Alpha course provided the fastest racing in The Showdown today with the A-class catamarans, Moth foilers, B14 skiffs and sailboards sharing the course.
It also saw a couple of incidents, including a collision between a catamaran and skiff and another between an A class cat and an International Cadet, neither fortunately causing serious damage.
Former International Cadet champion Alec Bailey and his crew Nelson Brown, sailing VMG, dominated racing in the International 420 class, coming though five races unbeaten. In the B14s, Strait4Devils, sailed by Adrian Beswick and Briony Van Galen, had a similar scorecard.
The Bic sailboard class saw a duel between father and son Tim and Hugh Jones, with just one point between the two at the end of day one of racing, Hugh scoring three wins to his father’s two.
The Laser Radials provided close racing but Zac Pullen, sailing Crude Oil, had the edge with four wins to be six points ahead of Dylan Gore, sailing Son of Cod.
The Showdown 2011 attracted the biggest fleet of the high-flying Moth foilers yet seen on the Derwent, with Julian Salter, sailing Rags Racing, holding a narrow points lead after five races from Eclipse (Peter Davies) and Impact (Will Logan).
Lindisfarne sailors Dennis Leitch and Blake Nicholson, sailing Seabreeze, so have won four of the five races in the NS14 class.
Lauderdale Yacht Club strongly supported The Showdown with their Paper Tiger catamarans with Australian champion Bruce Rose, sailing Flying High, enjoying four wins and a fourth today. In the mixed division for catamarans, the F18 Wicked, sailed by Darren Flanagan, heads the scoreboard with four wins and a second.
In the Formula Windsurfer class, the leader after day one of racing is Starboard1 (David Moorehead) also from Lauderdale Yacht Club.
Tasmania’s up-and-coming young sailors had a great day of racing on Course Bravo in the more sheltered waters of Sandy Bay, with Optimists, Sabots, International Cadets and Laser 4.7s sharing the course, along with Mirror dinghies. Joining the Sabots were nine boats from the Port Dalrymple Yacht Club on the Tamar River, with parents driving the youngsters south for the weekend. Also from Port Dalrymple was an Optimist.
Kingston Beach Sailing Club’s Gabriel Morrison, sailing Holy Mackrel, had an outstanding day in the Sabots, notching up two wins, a second and two fourth places in the 21-boat fleet, the biggest of the regatta.
Equal second going into day two are Starter Kit (Edmund Hargreaves) from the RYCT and Snap.E.Tom (Thomas Cooper) from Port Dalrymple Yacht Club. Ruby Edmunds, also from Port Dalrymple is leading the Sabot Junior (2up) class.
Hugo Hamilton from Sandy Bay Sailing Club has won four races in the Optimist class with Downunder to be three points clear of club mate Hugh Hickling, sailing R we there yet.
Sharing first place in the Mirror class is Pukeko (Matt Schofield) with a 1-3-4-1-1 scorecard and carpe Diem (Jenny Graney) whose placings today were 3-1-1-3-2.
Two young women who represented Australia at the Laser 4.7 class world championship in San Francisco in August, Sophie Chesterman and Anna Vaughan, head the scores in The Showdown. Sophie has had four wins and a second to be on 6 points, Anna is on 10 points with a win, three seconds and a third today.
Competition is rapidly rising in the International Cadet dinghy class, with Sandy Bay Sailing Club hosting the world championships in January 2013.
A dozen Cadets, all from SBSC, are contesting The Showdown, with the fleet including children of several past world champions.
At the top of the leaderboard is Samantha Bailey, who with her brother Alec twice finished in the top three at world championships for the Cadets. Samantha, who is in her first season as a skipper, had two wins and three seconds today at the helm of Sirocco to be on 8 points, four clear of Sirocco, skippered by Charlie Connor, who had two wins, a second and two third placings.
Peter Campbell
5 November 2011