'World championship' of short-handed sailing on the Derwent

7:52 AM Sun 18 Apr 2010 GMT
It's been billed as the 'world championship' of short-handed sailing, but certainly the Derwent Sailing Squadron's autumn short-handed series attracts the largest fleet of its kind in Australia, if not further afield.

Between 40 and 50 yachts, normally crewed by between five and ten crew, but limited to the skipper and one crew for this series, will be racing on the Derwent over the next five Sundays.

The racing is full on, with spinnakers and all, for yachts ranging in size from 25-footers to 50-footers, although there are also two non-spinnaker divisions.

The advantage Hobart sailors have over those who sail on other waterways is that the broad harbour reach of the River Derwent between the city and the eastern shore is relatively free of commercial traffic and, at this time of the year, has much less recreational boating activity.

Today, a perfect autumn morning attracted a fleet of 43 boats for the opening short-handed series race, with a 5-8 knot northerly breeze providing close racing in all four divisions. The racing started from 9.40am and entire the fleet had finished by 11.30am, good timing as this was when the breeze died away.

Division one (non-spinnaker) saw Derwent Sailing Squadron general manager Anthony Ellis steer his Lotus 10 Moonshadow to victory on corrected time from Molly Coddle (Andrew Mollison) and Seas the Day (Ken Cook).

Division four (non-spinnaker) saw a close result between the Adams-8 Grizzly Adams (Joel Bultman) and Halycon II (Kif Webster), third place going to Derwent Sailing Squadron Peter Geeves and Noni Walter sailing Lock-on-Wood.

The two spinnaker divisions produced some excellent teamwork, particularly in the gybing. The Farr 40 Voodoo Chile, skippered by Rod Chamberlain, led the Division two fleet around the course from yacht designer Fred Barrett and his father Noel in sailing Fred's 6.4m sports boat, Fang to the Max, but neither figured in the top three placings.

Another sportsboat, the Thompson-7 Temptation, trailered up from the Southport Sailing Club at Dover by owner Steve Harrison, won on corrected time from Trouble (Dave Willans) and Wild West (Michael Denney).

Division four saw a win for Portobello (Ian Johnston) from Elliott-4 (Colleen Darcy) and Leander II (Stewart Job). The single-handed 2.4 metre class yachts sailed three short races with Lisa Blackwood the best performer with a win and two seconds, Matthew Bugg had a first, a second and a third and Scott Brain finished with a second and two thirds.

by Peter Campbell