Crown Series Bellerive Regatta continues on Hobart's River Derwent

by Peter Campbell on 23 Feb 2013 Crown Series Bellerive Regatta continued on Hobart's River Derwent today, Saturday 23rd February. Australian Paralympic sailor Matt Bugg went racing in the International 2.4mR class for the first time since the London Paralympics, winning both of his two races.

Bugg is preparing to defend his Australian championship in the one-man keelboat class at Easter. Sailing against a small fleet of local sailors, Bugg won both races sailed in a light to moderate north-easterly breeze.

More than 180 keelboats, sportsboat, trailable yachts and off-the-beach classes are contesting the huge regatta out of Bellerive Yacht Club with perfect sailing conditions on the river on Friday evening and yesterday.

Racing Group 1 sailed three windward/leeward races following the Friday evening race, with Jeff Cordell’s Mumm 36, Host Plus Executive, showing renewed speed as she carried a huge and spectacular-looking Italian spinnaker to win two of the four races under PHS scoring.

The annual eastern shore versus western shore duel between Invincible (Darren Clark) from Bellerive Yacht Club and Intrigue (Don Calvert) from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania has seen Invincible win all four encounters under both AMS and IRC scoring. Host Plus is third in both divisions.

Dominating Racing Group 2 after three races is Dave Willans’ Trouble with two wins and a second, comfortably clear of Hot August Night (Nat Morgan) which won race three today, and the consistent Half Hearted (Chad Grafton).

Biggest keelboat fleet in the regatta is Performance Cruising, with prominent Bellerive Yacht Club member Robin White’s Rocket 940 Xcite heading the pointscore with seven points from a 4-1-2 results.

Vying for second overall are Wings Three (Peter Haros) on 16 points (2-2-12) and BYC Commodore John Mills’ Total Lock and Alarm on 16.5 points (9-3-4.5).

Prion (Rod Viney) has had two wins and a second to head the Performance Cruising AMS division from Wings Three and Planet X (X Rowley).

In Performance Cruising 3, Free ‘n Easy (Bob Jones) has had two wins and a fourth to hold a comfortable led from Piya (Rob Laughlin) which won the last race today, and Greg Rowlings’ Another Toy.

Only one point separates the two top boats in Cruising Red, with Alumination (Ian Brett) scoring two wins today following a fourth in Friday’s twilight race and Steve Mannering’s Camlet Way following her Friday evening win with a 2-4 score today.

Tarangau (David Paine) heads the Cruising non-spinnaker division on 10 points (2-5-3) from Deep South (Bernard Chernery) and Chatterbox (Andrew Wilson)

The new Production Cruising division attracted five starters with David Creese sailing Michelle to a 2-1 score, just one point ahead of Birngana (Ernest Targett) with another point to Pretty Woman (Brian Watchorn).

The high performance SB20 sportsboat class is using the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta as its Tasmanian championship with Brainwave (Scott Brain) currently heading the leaderboard with five points from a 1-1-1-4 score.

Wedgewood (David Graney) won race four today day to be on eight points (2-2-3-1) while Hypertroncs (Steve Catchpool) is third overall on 16 points (3-5-2-6).

Port Dalrymple Yacht Club entrant Lickety Split (Sam Edmunds) has won all three races so far in the Sportsboat Tasmanian championship which is being sailed as part of the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta.

In the Trailable Yacht state championship Kari (Richard Grant) and Femme Fatalle (John Penman) are one point apart after three races. Kari has had a 2-1-2 score, Femme Fatale placing 3-2-1. Third overall is More Mischief (Mike Darby) on 8 points (1-3-4).

The Crown Series Bellerive Regatta continues on Sunday with racing on keelboats, sports boats, trailable yachts and off-the-beach dinghies and catamarans.