Rescue effort pays off

HOBART sailmaker Michael Hutchinson may well have had the Rolling Stones in mind when he named his yacht Emotional Rescue, but the rescue side of things is certainly true.

Emotional Rescue is a Hobie 33, one of 200 ultralight displacement yachts built by Hobie Yachts, the famous racing catamaran designs and builders, in the US in the 1980s, but the only one in Australia.

Hutchinson found the hull abandoned in a paddock on the mainland, rescued and resuscitated it, and gave the yacht a new name and a new life in Tasmania — a successful one, too.

Next weekend Hutchinson will be out to complete a hattrick of wins in the 50th Pipe Opener Series, the traditional pre-season regatta leading up to the opening of the yachting season in southern Tasmania.

The Pipe Opener starts with a night race from Hobart next Friday evening, September 21, taking an expected fleet of 30 keelboats down the Derwent and D’Entrecasteaux Channel to Garden Island at the mouth of the Huon River.

The traditional Cock of Huon race is sailed off Shipwrights Point on Saturday afternoon, with a return race from Port Huon to Gordon on Sunday morning.

Emotional Rescue has won the AMS handicap category of the night race and the Cock of the Huon the past two years, as well as the Cock of the Huon race in 2016, the prestigious title being decided on PHS handicaps across three divisions.

Last year, the Hobie 33 was also declared equal overall winner of the Launceston to Hobart offshore race.

This also will be the first time the international IRC rating rule has been used in the Pipe Opener Series.

The changes have already encouraged a spike in entries for the Derwent Sailing Squadron’s 50th Pipe Opener, with 24 yachts already nominated. Entries close next Wednesday, September 19.