Regatta stars aboard

TASMANIAN entrants for the 75th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Midnight Rambler and Team Runaway, are among the first yachts to enter next weekend’s traditional Pipe Opener regatta in southern Tasmania.

Organised by the Derwent Sailing Squadron and the Huon Yacht Club, the Ronald Young & Co Builders Pipe Opener comprises a Friday night race from Hobart, down the River Derwent and D’Entrecasteaux Channel to Garden Island, the Cock of the Huon race off Shipwrights Point on the Huon River on Saturday, and a return race to Gordon in the Channel on Sunday.

The night race next Friday is the first in the Combined Clubs Offshore Perpetual Trophy series for the 2019-2010 summer, the others being the Bellerive Yacht Club Overnight Race, the Maria Island Race and the Bruny Island Race.

For both Midnight Rambler and Team Runaway and their prominent skippers, the coming Combined Clubs Summer Pennant series season will be their first in Tasmania as they prepare to join 10 other Tasmanian boats in the Sydney Hobart.

Owner/skipper of Midnight Rambler, a Sydney 36, is former Sydney yachtsman Ed Psaltis, a veteran of 37 Sydney Hobarts. Now living in Tasmania, Psaltis won the storm-battered 1998 Sydney Hobart with his Hick 34, named AFR Midnight Rambler.

Sailing partners Jo Breen and David Aplin recently bought Team Runaway, a Sayer 40 that was purpose-designed for shorthanded sailing.

Entries for the Pipe Opener close on Wednesday, with other early entrants including David Latham’s Pipe Opener, DSS Rear Commodore Will Justo Groove and two boats from Huon Yacht Club, Aqua-Fa (Don Kerr) and Calypso Magic (Michael Bartlett). SCOTT Brain, a prominent SB20 and offshore racing helmsman, has been elected Commodore of the Derwent Sailing Squadron, with Nick Connor continuing as Vice Commodore and Will Justo elected as Rear Commodore.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania elected Richard Taylor as Commodore, Tony Peach as Vice Commodore and David Bowker as Rear Commodore.