Festival of Sails kicks off with a Grand Prix line up

This weekend’s Melbourne Premier Racing Series will mark the opening of the Festival of Sails for 2012, one of Australia’s best recognised yachting regattas.
 
Not far from where the Australia Open tennis tournament is showcasing tennis’ best, some of yachting’s finest will conduct their own on-water Grand Slam, minus the spotlight and the prize money.

Two smokin’ hot IRC divisions and a fleet of Sydney 38s will contest the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria hosted two-day invitational regatta off Williamstown on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 January. The IRC series is the prologue to the main event, which commences on Australia Day.
 
Division A will be dominated by the TP52s, Rob Date’s RP52 Scarlet Runner and Trevor Taylor’s well travelled West Australian Marten 49, Optimus Prime, being two exceptions.

All eyes will be on Rob Hanna’s newly imported Shogun V, a Vrolijk-designed carbon composite TP52 built at the Club Nautico de Valencia and previously campaigned as Audi Azzurra Matador. Shogun’s Australian debut was in Sydney last December for the Rolex Trophy and this weekend will mark the boat’s Victorian unveiling.
 
“There will be good competition in the Festival of Sails IRC fleet, with possibly the sharpest in our 52 foot group,” said Hanna.

“In light airs we are quicker than Shogun, but once it gets to 12-15 knots that boat comes into a league of its own,” said Jason Van Der Slot, skipper of the TP52 Calm, today. “We are hoping to win this weekend’s series, we have some good guys on board including Barney Walker calling tactics”.
 
Given the logistics of flying interstate and overseas crew in, Michael Hiatt’s Living Doll and Jim Farmer’s NZ based Georgia have decided to sit out this weekend and save their best for the Geelong component of the Festival of Sails, which runs Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 January.

This weekend’s Division B line-up will feature a variety of designs, including Grant Botica’s highly fancied Adams 10 Executive Decision. It won’t be all one way traffic however, with the likes of Andrew Saies’ South Australian Rolex Sydney Hobart winning Beneteau, Two True, and Nicholas Bartels’ tried and tested Cookson 50, Terra Firma, applying the blow torch to the little Adams.
 
Among the Sydney 38 fleet is Chris Lewin’s Another Challenge, which raced in last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart as Ella Bache Another Challenge, skippered by round the world sailor Jessica Watson. “The boat will most likely still be pink for this weekend’s series, but could be blue by the time we head to Geelong,” said Lewin.

“Cinquante, Chutzpah38 and Sierra Chainsaw are the boats I’ll be focusing my attention on this weekend and once we get to Geelong, Cinquante is the local boat and I think they will be hard to beat,” Lewin added.
 
Principle race officer Denis Thompson is already on the ground in Victoria to preside over this weekend’s six-race standalone series and is anticipating 15 knot south sou’easterlies on Port Philip.
 
List of entries for the Melbourne Premier Racing Series
 
- Lisa Ratcliff / Festival of Sails Media