A tasty Easter treat
EASTER this year will be a real “regatta weekend” south of Hobart, with two traditional events melded into one.
Entries are now open for the 2018 Port Esperance Easter Regatta, to be held in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel and on Port Esperance on Saturday, March 31, and Sunday, April 1.
And entries are also open for another traditional Channel regatta, the Barnes Bay Regatta. This is usually held over the last weekend of March, which meant that, with an early Easter this year, the two events overlapped.
Organisers of both regattas have planned a weekend to enable sailors to be part of both.
The Port Esperance Easter Regatta consists of three series of sailing races: for racing keelboats; for cruising keelboats; and for off-thebeach yachts.
Features of the regatta include the William Jackson Memorial Cup for keelboats, the B.K. Price Trophy for offthe-beach yachts, and the Noel Doepel Memorial Trophy for classic boats.
The great weekend of sailing will combine the Kingborough Boating Club’s Barnes Bay regatta and the Port Esperance Sailing Club’s regatta.
The Barnes Bay Regatta will be held on Friday, March 30, with presentations and a barbecue on the Friday evening at Barnes Bay.
Then, the Port Esperance Sailing Club’s Regatta will kick off on the Saturday morning with a race from Barnes Bay to Dover.
Participants will enjoy a welcome spit roast on Saturday evening at the Port Esperance Sailing Club at Dover, and on the Sunday there will be a curry night and the presentation of trophies.
Online entry forms (to be submitted by March 27) and Notice of Race are available at the Port Esperance Sailing Club website, www.pesc.com.au
For more information phone Matt Wardell on 0428 279 002 or email commodore@pesc.com.au
Barnes Bay Regatta Notice of Race is available from the Kingborough Boating Club at www.kingboroughboatingclub.com.au or contact Peter Williams on 0418 122 039.
All about ambergris
THE next regular lunchtime talk presented by the Maritime Museum of Tasmania will give a fascinating introduction to the origins and use of one of the rarest substances in the world — ambergris, which comes from the sperm whale and is used in the production of the finest perfumes, incense and religious anointing oils.
Professor Michael Stoddard, a researcher and MMT committee member and author of the recently published book Tassie’s Whale
Boys, will give the talk in the Royal Society Room of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery from noon to 1pm on Tuesday.
Darcey’s delight
THE oldest competitor in the radio-control yachting Australian and Tasmanian championships, 83-year-old Peter Darcey, has won the inaugural DF95 class title.
Darcey sailed his yacht to three wins in 18 races for the George Fish Memorial Championship last week, finishing just two points ahead of Lisa Blackwood.
Ray Joyce finished third overall, with all three being members of the Risdon Brook Radio Control Yacht Club.
The DF95 championship concluded two weeks of continuous sailing in the Australian and Tasmanian championships for radiocontrol yachts, hosted by the Montrose Bay Yacht Club and the RBRYC.
Eighteen competitors lined up the final event, with light winds throughout, in contrast to the somewhat wild weather during the national titles.
Darcey sailed consistently throughout the DF95 state championship, as did Blackwood, who in addition to being a regular radio yachting enthusiastic also races an International 2.4m class single-handed yacht.
The organisation of the national titles — which attracted 53 entries, including some from the US and New Zealand — attracted considerable praise from competitors.
In an email to local radio control club members, RBRYC Vice Commodore Ray Joyce said mainland competitors had been “amazed at the efforts our club had put in … totally focused on the smooth running of the nationals”.
Titles on the line
THERE is still another national sailing championship to be held on the River Derwent this season — the 21st annual Australian open titles for the International 2.4m class over the March long weekend next week.
The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania has received more than 12 entries from New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and a growing Tasmanian contingent for the eight-race series.
Tasmanian Matt Bugg, who won a silver medal at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics in 2016, is back on his home waters and aiming to take out his eighth consecutive Australian open championship.
Bugg, who was recently married, is one of three past Australian champions in the fleet, the others being veteran Peter Russell and Peter Thompson, both from the ACT.
The local fleet is headed by Royal Yacht Club of Tasmanian Vice Commodore Stephen “Rowdy’’ McCullum.
An interesting newcomer to sailing 2.4s on the Derwent is Bob Willis, whose sailing has included the highperformance, one-man Contender dinghy.
Also sailing a 2.4m is Jon Holmes, a noted Hobart-based builder of radio-controlled yachts.
A late entry is expected from Lisa Blackwood, who has for the past two weeks been competing in the Australian and Tasmanian championships for radiocontrolled yachts.
She finished a creditable sixth in the nationals for the International One Metre (IOM) class and a close second in the DF95 class, sailed off Montrose Bay Yacht Club.
Blackwood finished runner-up to Matt Bugg in the 2013 Australian championships for the 2.4m class, also on the Derwent.