Mixed conditions

Two very different races completed on day two of Boags Sailing South Week in Hobart

Race Two

Defending champion Ichi Ban sailed back into top form in race two of the 2004 Boags Sailing South Race Week on a fickle Derwent River this morning.

The Farr 52, skippered by Matt Allen from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney, cleared out over the shortened six mile windward return course to comfortably hold her time over yesterday’s distance race winner, the Tasmanian boat Intrigue, skippered by Don Calvert.

Start of the race was delayed for 80 minutes until a light but unstable breeze came up the river, with principal race officer ‘Biddy’ Badenach shortening course to enable a second race to be sailed later in the day.

Out in front of the fleet, Ichi Ban’s tactician Roger Hickman picked the wind shifts correctly as the big boat dashed around the course in one hour 49 minutes, beating Intrigue by just over four minutes on corrected time.

International Sailing Federation (ISAF) vice-president David Kellett finished third at the helm of the Sydney 38, Pitch Black.

Bellerive Yacht Club’s Harold Clark sailed to first place in the IMS division with his aptly named Invincible, beating Skandia Cyclone (Stephen Keal) and Tequilla Slama (John Radonic) from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Another RYCT boat, Silver Mist (Andrew Sutherland) not only came out top Farr 37 in PHS Division 1, but also won the race outright from the Beneteau 40.7, Blue Chip (Colin Denny) with the Huon 10, Planet X (Mike Rowley).

Buggbear, Ron Bugg’s Van de Stadt 10, recovered from a disastrous race one to win PHS Division 2 from Rouseabout, a Bugg 35 skippered by Grahame Inglis, and the Kaufman 30, Sunview Homes (Robert Woehler).

In the Sportsboats, Shoot the Dog, an Elliott 7 skippered by Richard Fisher, a member of the Tamar Yacht Club and Port Dalrymple Yacht Clubs, scored a close-fought win from the Thompson 7, Max Power, a Mornington, Victoria, based boat skippered by Perth yachtsman Steve Battley.

Fastest time and third on handicap went to RYCT member Bruce Calvert, skippering his Thompson 8, ABN Amro Morgans.

Race Three, a bit more breeze...

The 20-year-old Tasmanian timber yacht Intrigue scored her second handicap win over the state-of-the-art carbon fibre Sydney champion Ichi Ban in this afternoon’s race three of Boags Sailing Race Week in Hobart.

In contrast to the postponed light breeze morning race, the afternoon race was sailed in wild west-south-westerly winds sweeping down from the western shore riverside hills in gusts of up to 35 knots.

Many yachts were caught unawares by the gusts and sharp changes in wind direction, with race leader Ichi Ban broaching and also involved in a port and starboard incident with a smaller boat.

Pitch Black turned on a spectacular “chinese’’ gybe in which a crew member was slightly injured.

Intrigue, a Castro 40 in which owner Don Calvert represented Australia at the Admiral’s Cup in 1985, won race three by 53 seconds on corrected time from Ichi Ban, Matt Allen’s two year old Farr 52. Intrigue now has two wins and a second, Ichi Ban a win and two seconds in the IRC handicap division.

While Calvert skippered Intrigue at the 1985 Admiral’s Cup, Allen, then a 23-year-old, was in the crew of Victorian Lou Abrahams’s Challenge.

“We made no mistakes in this afternoon’s race, carried a spinnaker on all running legs, anticipating the gusts and windshifts that always come when the wind blows across the river from the west,” Calvert said.

In the IMS Division Invincible (Harold Clark) scored its second win of the day.

In PHS division 1, Stephen Boyes steered It Happens to first place while Saga skippered by Kerry Boden won PHS Division 2.

The Cruiser division went to the Knoop 10.8, Fine Cotton, skippered by Gavin Anderson, taking line honours and first place on handicap after an excellent start in the early lights winds