The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s 84th Bruny Island Race has almost ended after nearly 24 hours of light winds in the River Derwent, the d’Entrecasteaux Channel and the Tasman Sea.

At 8am today, 16 yachts from the 25 boat fleet had finished, leaving only a couple of yachts coming up the river to finish one of the slowest races in recent years.  The others had retired.

The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s 84th Bruny Island Race has almost ended after nearly 24 hours of light winds in the River Derwent, the d’Entrecasteaux Channel and the Tasman Sea. At 8am today, 16 yachts from the 25 boat fleet had finished, leaving only a couple of yachts coming up the river to finish one of the slowest races in recent years.  The others had retired.

The 89 nautical mile race took the fleet of 25 yachts down the Derwent and through the winding d’Entrecasteaux Channel, returning up the ocean side of the elongated island, with Gary Smith’s Bakewell-White 45-footer The Fork in the Road taking line honours just before 1.00am this morning,  26 minutes ahead of rival Mr Kite,  Andrew Hunn’s Cape/Barrett 40.

The Fork in the Road took 15 hours 25 minutes and 14 seconds to sail the course.  After a fast start down the river, the fleet had a long and tricky beat to windward down the Channel yesterday, with the leaders not rounding Cape Bruny until shortly after 7 o’clock last night.  During the inshore leg, the lead changed several times as yachts fell into windless holes, with many boats becalmed off Tinderbox at one stage.

However, by the time the front runners reached Cape Bruny and Tasman Head, the sou’easter had freshened to 12 knots, giving the fleet a faster spinnaker run up the seaward side of the island to Adventure Bay and Cape Queen Elizabeth, where The Fork in the Road firmly established her lead over Mr Kite.

 Provisional handicap results announced this morning by The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania show David Bean’s 44-footer Auch as winner of the premier IRC division on corrected time from The Fork in the Road and David Creese’s DK46 Dekadence, which was the early race leader and finished third in fleet. 

Michael Denney’s Wild West, a light displacement, composite-designed 30-footer optimised by Fred Barrett, excelled in the light breezes to take out both the PHS and AMS divisions on corrected time after finishing ninth across the line.  Wild West, which is on the register of the RYCT and the DSS,  sailed an excellent race throughout, always looking well placed under AMS and PHS handicaps. She was not rated for IRC.

This was the first Bruny Island Race in which an AMS division has been included, with Wild West winning from the Dovell 38 Whistler, skippered by David Rees, and The Fork in the Road. 

Whistler finished just after 1.00am, with several crew members then planning to compete in today’s Tasman Bridge Race as part of their preparation for the Australian and British Three Peaks Races later this year.

Wild West won the PHS division from Dekadence, with the former Melbourne boat sailing in her first Bruny Island Race after being bought late last year by David Creese and competing in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

The Fork in the Road completed a fine race by placing third in the PHS division, giving the Hobart-built 45-footer line honours and three handicap placings, and avenging two line honours defeats this summer by arch rival Mr Kite.  In the race for line honours she came in first ahead of Mr Kite, Dekadence, Helsal III, Valheru and Auch.

Race results are still provisional and the final Combined Clubs Offshore Series pointscores will not be updated until Monday. – Peter Campbell