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2:10 AM Sat 11 Apr 2009 GMT
Australia's southernmost sailing regatta is being held this weekend at Dover, 83km south of Hobart on the shores of Port Esperance, a large bay on the eastern shores of the d'Entrecasteaux Channel.
The 2009 Huon Tasmanian Salmon Port Esperance Regatta got off to a good start yesterday with a win in the Kettering to Dover Race for Pam Kingston's Pisces II.
The race began in a very light north-easterly. With most of the fleet sticking to the eastern shore of the d'Entrecasteaux Channel, Mick Rowley's Planet X made a dash to the west. The Huon 10 was the first to get into the building southerly breeze and got a good break on the rest of the fleet.
With the pressure building to 15 knots the fleet tacked down the Channel before being able to lay Blubber Head off Dover's north shore in what became a 9 mile beat.
Planet X still had a good lead from Sally Rattle's Archimbault 35 Archie. Rain building from the south made the going uncomfortable but the fresh breeze made for splendid sailing.
Planet X crossed the line nine minutes ahead of Archie with Gavin Rigby's Adams 12 Pacific Flyer third in her first outing.
With pressure building to 20 plus knots the smaller boats were able to capitalise in corrected time. Pisces II won in 3:18:49 from Peter Masterton's Rhumun (3:23:39) and Ariadne's Clew (Derek Stoneman 3:40:05).
The regatta proper gets underway today with the first three races in the Boat Sales Tasmania Off-the-Beach series which has one design divisions for Sabres, NS14's, and Sabots as well as mixed fleet yardstick racing. Keelboats have their second race, a passage race from Dover to Zuidpool and Arch Rocks and return.
Sunday sees racing continue with the Skipper's Dinghy Race and the premiere one-off races, the B.K.Price Trophy for dinghies and the William Jackson Memorial Cup for keel-boats.
Entries are still open for these races. Contact Steve Harrison on 0413 403 326.
by Steve Harrison
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Sailing
