Crown Series Bellerive Regatta 2010: Fleet of fast sports boats enter



2:30 AM Sun 14 Feb 2010 GMT
'Sports boats in action in the 2009 Crown Series Bellerive Regatta.' Event Media Click Here to view large photo
A strong fleet of Tasmania's fastest yachts, sports boats capable of downwind speeds under spinnaker of 20 knots and more - have entered for the 2010 Crown Series Bellerive Regatta.

Entries for the huge regatta close this coming Wednesday, 17 February, with Bellerive Yacht Club expecting more than 200 keel boats, trailable yachts and a wide range of off-the-beach classes to contest the regatta on 26, 27 and 28 February.

The Crown Series Bellerive Regatta 2010 will be held just over 157 years since the first Bellerive Regatta was sailed off Kangaroo Bluff on 20 January 1853. Although the original Bellerive Regatta lapsed some years ago, the current Crown Series Bellerive Regatta has gone from strength since a group of local yachtsmen revived the event in 2005.

This month's Crown Series Bellerive Regatta includes the Tasmanian Trailable Yacht Championship, with divisions for the high performance sports boats as well as conventional trailable boats. With the last Monday in the month a public holiday in Northern Tasmania, the regatta has already attracted entries for trailables and dinghy classes from northern clubs.

The sports boat fleet includes four Tasmanian boats that recently contested the National Sports Boats division of the Victoria Week Regatta at Geelong: David Shepherd's Elliott 780 Shaw Contracting, Sam Edmunds FBYD 7.5 Resin Dog and Mike Widdowson's Thompson 7, Pure Blonde, all from Port Dalrymple Yacht Club, and Fred Barrett's FBYD 6.4 Fang to the Max from Derwent Sailing Squadron.

This will be the first Tasmanian racing for Fang to the Max, designed and built by naval architect Barrett, which made its debut at Geelong with mixed results. Best Tasmanian boat result was eighth overall for Shaw Contracting.

Michael Denney's Wild West, the 30-foot winner of the AMS and PHS divisions of last weekend's 89 nautical mile Bruny Island Race, is among the early entries for the Division 1 and AMS divisions of the Crown Series, along with Stephen Chau's Sydney 38 Ciao Baby II and Ian Stewart's Mumm 36 Tas Paints.

Five Farr 40s are expected to race, with Hughie Lewis Euro Central already nominated.

Dinghy entries already include the high-performance B14s, Laser 4.7, International Cadets, Sabots, Sabres, Heron and NS14s.

Andrew Hunn's canting keel 40-footer Mr Kite yesterday took line honours in the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania's Pennant distance race to Little Betsy Island in Storm Bay in what is expected to be her final race of the summer. She is now up for sale after achieving a 3-2 line honours success against arch rival The Fork in the Road, skippered by Gary Smith, in this summer's offshore races in Tasmania. David Bean's Beneteau 44.7 Auch won both the IRC and AMS divisions.




by Peter Campbell




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