Principal race officer Biddy Badenach described wind conditions for today’s opening Pennant races at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania as ‘very frustrating’; sailors expressed their frustrations in somewhat stronger terms.

The breeze on the River Derwent never got above 8 knots, mostly it was less; it came all directions; and finally, as it ‘went up in the air’, Badenach pulled the pin to shorten the course for the second race of the day.

Despite showers and a chilly southerly breeze, a fleet of 17 boats turned out on Friday evening for the inaugural Des Cooper Memorial Trophy Race on the Derwent, with more than 200 of his family, friends and supporters later enjoying a buffet barbeque dinner back at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

The race marked a year since the death of the much-loved past Commodore, with his wife Marion, the Club’s first woman Commodore, presenting a perpetual trophy for the first annual charity race supporting Headway and Camp Quality, the two charities Des supported during his life.  

The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s first Pennant Race this coming Saturday will mark another significant change in the rating systems used to handicap yachts contesting the Club’s summer series.

For the first time, the Club will score Division 1 under the AMS (Australian Measurement System) in addition to the internationally-used IRC rating system, with the measurements of nearly 30 Hobart yachts submitted to Yachting Australia.