Combined Clubs Long Race Pennant Series - Preview

BYC Commodore Jeff Cordell's B&G Advantage © Peter Watson

The Combined Clubs Long Race Pennant kicks off on Saturday with the first race in the series to be conducted by the Bellerive Yacht Club.

Including courses in Storm Bay and the Channel, as well as transiting the tricky River Derwent, the race will see a fleet of over 40 boats greet the starter at 10:00.

This season, for the first time, the Hobart Combined Clubs Bellerive Yacht Club, the Derwent Sailing Squadron and the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania will be conducting separate pennant series for Long and Harbour races. This reflects the changing makeup of the fleets and boat owners' preferences.

For the coming season the Combined Clubs have decided to adopt the ORC Club rating system, alongside IRC and PHS, for handicap racing. ORC is a worldwide rating system that is expected to provide a more accurate rating for each boat than previous systems.

Saturday's race will see the resumption of battle in the Mumm 36s led by BYC Commodore Jeff Cordell's B&G Advantage. Madness, sailed by the Madness Syndicate, Joint Custody, also a syndicate boat, and Matthew Keal's Heatwave will all be working hard to ensure their Commodore doesn't have it all his own way.

In an expanded Group 2 Duane Pitt's canting-keel Costin 30 Blackout will be a top performer in the right conditions, taking it up to Andrew Parker's Arunga and Ambrose Coad's The Dog House. Promoted into Group 2 are Justin Barr's Rumbeat, Footloose (Stewart Geeves) and Bryan Walpole's Invincible who were top performers last season and are expected to be in the mix for handicap honours on Saturday.

The newly-formed Group 3 contains last year's Group 4 winner Innovator (Dean Aberle and Ian Smith) and Steve Mannering's Camlet Way as the boats to beat.

BYC are conducting the first race in their Cruise/Race Pennant series on Saturday 29 October with strong interest expected from the cruising fleet.