Yachting Australia

Peter Campbell, Monday, 21 February 2005

The New Zealand super maxi Konica Minolta has made a brilliant return  to offshore racing over the weekend, smashing the race record and winning the IRC division of The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s historic Bruny Island Race.

 

Konica Minolta, skippered by Wellington yachtsman Stewart Thwaites, sailed the 90 nautical mile course that circumnavigates the elongated island south of Hobart in 8 hours 2 minutes 59 seconds.

 

The 98-footer’s time cut 1 hour 38 minutes 38 seconds from the record set by Helsal III in the galeswept race of 1991.

 

The RYCT sent the fleet the same way as in that race, from Hobart down the Derwenbt River, then south inside the d’Entrecasteaux Channel and back up the eastern ocean coast of the island into Storm Bay, the Derwent and Hobart.

 

Konica Minolta won the IRC division on corrected time from two local yachts, Roger Jackman’s Dr Who and Bruce Calvert’s ABN Amro Morgans.

 

ABN Amro Morgans won the Performance Handicap division from Konica Minolta and Dr Who.

 

The New Zealand super maxi  has been in Hobart undergoing repairs to her damaged hull that forced her retirement from the 60^th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in late December. 

 

Thwaites decided to contest the Bruny Island because of its historic significance and to give his crew a chance to work up the 98-footer before returning to major ocean racing.

 

The Bruny Island Race was first sailed for in March 1898 over the same course that the fleet will still sail when they line up off Hobart’s Castray Esplanade at 9.30 this coming Saturday, 19 January.

 

While there were a number of times in the early years when the race was not sailed, notably during the war years, the Bruny Island Race has been sailed continously since 1946, with the exception of 1959.