By Peter Campbell
Australian champion Lucy Shepherd, proved too smart for the opposition, including International Cadet champion Alec Baileu, in the International 420 class in Saturday’s first day of racing for the off-the-beach classes at the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta.
Sailing in 20 knot-plus winds, Lucy helmed Clueless to four straight wins while Alec, sailing in his first regatta with a 420, finished runner-up in three races, but did not finish race two in the boisterous conditions. Lucy leads the series with 4 points while Bailey is on 18 points.
Lindisfarne Sailing Club is conducting the off-the-beach class racing on two courses with more than 100 boats competing in a range of adult and junior classes.
The B14 skiffs provided some spectacular downwind sailing with results shared between between three boats in the three races sailed. No boats fronted up for race four as the winds freshened to 25 knots-plus.
Bonework (Scott Cunningham) is on 12 points from a first and two seconds, Budget (Adrian Beswick) is on 14 points with a first, a second and fourth, while Bondi Tram (Stephen Mitchell) is on 20 points. The third race winner was Good Question (Grant Atherton).
In the Laser class, Sandy Bay Sailing Club’s Elliott Noye (Shake N Bake) and the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s George Jones (Gutted Rabbit) are equal on 6 points after four races, each notching up two firsts and two seconds with some fine sailing in the strong winds and short, steep waves.
Two boats are also sharing first place in the Laser Radials after four races, with Zac Pullen (Crude Oil) from RYCT scoring two firsts, a second and a third, and Angus Barton (Tiller Happy) from the Tamar Yacht Club notching up a first and three seconds. Both are on 6 points going into today’s final racing.
In the Laser 4.7 class, Dylan Gore (Son of Cod) had three wins and two seconds to finish the day on 7 points, followed by Sophie CHesterman (Export Roo) and Kailas Johnson (Ninja) both on 13 points.
One of the strongest fleets was the NS14 class, with Norwegian Blue (Scott Wilkie) from Lindisfarne Sailing Club, leading the series on 7 points, with two wins, a second and a third. Holding second placed on 12 points is another Lindisfarne boat, Gumblossom (Dennis Leitch) while third on 14 points is Alaska (Greg Rowsell) from Port Dalrymple Yacht Club.
In the International Cadets, Sandy Bay Sailing Club’s Ella Connor, sailing Sirocco, leads after five races with 8 points and a fine scorecard of 1-1-1-4-1, followed by Meltemi (Madeline Salter) on 13 points and Drop Bears (Charlie Connor) on 14 points.
Two-times Australian champion Jessie Atherton, sailing Kamikaze from Kingston Beach Sailing Club dominated the International Mirror class, winning all five races.
The Sabots were strongly represented, with Priceless (Aleksandrs Price) from Derwent Sailing Club, heading the pointscore after five races yesterday, winning three and placing second and third. He is on 8 points, but In the Limelight (Robbie Hunt) is on 11 points with a score of 2-2-1-2-4.
The Sabot Development class had a high attrition rate with Thomas Cooper in Snap-E-Tom winning four of the five races.
The adult dinghy class, the single-handed Sabres, saw close competition with Jeremy Fish, sailing XS from the Deviot Sailing Club, leading on 10 points after five races with a scorecard of 3-3-2-1-1 from Lindisfarne Sailing Club’s Matthew Pearce sailing Tenacity on 11 points from a score of 1-2-13-4.