Champs line up for titles

FOUR past overall IRC handicap winners of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race are among the elite fleet of 26 plus offshore racers expected to contest the Australian Yachting Championship in Hobart in early January.

The nation’s premier championship racing event for yachts handicapped under the International Rating Rule (IRC) is being held in Tasmania for the first time and has attracted entries from all states except South Australia.

This is the best national fleet since the event was introduced by Australian Sailing, with past regattas held at Hamilton Island, Sydney and Melbourne. The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania is holding this summer’s AYC.

Tasmania is strongly represented both in numbers and in quality of contenders, with the 2018 Sydney Hobart winner, Alive, skippered by Duncan Hine, the boat to beat in Division 1. Other past Sydney Hobart winners lining up for the six-race AYC are NSW boats Quest and Ichi Ban, also the defending IRC Division 1 champion.

Defending AYF Division 3 champion Willie Smith’s Philosopher, skippered by Shaun Tiedeman is expected to be a late entry today, along with Tim Gadsby’s Filepro, another past Sydney Hobart winner.

They will join other Tasmanian boats Mike Pritchard’s Oskana and Ed Psaltis’ Midnight Rambler with further Tasmanian entries being Ambition and Lawless from Port Dalrymple Yacht Club, As Good As It Gets (Bellerive Yacht Club), Rumbeat (RYCT), Whistler (RYCT), The Dog House (Kettering) and Temptation, from Port Esperence Sailing Club at Dover.