8:47 AM Sat 9 Jan 2010 GMT
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'Green Island Race'
Peter Campbell ©
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Long race specialist Robin Fleming today sailed his Northshore 34 Miss Conduct to a corrected time win in the Combined Club's annual Green Island Race, conducted by the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.
The first club race in Hobart since the big ocean races over Christmas-New Year, the 43 nautical mile race was sailed in perfect conditions. A freshening south-easterly breeze gave the 12 boat fleet a beat to windward down the River Derwent and into the d'Entrecasteaux Channel to Green Island, off Bruny Island's Missionary Bay, and then a fast spinnaker run back to Hobart.
With 25 to 29 knots recorded at the Iron Pot mid-afternoon, the fleet had an exciting run back across the entrance to the Derwent, although the breeze was lighter in the river, easing during the afternoon.
The Farr 40 Euro Central, skippered by Hughie Lewis, comfortably took line honours from David Taylor's Sydney 36 Pisces and Steve Chou's Sydney 38 Ciao Baby but corrected results saw the top three placings go to smaller boats.
The Green Island Race is one of a number of long day races over the summer that are proving popular with yacht owners as an alternative to the short windward/leeward on the bay. It also takes the fleet past some of the
striking shoreline south of Hobart, with its backdrop of mountains.
Conducted as a one-division PHS event, first place on corrected time went to Miss Conduct by 8 minutes 29 seconds from Graham Inglis' Rouseabout, with 1 minute 45 seconds to Ernest Targett's Birngana in third place.
Despite coming home on the flooding tide, the little Folkboat Tihany (Julius Szolvik) missed out on a win when she finished 12 minutes outside the time limit of 1830 hours.
Several more long races are on the program in Hobart for the next few weeks, with Bellerive Yacht Club's Pennant race next Saturday, 16 January, a long distance race. Then on Friday, 22 January, the Combined Clubs Offshore Race No 4 will be a night race to Nubeena on the western shore of the Tasman Peninsula as a lead-in to the annual Nubeena Regatta on 23-24 January.
Saturday, 6 February, will see the running of the RYCT's 84th Bruny Island Race of 89 nautical miles that circumnavigates the elongated island south of Hobart, with its long history of visits by the early navigators.
by Peter Campbell
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Manly, QLD
