8:10 AM Tue 29 Dec 2009 GMT
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'Mr Kite'
Peter Campbell ©
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Champion Hobart yachtsman Andrew Hunn today turned on a brilliant display of tactical sailing and helmsmanship to take line honours in the Sargisons Jewellers Launceston to Hobart with his state-of-the-art 40-footer Mr Kite.
The victory was a fitting reward for the time and effort that Hunn and his crew have put into overcoming the many advanced technical problems that have plagued the Cape 40 since she was launched two seasons ago.
Hunn, a prominent Hobart neuro-surgeon, has been one of Tasmania's best sailors since his youth, in Cadets, Sharpies and Etchells to name a few of classes, but until this season has had little joy with the innovative Mr Kite.
However, line honours and PHS handicap wins in the Maria Island Race, set the pattern for an outstanding effort in the 285 nautical mile L2H, Tasmania's newest and fastest growing ocean race with 35 entries this year.
In a race of fluctuating winds and fortunes, Mr Kite led the fleet to sea from the Tamar River on Sunday then lost and regained the lead several times to rivals The Fork in the Road, Gary Smith and Geoff White's Bakewell-White
45 and Mark Ballard's radical Stompcraft 38, 42 South as the fleet sailed down the Tasmanian East Coast.
Today, after being virtually alongside 42 South in Storm Bay, Mr Kite was the first to pick up the early morning northerly and accelerated away from her rivals as she headed for the Iron Pot, the entrance to the River Derwent.
She sailed out of Storm Bay just as the forecast south-westerly front brought 25-35 knot winds sweeping across the bay, although she had a reef in her mainsail until near the finish.
From being less than a mile apart south of Cape Raoul, Mr Kite dashed away from her rivals to cross the finish line off Hobart's Castray Esplanade at 11:10:51, just over 20 minutes ahead of The Fork in the Road which finished
at 11:30:59.
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The Fork in the Road - Peter Campbell ©
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Fork in the Road won a boat-for-boat duel with 42 South, which finished at 11.32.39. All three boats held the lead at some stage of the race.
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42 South - Peter Campbell ©
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In fourth place around Tasman Island was Dianne Barkas' Sydney 38, Sullivans Cove Whisky, followed by John Brierley's catamaran Deguello and Richard Fisher's Beneteau 40.7 Blue Sky, and Whistler skippered by David Rees. Ms Barkas reported battling 35 knot south-westerly headwinds across Storm Bay.
However, the rest of the fleet, in the lee of the Tasman Peninsula have little wind at that stage and are not likely to finish until late tonight or tomorrow morning.
Handicap results will not be known until all boats have finished, but positions later this afternoon should indicate the boats with the strong prospects in the IRC, AMS and PHS handicap categories.
by Peter Campbell
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Sailing
