There may still be snow on Mount Wellington and the morning temperature down to 4 degrees but today was a perfect spring day for the final Winter Series race day conducted by the Derwent Sailing Squadron on the River Derwent.
The DSS along with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and the Bellerive Yacht Club have taken turns in running Sunday morning races throughout Hobart’s winter race, with fleets of more than 35 yachts out on the river – sometimes after chipping ice off the rigging.
Today, however, was clearly a spring day, crews enjoying perrfect sailing conditions, a bright sunny and relatively warm Sunday morning with a steady 10-12 knots nor’wester blowing down the sparkling River Derwent.
Despite placing last on corrected time in today’s final race of DSS Winter Series, Wayne Banks-Smith’s Farr 40 War Games has won the Division 1 pennant.
With today’s placing the discard, War Games finished with a net 8 points from fan otherwise excellent scorecard with placings of 4-1-2-1 in the Cleanlift Marine-sponsored Winter Series.
The powerful Farr 40 finished two points clear of Fred Barrett’s sports boat, Fang to the Max, which finished third today, following placings of 1-3-(4)-3 over the winter.
Third overall, on 17 points, was the Sydney 38 Ciao Baby II with skipper Gary Cripps enjoying his first win of the series, a victory that gave Ciao Baby II third place on a countback from Planet X (Mick Rowley).
War Games and Toby Richardson’s Barrett-designed 38-footer X & Y once again had a close duel for line honours. X & Y led around the leeward mark off Nutgrove Beach for the first round but War Games was in front the second time only to lose the lead due to a slow spinnaker drop.
At the finish, X & Y was 32 seconds in front of War Games and on corrected times it was the same order – but they were second last and last respectively in the fleet.
Today’s racing produced wins for the first time in the Winter Series to Ciao Baby II in Division 1 and also for octogenarian skipper John Hunn, helming Atilla in Division 2.
Ciao Baby II won Division 1 from Planet X (Mick Rowley) and Fang to the Max (Fred Barrett) while Atilla took out Division 2 from Spare Time (Shane Powell) and the Syndicate-owned Wildfire.
The third place for Wildfire was sufficient for the Farr 31 to win the Winter Series by two points, turning in a consistent series scorecard of 3-(4)-3-1-3 for a net 10 points.
Countbacks were needed to decide second and third after Rousabout (Derek Inglis), Spare Time (Shane Powell) and Vasco (Graeme Harrington) each finished with a net 12 points. Two wins gave second place to Rousabout, one win was the key factor in Spare Time’s overall third.
Just one point separated Greg Biskup’s Malbec 24 Vistula and Graham Hall’s Serenity after today’s final race for Division 3. The two had been on equal points after discard going into race five, but Vistula’s second giving it the winning score of a net 6 points from Serenity which placed fifth on corrected time, giving it a net 7 points.
Third place overall and last race winner was Paul Einoder’s Off-Piste on 14 points.
Peter Campbell
