Rival Mumm 36s share pennant honours at Bellerive

8:19 AM Sun 21 Mar 2010 GMT

'Cyclone' Peter Campbell &copy

The rivalry between prominent Hobart yachtsmen Jeff Cordell and Ian Stewart and their near identical Mumm 36s is an institution at their club on the eastern shore of the River Derwent, Bellerive Yacht Club.

Their clash in the annual Crown Series Bellerive Regatta in late February is known locally as the 'world championship' of Mumm 36s and in almost every race their contest it is a boat-for-boat duel around the course.

Their close encounters over the past summer season in Division 1 ended on Saturday when Bellerive conducted its final pennant day, with yet another duel for race and pennant honours.

In two windward/leeward races on the river, they finished barely more than a boat length apart - 4 seconds in the first, 13 seconds in the second race. Stewart's Tas Paints finished first across the line from Cordell's Host Plus Executive in both races, but a slightly more favourable handicap gave Host Plus Executive the margin on corrected time under both AMS and PHS handicaps.

The end result was a PHS pennant victory for Taspaints by just one point from Host Plus Executive, 13 points to 14 points, with third overall going to Michael Denny's Wild West. On the final day, Taspaints had a third and a
second, Host Plus a second and a first.

However, Cordell reversed the result in the AMS division, notching up another 2-1 result on Saturday to finish the season on 12 points, this time four points clear of Stewart who had a 3-2 result to finish on 16 points. Third overall was Sally Rattle's Archie on 18 points.

The AMS pennant win was a deserving one for Cordell, who has been the driving force in introducing AMS handicap system into Tasmania this past summer, with the Bellerive Yacht Club, the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and the Derwent Sailing Squadron all using it for Division 1 fleets. Other mixed fleet divisions are expected to use it next season as well as clubs on the Tamar River.

Another deserving pennant win was in Performance Cruising, introduced by Bellerive this past summer to cater for owners who would prefer to race longer courses that require less crew than the back-to-back windward/leeward
courses.

Driving force behind Performance Cruising has been Steven Keal with Cyclone, the one-time ocean racer that he has converted to a comfortable cruiser/racer. In particular, Keal sees the Performance Cruising division as attractive for owners of more cruising orientated yachts such as Beneteau, Bavaria, Hanse and Jeanneau production boats.

Cyclone won the Performance Cruising division pennant from Jibe Talkin' and Blue Chip (Colin Denney) and is planning to sail the yacht to the Whitsundays in the winter to contest similar divisions at the Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island Race Weeks.

A fleet of Farr 40s is now racing regularly on the Derwent, with the BYC pennant series going to Wired (Stephen Boyes) from Voodoo Chile (Lloyd Clark) and War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith) with Wired and War Games each
winning one of Saturday's final races.

Other Bellerive pennant winners decided on Saturday were Innovator (Ian Smith/Mike Jones) in Division 2, Alibi II (Rod Williams) in Division 3, Trouble (Dave Willans) in the 9m division, and Silicon Ship (Walter Knoop).

by Pater Campbell

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Rival Mumm 36s share pennant honours at Bellerive

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