Hobart yachts gear up for Australian Yachting Championships amidst Winter Series
As anticipation builds for the prestigious Australian Yachting Championships set for January 2025, Hobart yachts are starting their preparations. The Derwent Sailing Squadron’s Winter Series has taken centre stage, with 22 yachts facing the harsh conditions brought by winter on the River Derwent. Vice Commodore Steve Chau describes the atmosphere on the race course as “lively, even steaming hot” on the cold mornings. This five-race series aims to fine tune boat handling skills across all sailing conditions, ensuring the fleet is in peak form for the upcoming summer season.
In Division 1 Intrigue (David Calvert) narrowly leads in performance handicap (PHS), as well as in both IRC and ORC rating divisions. The team of Intrigue will need to keep up their strong performance to maintain their lead in all three performance categories, as they are only leading on a scoring count back. The Farr 40, War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith), follows closely behind on equal points in the PHS division, and Midnight Rambler (Ed Psaltis) is putting the pressure on in IRC and ORC divisions, currently in 2nd and on equal points in both rating categories.
In Division 2, the Mt Gay 30 designed Prion (Donovan Oak) maintains a steady lead with consistent performances in the first two races. The crew of Prion will be hard to beat, with crew member Jory Linscott owing their standout performance to the broad array of experience on the crew for this series, “bringing their ideas to the table on how to get the most out of the boat”. The crew is gearing up for racing, hoping to deliver a win while the owner is overseas.
Division 2 may be made up of smaller boats in the fleet, however the competition is proving large. Seasoned operator John Dawson (Letoile) currently leads the PHS score in the division on four points. However, they can’t sit back and relax quite yet, as the bulk of the fleet sit closely behind, with only one and a half points separating ‘Firefly’ (Jimmy Dodd), ‘Off-Piste’ (Paul Einoder), ‘Serenity’ (Graham Hall) and ‘Cool Change’ (Chris Bobbi) placed second to fifth. The competition in this division is far from finished.
Racing kicks off on Sunday at 9:40 am, with stable north-westerly winds on the forecast, likely to bring another exciting morning of tight racing as we pass the halfway point of the Winter series.
Words: Amy Potter
Photo credit: Colleen Darcey
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