Banjo's Shoreline Crown Series Bellerive Regatta at Bellerive YC - Day 2
by Jane Austin 15 Feb 06:53 PST
14-16 February 2020
Guilty Pleasures VI Gary Gripps and Hughie Lewis - 2020 Banjo's Shoreline Crown Series Bellerive Regatta © Jane Austin
A dismasting, shredded spinnakers and wipe-outs - tough going or easy sailing, it just depends on who you talk to about Saturday's racing in the 2020 Banjo's Shoreline Crown Series Bellerive Regatta.
Saturday morning's grey clouds gave way to blue skies and steep seas when a fresh 15 to 20 knot south easterly breeze, gusting to 25 knots, filled in on the first full day of sailing in the three-day regatta. Over 110 entries including keel boats, one-design SB20s and a strong off-the-beach fleet battled tough conditions on the River Derwent in Hobart.
Midnight Rambler (Ed Psaltis) had a formidable day winning two of four races in the Racing Division One for keelboats and is leading on IRC, AMS and performance handicap.
Chris Sheehan (Assagai) has set the pace early in Performance Cruising Division 1, leading on AMS and performance handicap while Zephyr (Ian Johnston) is leading IRC. Assagai crew member Troy Grafton wasn't fazed by the wind or the waves today and found the going reasonably good.
"We had some good rides - it wasn't shifting or gusty which made it simple, except for the gybes. We got airborne a few times upwind and had good surfing downwind," said Grafton.
Young One (Nathan Mills / Jay Nibbs) is leading Division 2 on performance handicap from Ambition (Michael Jones) from the Port Dalrymple Yacht Club and leads on AMS from Detail First (Scott Broadby). CommBank (Craig Escott) is leading Division 3 from Innovator (Ian Smith/Dean Aberle).
Dynamo (Stephen Davidson) has continued her twilight race form and is leading on performance handicap from Mulgannon (Steve Brown) in Division 4, while Shrinkedge (Andrew Jones) is leading the Division 5 trailables, with the fleet sailing only three races today after being sent ashore due to increasing winds.
In the SB20 Tasmanian Championship, sailed as part of the regatta, Ambition (Chris Dare) from Victoria is leading on one-design (five points) from SB20 Australian President Stephen Catchpool sailing Rebellion and Porco Rosso (Paul McCartney). The SB20 fleet saw one collision, one dismasting, broken spreaders and three man overboard situations which were all safely resolved.