Bluewater racers seek to be King of Derwent

HOBART’S King of the Derwent will today celebrate its 40th anniversary.

The traditional race, held on January 2 each year, brings together fleets from the Launceston to Hobart, Melbourne to Hobart Westcoaster, as well as local harbour racing boats.

The race around the buoys starts at 2pm with marks as close to the shore as possible to provide the public on land a close-up view of the yachts in action.

A large fleet of spectator craft traditionally also follows the fleet from the start.

Unfortunately, The Fork in the Road, last week’s Launceston to Hobart line honours winner and an expected frontrunner in this race, is an unlikely starter.

“We blew out our two big spinnakers in the ‘Launie race’, so unless it is blowing half a gale and we can use our storm kites, we won’t be racing,’’ skipper Gary Smith said yesterday.

“It’s a pity, because the King of the Derwent is such a great event, with a fleet of big boats sailing around the cans here on the river.”

The crew of Peter and Catherine Cretan’s Tilt yesterday were working to repair the yacht’s torn mainsail which forced the Marten 49 to retire from the Launceston to Hobart will in the lead. Tilt could be a potential line honours winner of the 20 nautical mile race.

The line honours winner of the Westcoaster, Lawrence Ford’s Spirit of Downunder, is expected to compete along with most of the other fully crewed boats in that race and should be one of the front runners with competition from local harbour racers X&Y (Toby Richardson) and War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith).

The 2017 King of the Derwent, Shaun Tiedemann’s Philosopher (decided on IRC handicaps), also has not entered as a number of key crew members are racing in the SB20 pre-Worlds regatta, which starts tomorrow. Other harbour racing keelboats may be affected by lack of crew for the KOD for the same reason.

The King of the Derwent is the third and final race in the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria’s Sovereign Series, comprising the Cock of the Bay on Port Phillip, the Melbourne to Hobart (M2H) and today’s race.

Most of the Tasmanian and Victorian boats in the Launceston to Hobart (L2H) will be sailing for the Derwent Sailing Squadron’s Launceston to Hobart series title. This series comprises the Beauty Point to Low Head, followed by the L2H and the KOD.

Phil Soley’s ‘’half tonner’’ Mako, which made a clean sweep of the L2H handicap results, is a definite starter.