Aberdeen Farr 40 Tasmanian Championship at Bellerive Yacht Club - Preview
by Peter Campbell 3 Jan 2013 07:33 GMT
4-6 January 2013
2011 Farr 40 world champion Transfusion ahead of the Farr 40 Tasmanian Championships ©
www.sailpix.com.au
Farr 40s to turn on spectacular yacht racing on Derwent
Nine Farr 40s, the elite of international one-design yacht racing, from Sydney and Hobart, will do battle on Hobart's River Derwent this weekend in one of the most exciting and spectacular regattas held on the river, the Aberdeen Farr 40 State Title.
Four boats, Australian Farr 40 Owners Association president Guido Belgiorno-Nettis' Transfusion, Martin and Lisa Hill's Estate Master, Sam Hill's Forty and Yachting Australia president David Gotze's Enigma have come down from Sydney to join the local fleet of five boats.
Belgiorno-Nettis won the Farr 40 world championship in Sydney 2011 and gained a podium finish at the 2012 worlds in Chicago.
An interesting aspect of the local Farr 40s is that Andrew Hunn, co-owner with Lloyd Clark of Voodoo Chile, has chartered another local boat,Tilford Motor Group and renamed it Voodoo White to contest the regatta. Among is crew is 13 year old Angus Calvert.
Farr 40 sailing is a contest between evenly matched 40-foot racing boats, helmed by their skilled and competitive amateur owners and guided by world renowned tacticians. Many of their crew are international sailors.
The Tasmanian championship is part of the inaugural Eastern Seaboard Circuit of State championship for Farr 40s, starting with the Queensland series.
Conducted by Bellerive Yacht Club with the racing area off the Derwent's eastern shore between Howrah and Tranmere, racing is scheduled to start with an invitation twilight race on Friday evening, followed by full-on, boat-for-boat racing around the buoys on Saturday and Sunday.
The public will get a close-up view of the racing from the shore along Tranmere Road, while the event is expected to attract a large fleet of spectator boats on the river. Each day there will be several races over windward/leeward courses, starting from 11am.
The nine yachts competing in the championship are:
- Enigma, sail no. 6151; owner/helmsman David Gotze, tactician Steve McConaghy (Cruising Yacht Club of Australia)
- Estate Master, sail no. AUS 615; owner/helsmsman Martin Hill, tactician Michael Blackburn (Middle Harbour Yacht Club)
- Forty, sail no. 8001; owner/helmsman Sam Hill, tactician Will Ryan (Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron)
- POW, sail no. 6040; owner/helmsman Craig Clifford, tactician Harvey Gibson (Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania)
- Voodoo White, sail no. OD40; charterer/helmsman Andrew Hunn, tacticiain Rod Chamberlain (Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania)
- Transfusion, sail no. 6422; owner/helmsman Guido Belgiorno-Nettis, tactician Tom Burton (Middle Harbour Yacht Club)
- Voodoo Chile, sail no. 8888; owner/helmsman Lloyd Clark, tactician David Chapman (Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania)
- War Games, sail no. AUS 222; owner/helmsman Wayne Banks-Smith, tactician Steven Shield (Derwent Sailing Squadron)
- Wired, sail no. AUS 52074; owner/helmsman Stephen Boyes, tactician Matthew Foster (Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania)
