Ella Connor sailing Sirocco in the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta. 
By Peter Campbell
Sandy Bay Sailing Club’s Ella Connor almost made a cleansweep of the International Cadet Dinghy class at the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta which ended today, winning all but one of the seven heats sailed on the River Derwent.
Sailing Sirocco, Ella, 15, beat a firstclass fleet of teenage boys and girls, in the one-design class, with Meltemi (Madeline Salter) coming second, third place going to Oliver Burnell sailing Winning Edge.
Ella young brother Charlie (9) finished fifth at the helm of Drop Bears in his first season as a helmsman.
Ella and Charlie are the daughter and son of Dave Connor, the former world champion in the Fireball class and Seoul Olympian in the Flying Dutchman class, sailing both times as crew for Gary Smith.
Oliver Burnell is also the son of a former word champion in International Cadets, Paul Burnell, who is now Commodore of the Sandy Bay Sailing Club.
In the International Mirror class, two-times Australian champion Jessie Atherton sailing Kamikaze from Kingston Beach Sailing Club, won all seven races to convingly take out the series from Foxy Lady 3 (Daniel McAully) also from Kingston Beach and Xcel-erate (Max Davey) from Deviot Sailing Club.
Only two points separated the first two boats in the strongly contested Laser 4.7 class, with another Kingston Beach club member, Dylan Gore, sailing Son of Cod to victory from Sandy Bay’s Sophie Chesterman, sailing Export Roo. Dylan Gore had three wins, three seconds and a third, Sophie, two wins, three seconds and a third. Third place went to Kailas Johson, sailing Ninja, also from KBSC, who won the last race for a fine score of 3-3-3-1-3-3-1.
Dylan Gore sailing Son of Cod (169434)
In the Sabots, Aleksandrs Price, sailing Priceless, also turned in a fine series with four wins, two seconds and a third, to finish just two points clear of Robbie Hunt, sailing In the Limelight, third place going to XLR8 (David McAully). All three a members of the DSS/RYCT Dinghy Group.
The Sabot Development division went to Port Dalrymple Sailing Club’s Thomas Cooper sailing Snap-E-Tom who won six of the seven races. Snap-E-Tom also won the Mixed Class Yardstick division from the Optimist (Samantha Bailey).
Australian champion Jessie Atherton in her Mirror Kamikaze (69196)
Lindisfarne Sailing Club’s Matthew Pearce, sailing Tenacity, sailed a consistently topscoring regatta to win the Sabre single-handed adult dinghy class. With three wins, two seconds, a third and fourth, he finished three points clear of Andrew Roberts sailing Precious Pumpkinfrom Lindisfarne, and XS (Jeremy Fish) who trailered his boat down from Deviot Sailing Club on the Tamar.
In the Herons, the winner was Family Ties (Tyler Crook) from Lindisfarne Sailing Club.
