Please select your home edition
Edition
Savvy Navvy 2024

Tasmanians dominate Sailing Champions League - Asia Pacific Southern Qualifier

by Lisa Ratcliff 28 Jan 2020 02:58 UTC 25-27 January 2020
SAILING Champions League Asia Pacific Southern Qualifiers - BSYC and RBYC © Beau Outteridge

Tasmania dominated the SAILING Champions League - Asia Pacific Southern Qualifier, the state's two heavyweight teams making the four-boat final and finishing first and second after a thrilling last race that broke a four-way deadlock.

Two days and 27 umpired fleet races on RS21 keelboats off Geelong's waterfront, an event of the umbrella Festival of Sails, whittled the 12 teams representing Australia's southern states down to four.

Derwent Sailing Squadron/Sandy Bay Sailing Club's two teams joined South Australia's Brighton & Seacliff Yacht Club (BSYC) and Royal Brighton Yacht Club (RBYC) from across the bay for the first to two points final on Monday January 27, 2020 in the best breeze of the series.

DSS/SBSC's youth team skippered by Will Sargent carried a point advantage into the final and looked red hot to go all the way, but their savvy older clubmates had other ideas, evening the score with a bullet in the opening race.

RBYC 1's turn came in race 2 and then Brighton & Seacliff's team, skippered by Alex Higgins who is well known in 420s, made a late charge, winning race 3 to set up a sudden death fourth and final race.

In gusty then light and tricky sou'east breezes for the last downwind leg BSYC owned race 4 until the finish line. The pair crossed side-by-side and all eyes went to the committee boat to call the photo finish. DSS/SSCC 2 (Burnell) had scooped the win over BSYC by centimetres and seconds.

Burnell says his team combined quickly and this, plus his season steering an SB20 back home, "stood me in good stead for a few race finishes". On those up front he shared: "I've sailed with Sam [Tiedemann] and I used to coach Jack [Allison] in cadets, and Chloe's just an awesome sailor - we are unlucky to lose her to the mainland for Uni. She's doing the 49er FX worlds next month and hopefully the next Olympics. How good are these guys for keeping a train wreck like me on the rails? All credit goes to the legends in front of me."

The winning team say they are happy to return to Tasmania and rally more clubs for the next SAILING Champions League - Asia Pacific event. "It's been fantastic, a lot of friends from Geelong and Tassie who are here at the Festival of Sails are interested. I think it's going to grow; the concept is good, especially for us younger guys. We'll happily spread the word back home," Burnell added.

Brighton & Seacliff Yacht Club's team were shocked at the result but collected themselves quickly, "Obviously we are a bit disappointed but the opportunity to have such competitive racing has been so much fun," Higgins said once docked back at Royal Geelong Yacht Club. "It was really tricky on that last downwind, we also had Sarge [Will Sargent, DSS/SBSC 1] coming through. I think we were thinking about too many things. Hats off to Oli, he's a great sailor and deserves the win. We'll have to fire up and come back, hopefully we make it to Sydney for the final in April."

DSS/SBSC 1, also called TAZ Racing Team, finished second overall and the top youth team, Brighton & Seacliff third and RBYC 1, helmed by Finn sailor Oli Tweddell placed fourth. RBYC's women's team skippered by Laura Harding took out the women's category.

The top six open teams from the Southern Qualifier will join the top six from the Northern Qualifier plus invited teams from Asia and the Pacific for a three-day final April 3 - 5 on Sydney Harbour hosted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

RSYS is the current SAILING Champions League world titleholder after their representative team travelled to St Moritz in Switzerland last August and beat the seasoned Europeans, a surprise result given it was Oceania's first year of league competition.

Full results for the qualifying races and final series here.

The next event on the SCL - Asia Pacific calendar is the Northern Qualifier Hunters Hill Sailing Club will host March 15-16 followed by the first SCL Asia Pacific Women's & Youth Regatta, an invitational event at Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club over the weekend of March 21-22, 2020.

For more information visit sailing-championsleague.asia / sailing-championsleague.com.

Related Articles

How navigation tech is protecting our seabeds
Seagrass meadows store 10% of the ocean's carbon Just under two years into partnering together and more responsible sailing and seagrass conservation has been put on the map by Clean Sailors, the Ocean Conservation Trust (OCT) and Savvy Navvy. Posted on 21 Nov
ASMFC to meet on 2025 Striped Bass Management
The meeting is in response to the 2024 Stock Assessment Update The Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) will meet on December 16th to consider changes to the 2025 management measures to meet the stock's rebuilding targets. Posted on 19 Nov
Fishing: 11th Hour Muskies
Stalk the biggest muskies of the year Take advantage of the gap between fall and ice fishing season to stalk the biggest muskies of the year. Posted on 19 Nov
Marine Auctions: November Online Auction
Bidding to Open on Friday 22 November and Close on Thursday, 28 November 2024 at 2pm AEST Bidding to Open on Friday 22 November and Close on Thursday, 28 November 2024 at 2pm AEST. Posted on 19 Nov
Fishing: Win Randy Howell's Boat
Randy Howell is once again doing his part to support King's Home With the 2024 bass tournament season now complete, noted pro bass angler Randy Howell is once again doing his part to support King's Home. Posted on 18 Nov
Fifteen years of searching for smalltooth sawfish
NOAA Fisheries scientists have been studying smalltooth sawfish in South Florida since 2009 NOAA Fisheries scientists have traveled to South Florida multiple times a year for 15 years to study smalltooth sawfish. Posted on 17 Nov
Top 10 baits from Toyota Series Championship
The jighead minnow accounted for yet another big win While the infamous jighead minnow proved to be the winning lure for rising star Hayden Marbut at the Toyota Series Championship Presented by Bass Boat Technologies, it was far from the only way to catch bass on Wheeler Lake. Posted on 13 Nov
Contender Boats rolling in new features for 2025
Get ready to fish harder with new innovations on all 2025 Contender models Get ready to fish harder with new innovations on all 2025 Contender models. These exciting updates are geared towards improving functionality, reliability, and overall experience for Contender Boats' 2025 models. Posted on 13 Nov
Nauticstar More Bay Boat coming soon
Big enough to explore, sized to go anywhere Need a bigger bay boat that can still get into the narrows and shallows? Want a larger deck without giving up maneuverability? Posted on 12 Nov
Advanced Weather Integration for Safer Boating
Savvy Navvy's integration of Meteomatics allows boaters to see precise wind speeds and directions Meteomatics, the global leader in weather intelligence, looks at how their data integration supports digital navigation for boaters. Posted on 12 Nov
Maritimo 2023 S600 FOOTERSavvy Navvy 2024