Tassie scores F18 championships

has secured the staging of the 2020 F18 catamaran national championships, expected to attract a fleet of between 40 and 50 boats.

The exciting Formula 18 class, or F18, is an off-thebeach catamaran open to any craft that come within a strict set of design specifications.

As such it is built by championships will be sailed on the open waters of Bass Strait at the weekend, using the same course area that Mersey Yacht Club will set for manufacturers worldwide and raced internationally.

Australian F18 class association president and Tasmanian sailor Darren Flanagan said Australia was fortunate in having two leading builders, Goodall Design and Windrush Yachts, building boats sold nationally and internationally.

Other international the Laser Australian and Oceania championships in early January.

No sooner than these championships are over, builders included Hobie, Nacra, Exploder and the French Cirrus.

He said since the inception of the class nearly 30 years ago, the F18 fleets had grown in every state, with state and national titles hotly contested..

“Tasmania has been represented at nationals for the past eight years and we are looking forward to Sargent, and many other young Laser 4.7 and Radial sailors, will be on the road back to Hobart where the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania hosting the 2020 titles at Lauderdale Yacht Club,” Flanagan said.

They will be preceded by the state championships to be conducted by the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Flanagan said anyone interested in being part of the state’s growing fleet could contact him for a test sail on 0407 486 381 or visit www.ausf18.org.au will conduct the prestigious Australian Sailing Youth Championships on the Derwent. Once the championship circuit has RENOWNED Tasmanian boat builder Ron Beltz will be well represented at next year’s Australian Wooden Boat Festival — and there will also be a family connection.

His grandson Stuart Beltz has recently returned from New Zealand where he has been helping the new owners of a Ron Beltz boat, Jeff Lawry and Pam Bray, to ready it for the trip to Tasmania for next February’s festival.

Mavourneen was one of the several boats built by Ron Beltz in the backyard of his Giblin St home in Hobart.

Although a builder, joiner and carpenter by trade, Beltz’s real passion was boat building.

Dinghies, with examples at the festival, were followed by a 10.5m motor launch Sand Peep also on show at the festival, a cruising/racing yacht Storm King (now under refurbishment in Sydney) and Mavourneen.

His largest boat was the well known 15.2m trawler Helen J, later lost at sea in a storm.