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7:56 PM Sat 21 Feb 2009 GMT
 | | 'Crown Series Regatta'
Peter Campbell ©
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A 25-30 knot southerly coming straight up the Derwent River today played havoc with the dinghy, skiff and catamaran fleet but provided exhilarating and, at times, spectacular sailing for the big boats contesting the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta.
More than 20 centreboard boats were forced to retire as the strong wind in the afternoon whipped up a short steep chop against the outgoing tide, with many of the junior training class boats capsizing several times.
With rescue boats hard pressed in assisting a wide range of dinghies which had capsized or suffered damage, two fathers jumped in to the river to assist their sons bring their boats safely back to shore at the Bellerive Yacht Club in Kangaroo Bay.
Paul Burnell, Vice Commodore of Sandy Bay Sailing Club, jumped off a rescue boat to go to the assistance of his sons Oliver (11) and Roby (10) after their International Cadet class boat Just Add Water capsized for the second time. "Toby had also lost the boot of his wet suit," skipper Oliver said back ashore with a dripping wet dad.
Another Sandy Bay father, Gary Abel dived into the river from the shore along Victoria Esplanade when his son Sam's Optimist dinghy The Stig looked like being driven on to the rocky shoreline after breaking its rudder. Gary then steered the little dinghy into Kangaroo Bay by hanging on to the transom and kicking his legs.
Division 1 boats in general handled the conditions well, although there was some spectacular gybes and a crunching collision in which the Division 3 yacht Magnum (Colin Gray) suffered a huge hole in her port bow after being tee-boned by the Division 2 entrant Rumbeat (Justin Barr).
"We were damaged in this regatta last year and it had only been back in the water three weeks before this year's Crown Series," a crew member said as he surveyed the gaping hole. "We were both beating to windward in strong breeze when the collision occurred."
Magnum, Swarbrick-designed, plywood-hulled M27, had taken line honours in the morning race for Division 3 while Rumbeat had placed second on handicap in the first race for Division 2. Both retired from this afternoon's racing and limped back to their berths.
The Crown Series Bellerive Regatta, Tasmania's largest annual regatta, this
Year has attracted 200 entries, including 98 keelboats, the others being a mixes of dinghy and skiff classes and off-the-beach catamarans.
Bellerive Yacht Club's Jeff Cordell managed to follow the best of the light breeze to win the first race today, race two of the Crown Regatta which opened last evening with non-spinnaker twilight race for all keelboat divisions.
Steering his Mumm 36 Host Plus, Cordell won Division 1 on Performance and IRC handicaps, with Diane Barkas steering her Sydney 38 Asylum into second place under both handicaps. In Performance, the Farr 40 POW (Craig Clifford) place third, while under IRC, third went to line honours winner Marineline, Gary Smith and Geoff White's Bakewell-White 45.
Bellerive boats again dominated results in the second race, with another Mumm 35 Tas Paints, skippered by Ian Stewart, winning from Harold Clark in his venerable Farr 1104 Invincible and David Creese's Creese Property. Invincible took out IRC honours from two Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania yachts, Auch (David Creese).
The third race today saw some spectacular broaching among the big boats as they tried to carry big spinnakers downwind. "I had two wipe-outs," said Hughie Lewis, skipper of the Farr 40 Euro Central. "We had one without a spinnaker with Cyclone," chipped in International Dragon class national champion Nick Rogers.
Invincible won its second race on IRC handaps in the third race of the day while Sally Rattle in her Archambault 35 Archie won on PHS handicaps from Don Calvert's Intrigue.
After four races, including Friday evening's non-spinnaker twilight race,
Host Plus leads Division 1 PHS from Marineline and Archie, while in Division 1 IRC Invincible heads the leader board from Marineline and Intrigue.
In Division 2, Silver Mist (Andrew Sutherland) heads the pointscore after three races, Drumbeat (John Lewis) is at the top of Division 3, Trouble (Dave Williams) heads the 9 Metre division, Silicon Ship (Walter Knoop) the Half Ton Division, Camlet Way (Steve Mannering) Cruising Red and Portobello (Ian Johnston) Cruising Green.
The B14 skiffs provided spectacular racing in the afternoon conditions, with Rob Moreton's The Cunning Plan scoring two win, a third and a seventh to head the fleet pointscore.
by Peter Campbell
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Cape Sorell (Coastal), TAS
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