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Transfusion Photo: Dane Lojek / Farr 40 |
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Photo: Dane Lojek/Farr 40 |
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Photo: Dane Lojek/Farr 40 |
Transfusion’s two thirds, a second and a first on Hobart’s Derwent River today, Wednesday 19th February, has them three points ahead of Lisa and Martin Hill’s Estate Master. It’s a useful first phase psychological advantage in the season-ending four day regatta.
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Photo: Dane Lojek/Farr 40 |
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Voodoo Chile Photo: Lulu Roseman |
After a day of respite the one design fleet launched back into competition in 6-10 knots of shifty SSW breeze. It was a text book day on the race management side according to IRO Nick Hutton, his on-water team banging off four races of two laps each in quick succession.
A mile up the river and downwind from the Farr 40 racetrack there was a glassy calm patch where club racers were at a standstill, the whimsical Derwent River up to its usual tricks.
The onus is on the duo of Turner and Slingsby to pick the right side of the course. “It’s not the easiest place to pick the shifts,” admitted Turner. “You have to be looking up the course all the time, and be patient. There were passing lanes everywhere.”
Describing the finish of race one 200 metres from the line Turner, a well-known Moth sailor said, “You could have thrown a doona over five of us we were that close. In that distance Estate Master went from first to fifth.”
Tomorrow’s forecast is for NW winds 10-20 knots increasing to 15-25 knots around midday and to 20-30 knots in the late afternoon. The class’ upper limit is 25 knots consistent and given the heavy air forecast for tomorrow and Friday the maximum number of races has been reduced from 16 to 12 and to constitute a series four races is the new minimum.
“Strong NW then SW breezes are our two least welcome winds and they are talking about 25-30 knots at times,” said regatta IRO Nick Hutton. “It was great we had a gentle start today. We will be making some hard decisions tomorrow.”
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Local Mocean Photo: Dane Lojek |
Skipper Steven Richardson said they made some changes to crew positions after the state title and today they showed they can match the others on boat speed.
“Our teamwork is coming together, that’s where we are improving the most each day we sail. The Tasmanian title was our first time together with this team. We are getting to know what everyone does.”
On tomorrow’s forecast he added, “We haven’t done much heavy weather racing with this crew. We should be alright. We had our big wipe-out in the states. Hopefully that’s it for us. We’ll have a quiet night and save our energy for tomorrow.”
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