The Showdown - on the River Derwent

12:00 PM Fri 30 Oct 2009 GMT

'The Showdown - top mark' Jane Austin Click Here to view large photo

After a day of mixed weather, Hobart turned on a perfect afternoon for the small fleet of keelboats contesting opening race of The Showdown, Tasmania's new regatta.

The race was a twilight event with spinnakers, a late ten knot seabreeze moving up the river and freshening by early evening to 17 knots giving the fleet superb racing conditions.

The Showdown - dancing on the foredeck - Jane Austin Click Here to view large photo

The winners were Wired (Stephen Boyes) in the Farr 40 division while in Division 1, Don Calvert's Intrigue led the fleet home and won on IRC and AMS handicaps while the PHS winner was Nick Cole's Mojo Rising.

Race officer Roger Martin set a mid-river course, with the weather mark set off Lower Sandy Bay, sending the Farr 40s on a windward/leeward course of 11 nautical miles, Division 1 boats on two triangles of 7.6 nm.

In the Farr 40s, Stephen Boyes quickly established a handy lead with Wired, rounding the first windward mark comfortably ahead and opening the lead on the spinnaker run.

At the leeward mark the first time Voodoo Chile went 'trawling' with her big kite and was then forced to take a 360 degrees penalty after the spinnaker touched POW, to end up a distant last.

Wired maintained her lead throughout the race to win by 45 seconds from POW, helmed by Craig Clifford, third place going to Wayne Banks-Smith's War Games.

The Showdown - War Games - Jane Austin Click Here to view large photo

The lead changed several times in Division 1, but Don Calvert's Castro 40 Intrigue proved faster to windward to finish first ahead of the Sydney 38 Ciao Baby (Steve Chau) and on IRC corrected time, Intrigue took first place
from the Farr 37 Silver Mist (Andrew Sutherland) and Ciao Baby at the end of some close racing.

Nick Cole's Beneteau 40.7 Mojo Rising took PHS honours in Division 1 from Galapagos Duck (Terry Bragg) and Silver Mist.

The Showdown - closing on the bottom mark - Jane Austin Click Here to view large photo

Tomorrow will see keelboat entries in The Showdown joined by other keelboats competing in the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania's second and third Pennant races and by nearly 150 off-the-beach dinghies, skiffs, catamarans and sailboards in one of the biggest sailing events ever seen on the River Derwent.