6:54 PM Sun 14 Mar 2010 GMT
The International Dragon class is one of the classic one-design yachts in the world and with the World Championships to be sailed on Melbourne's Port Phillip in 2011, there is a resurgence of interest in Australia.
With two new Dragons recently joining the Hobart fleet, local sailors this Saturday morning will run a 'boat camp' to give other sailors an opportunity to crew in, or steer, one of these classic one-design classes on the Derwent.
'We hope to stimulate interest among yachtsmen to participate in the wonderful one-design class racing offered by the Dragon,' former world champion and ten-times winner of the prestigious Prince Philip Cup Australian championship Nick Rogers said today. 'We plan to gather at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania about 9.30am for a briefing and then take sailors out for a couple of hours racing over a short course on the river.
There are a number of seldom-sailed Dragons at the RCYT and we hope the experience of sailing such a classic yacht will bring more people into a class that has endured over the years.'
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The new Dragon Xanthos being lowered into the River Derwent at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania - Peter Campbell ©
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The International Dragons will sail their Tasmanian championship over the weekend of 27-28 March and following that at least two Tasmanian boats, Rogers' Karabos IX and Andrew Crisp's Leander, will be taken to Melbourne to compete in pre-worlds regatta on Port Phillip as a lead-up to World Championships on the bay in 2011.
The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania on Saturday will conduct its final day of Pennant racing for the season on Saturday - in fact, with two or possibly three Pennant races for Division 1 yachts.
The sailing committee has decided to resail race three of the Division 1 Pennants which was abandoned following a number of protests arising from confusion when the original Pennant race was sailed as part of The Showdown Regatta last October.
The re-sail will be in the morning with more than 40 boats expected to compete in the afternoon racing, with Division 1, Farr 40s, 9-Metre class, J24s and Dragons racing over windward/leeward courses mid-river, with up to two races planned if there is a good breeze. Divisions 2 and 3 will start from Castray Esplanade.
Going into the resail and possibly two afternoon races, David Bean's Beneteau 44.7 Auch holds a five point lead from Don Calvert's Castro 40 Intrigue and Roger Jackson's Doctor Who. Intrigue heads the AMS pointscore, just one point near of Auch, with David Taylor's Sydney 36 Pisces in third place. Auch also heads the Performance Handicap pointscore from The Fork in the Road (Gary Smith) and Intrigue.
In the Farr 40 pointscore, War Games (Wayne Banks-Smith) holds a two point lead going into the afternoon Pennant Races from Wired (Stephen Boyes) with Voodoo Chile (Andrew Hunn and Lloyd Clark) four points back in third place. All five Farr 40s are expected to race on Saturday.
by Peter Campbell
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