Derwent Sailing Squadron Winter Series - Race 3 victory for Buggbear

by Peter Campbell on 15 Jul 2012 Derwent Sailing Squadron Winter Series 2012 third race was held today, Sunday 15th July, on Hobart's River Derwent.

Derwent Sailing Squadron Commodore Ron Bugg must be enjoying a good year as he leads the Hobart Yacht Racing Club into another season.

In fact, events over the past few weeks have given him good reason to celebrate:

• His son, Matthew, has been named in Australia’s sailing team for the London 2012 Paralympic Games, sailing in the 2.4mR class.
• In addition to being elected unopposed for another term as Commodore of the Derwent Sailing Club, members elected him a Life Member at the recent annual general meeting for his longtime services to the DSS.
• He has overseen the completion of extensive renovations to the DSS clubhouse at Sandy Bay.
• The club has gained a new sponsor, the Good Guys, for its Launceston to Hobart offshore yacht race.
• And today, he sailed his yacht Buggbear to victory in race three of the DSS Winter Series, taking an overall lead in Division 3.

Bugg and his crew, along with 35 other skippers and their crews, braved a very chilly morning and even colder NNW winds sweeping down from snow-capped Mount Wellington, to sail in the Winter Series on the River Derwent.

Hobart’s temperature was 7-8 degrees when the racing started (the wind chill factor cutting it back to 5 degrees), with the wind freshening from 13 to 20 knots, including some sharp gusts of 25 knots.

Commodore Bugg helmed Buggbear to a comfortable double of line and handicap first wins in Division 3, winning from Pierette (Garry Kennedy) and Rotary (Bill Brown). After three races, Buggbear heads the pointscore with 7 points from Rotary on 10, and Jigsaw (Neil Snare) on 13 points.

Division 1 saw a win for Robin White’s Xcite from Sally Rattle’s Archie and Natelle Two (Glen Roper) which leads the series overall by just one point from Planet X (Mike Rowley), with Quality Equipment (Alf Doedens) third overall.

Neither boat was placed today, but Eliza (Kevin Jacobson) and Spare Time (Shane Powell) share the Division 2 pointscore lead on 11 points, with just one point to today’s race winner, Hornet (Neville Georgeson). Second place in today’s race went to l’Etoile (Mark Dawson), third to Atilla (John Hunn).

The SB20s turned on some spectacular racing in today’s fresh to strong breeze, surfing downwind amid clouds of spray, but in most cases handling the conditions well.

Nick Rogers sailed Toll Shipping to line honours wins in all three races but only by seconds and the handicap results saw SB20 class president Stephen Catchpool notch up two seconds and a second with Hypertronics.

Overall, after nine races in the Winter Series, Tolling Shipping heads the scratch pointscore with 9 points, second is Nest Property (Patrick Copeland) on 18 points, third Balios (Michael Wilkinson) on 25 points.

In the handicap pointscore, Toll Shipping has 15 points, Balios 22.5 and Nest Property 23 points.