Two Sydney Hobart division winning yachtsmen, Richard Grant and Ed Psaltis, have duelled on the Huon River in southern Tasmania to decide the winner of the 2019 Cock of the Cock yacht race off historic Shipwrights Point, with Grant scoring a narrow victory in Cromarty Magellan.
Sailed on Saturday in boisterous winds that ranged from 10 to 40 knots, the Cock of the Huon is part of the Derwent Sailing Squadron and Huon Yacht Club’s Ronald Young/Huon Aquaculture Pipe Opener regatta, that started with a long night race from Hobart on Friday evening down the River Derwent and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel.
The regatta ended today with a short race from Port Huon to Gordon in the Channel.
Cromarty Magellen, a Tasmanian designed and built Knoop 39, won the Corinthian division of the 2016 Sydney Hobart, and on Saturday placed first overall under PHS corrected time to decide the 2019 Cock of the Huon by a narrow margin from the Sydney 36, Midnight Rambler, skippered by Psaltis.
Psaltis, a veteran of 39 Sydney Hobarts and Overall winner, was overall winner of the stormswept 1979 Sydney Hobart, skippering a previous boat also named Midnight Rambler. He re-located to Tasmania earlier this year.
Cromarty Magellan, from Bellerive Yacht Club, also won the AMS division of the Cock of the Huon Race from Friday night’s line and handicap winner, Crusader, Scott Sharp’s Melges 32 from Huon Yacht Club.
In yesterday’s final race from Port Huon to Gordon, sailed in a fresh northerly breeze, Crusader won both the IRC and AMS divisions and finished second to Barcoo (John Cole-Cook) in PHS.
This gave the Huon Yacht Club boat a clean sweep overall in the Pipe Opener regatta, winning PHS overall with a 1-4-2 score (7 points) from Hydrotherapy (Jim Thorpe) on 13 points and Moonshadow (Anthony Ellis) 17 points.
Crusader won AMS overall with a 1-2-1 score for 4 points, second place going to Hydrotherapy on 15 points, third to Cromarty Magellen on 16 points. The Melges 32 also had a 1-2-1 score in IRC for 4 points, second place going to Midnight Rambler on 9 points (6-1-2), third to The Dog House (A Coad) on 13 points (7-3-3).
– Peter Campbell
