettering Yacht Club, to points ahead of Tamar Yacht Club entry Kari (Richard Grant) and Femme Fatale (John Penman) under CBH scoring.

In the off-the-beach classes, outstanding performances have been VMG (Alec Bailey) three wins in the 420 class, the Phantom (Stephen Miller) three wins in the B14 skiff and The Apprentice (Bruce Rose) with three wins in the Paper Tiger catamarans.

In the hotly contested International Cadet class, Shimmer (Sam Abel) has sailed consistently to narrowly lead Sirroco (Charlie Connor) after four races, while Hugh Hinkling, sailing Are We There Yet, has a significant led in the Optimist Event website