Farr 40 Class Founder, Geoff Stagg is
currently in Hobart to watch eight of Australia’s most competitive Farr 40s
battle it out for the National Championship and coveted John Calvert-Jones
Trophy. He was out on the Derwent River today and Ready About Yachting caught
up with him post racing.
“It was fantastic racing today particularly
Race 7, the last race of the day. The
Race Committee did a great job of finally setting up the line and he we had a
very square course. It was very windy, very puffy, very shifty and there were a
lot of lead changes at the top mark each time,” an enthusiastic Stagg said back
at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, the host club for the event.
“The final race of the day was the most
awesome competition. Transfusion got a great start, as did Estate Master, Wired
and Voodoo Chile. But there was plenty of carnage in this race because at the
first bottom mark rounding Wired had the inside position and managed to take
out Edake.
Skippered by Jeff Carter with young gun
tactician Evan Walker calling the shifts, Edake slipped from third place to
dead last with the spinnaker draped all over the deck.
“On the last beat Martin Hill (Estate
Master) had to perform a 720 degree penalty turn and was at the back of the
fleet. He came screaming down the run and managed to tick off four or five boats
to claim second place. That’s quite a feat to achieve from going from a red
flag to a second.
Stagg was impressed with Andrew Hunn and his
Voodoo Chile crew, with a newly repaired David Chapman calling the shifts,
sailed a great race to rack up another the win, their second for the day.
Chapman was forced to call on the services of his neurosurgeon Skipper yet
again after lacerating his leg during the Farr 40 Tasmanian State Titles on
Monday.
‘The boats were flying downwind doing
speeds in the vicinity of 17-19 knots by my estimation in perfect conditions
and there were very few wipeouts, plenty of control. Particularly in that last
race Andrew (Hunn) on Voodoo Chile steered the boat really nicely," Stagg said.
“Transfusion got a bit out of sorts towards
the end of the last race. On the beat they went to the right side of the race
track and that was expensive. It was a very tricky day out there and the first
part of the day it was absolutely the right hand side of the course and the
eastern shore. But later on in the day by the last race it was the western
shore that prevailed. And that’s where Transfusion got out of sorts. They went
up the last beat on the right hand should and they should have gone to the
left.
“Voodoo Chile and Estate Master read it
perfectly and on the next run they both extended away from Transfusion and
although Wired came up pretty rapidly they couldn’t the Tasmanian boat.
Lulu Roseman
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