The 20th anniversary of the Banjo’s Shoreline Crown Series Bellerive Regatta got off to an eventful start on Friday evening with crews having to contend with winds fluctuating from 5 to 30 knots combined with 60-degree wind shifts throughout the twilight race.

The Mumm 36 Madness (Madness Syndicate) had a difficult night with the kite halyard wrapping around the forestay after a Chinese gybe causing the kite to shred in the breeze until a crew member was hoisted up the mast to cut the halyard free.

Plausible Alibi (Damon Wecker) also encountered trouble with the Farr 40 broaching after getting caught in a tricky wind shift, losing steerage for a short time when the sheets were caught around the rudder.

Saturday saw much more settled conditions and consistent south easterly breezes for the fleets which were spread across five race courses on the River Derwent.

In Racing Group 1, Intrigue (David Calvert), one of Hobart’s top performing boats over the years, has had a brilliant regatta and is leading on ORC and IRC with five points from five races, while Heatwave (Matt Keal) is leading on PHS on 15.5 points and looks to have the unofficial Mumm 36 ‘world championship’ well within reach.

In Performance Cruising Division 1 on PHS, Shere Khan (Phil Watkins) is leading on eight points after three races from Zephyr (Ian Johnston) on nine points.

In Performance Cruising Division 2, the sportsboat Cutting Edge (Andrew Jones) from Port Dalrymple Yacht Club is dominating the division leading on five points from fellow northerner Mustard Cutter (Scott Creedon) and IYKYK (Steve Chau) both on 13 points.

Innovator (Ian Smith/Dean Haberle) is leading on nine points from CommBank (Craig Escott) one point behind in Division 3, while Yarindi III (Danny Cunningham) and The Goo (David Paine) are on eight points apiece in Division Four.

Assagai (Chris Sheehan) is leading Division One on ORC on six points while IYKYK is leading Division 2 on ORC and Division One on IRC.

In the Sabre Class, Vinylester Madness (Matt Westland) dominated the day with four wins from four races with Dinky Di (John Cerutty) second and Halestorm (Dan Followes) in third place in each race.

In the SB20 Tasmanian Championship, Ares Racing (Paul McCartney) and Karabos (Nick Rogers) are locked in a tight battle at the top of the leaderboard with Karabos on 11 points after five races and Ares on 13 points. Mind Games (Phil Reid) and Wicked (Chris Keil) are tied on 20 points in third.

In the Off-The Beach dinghy classes, Squid (Charlie Birch/Archie McQuillen) is leading the Cadets on eight points after four races while All Talk (Matt Pilkington) and Good Question (Tom Fader) are equal first on six points in the (ILCA) Laser group.

Wingman (John Genders) and White Buoy (Finn Potter) are in equal first place in the Moth Foiler Group and Send It (George Pilkington) has a clean sheet with four wins from four races in the Optimist Class. Greg (Harry Gregory) is leading the WASZP Group with two wins from four races.

The regatta has drawn close to 100 entries with over 500 sailors competing in the popular regatta.

All results can be found here

by Jane Austin