Sailing history was made on the River Derwent today as crews and individual sailors raced for their Tasmanian championships in International Dragons, Sharpies and Lasers.
For the first time a woman, Kirsty Salter, won the Tasmanian championship for the Sharpie class.
Champion Nick Rogers won yet another State championship in the International Dragons, this time with an unprecedented eight straight wins.
Kirsty Salter, with her crew of husband Julian Salter and his uncle Stephen Salter, sailed Gun Smoke to win four of the six races conducted over the weekend by the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, placing second in the other two.
Gun Smoke finished with 6 points, well clear of former Australian champion crew of One Hump or Two, sailed Drew Latham, Nick Carter and Nick (Camel) Johnston, on 10 points. They won two races.
Bonfires (Oli Burnell, Toby Burnell and Josh Brown) finished third on 13 points in near perfect day for racing the high-performance Sharpies.
Nick Rogers, the current World Corinthian and Masters and Australian champion in the classic Dragon class outsailed a small but competitive fleet in the 2020 Tasmanian championship, winning all eight races in Karabos IX.
West Australian, Sandy Anderson, flew in from Perth to sail her brand new, Tasmanian-build Ridgeway Dragon. Sandy gave Nick plenty of competition, finishing second in seven races with Andrew Blakney finishing a close third in Wicked.
The RYCT also ran the State championships for the International Laser class over the weekend, with Sam King winning the Laser Standards, Tony Tate the Laser Radials and Daniel Maree the Laser 4.7s.
– Peter Campbell
