Tamar River sportsboat sailor excel on the River Derwent

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Tamar River yachtsman Sam Edmunds missed out on sailing in his 17th Tasmanian Three Peaks Race with his father Bruce yesterday but instead scored a brilliant win of his own in the Australian Sportsboat Championships on Hobart’s River Derwent.

While Bruce Edmunds got his veteran yacht Haphazard away to a flying start in the Three Peaks Race at Beauty Point, Sam was coping with light and flukey winds on the Derwent with his Shaw 650, LIkety-Split.

The New Zealand-designed and built sportsboat was launched at the Port Dalrymple Yacht Club at Beauty Point only last weekend and yesterday’s 20 nautical mile passage race on the Derwent was its first competitive sail.

The past Tasmanian sportsboat champion and his crew of Col Dabner and Rob Moreton, both former B14 skiff champions, and longtime crew member Richard Wells sailed a fine tactical race in the light and variable breeze.

Twentynine boats from all eastern States are contesting the Australian sportsboat and trailable yacht championships over Easter, but only two mainland entries managed podium results yesterday.

Likety-Split won the sportsboat division on corrected time from the Queensland entry Kaito, Heath Townsend’s Melges 24, third place going to
Top Gear, skippered by Julian Salter from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Kettering Yacht Club entrants Priscilla, John Dryden’s Elliott 7.8 and Femme Fatale, John Penman’s Elliot 7.4, placed first and second in Division 2 for high-performance trailable yachts with Priscilla also taking fastest time.

Third overall was Bellerive Yacht Club entry Ellusive, Roly Huddlestone’s Elliot-design.

Paul Ransley, from the Albury Wodonga Yacht Club on the Murray River, proved that inland waters sailors can cope with open coastal waters by winning Division 4 with his Castle 650, Joint Adventure.

Ransley won from two evergreen TS16s from the Wynyard Yacht Club, Mike Darby’s More Mischief and John McMahon’s Pure Steel.

Today (Saturday) the fleet will sail three windward/leeward races on the Derwent.

In Buenos Aries, Argentina, Tasmanian sailor Anna Vaughan is still holding second place overall after eight races in the International Laser 4.7 world youth championships. Yesterday she placed 7th and 14th to be just three points behind the leader, a Croatian girl.

Peter Campbell

6 April 2012