Audi Showdown 2012
Cougar II returns to racingTasmania’s fastest ocean racing yacht, Tony Lyall’s TP52, Cougar II, will return to racing next weekend in the Audi Showdown 2012, the Royal Yacht Club’s annual spring regatta on Hobart’s River Derwent.
The weekend of racing marks the start of Cougar II’s preparation for the 68th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, one of four Tasmanian yachts expected to join the 80-90 boat fleet for the Boxing Day start of the blue water classic.
The powerful yacht has not raced in Tasmanian waters since last season and has been undertaking some modifications at Beauty Point on the West Tamar for Dr Lyall, a Beaconsfield-based medico.
The Audi Showdown starts with a twilight race for keelboats and sportsboats on Friday, November 2, and continues over the weekend with the bigger boats being joined by off-the-beach dinghy and catamaran classes.
Saturday’s race will be part of the Combined Clubs long-race series, with a potential fleet of up to 60 boats.
RYCT officials expect further keelboat and sportsboat entries and a late rush from from off-the-beach classes, including the Lasers, International Cadets, 420s and Optimists which will be holding their Australian championships on the Derwent over the Christmas-New Year holiday period.
The Laser fleet already includes prominent young mainland sailors including national youth champion Jack Felsenthal and top girl sailor Anna Philip, both from Victoria.
The off-the-beach entries so far include boats from the RYCT Dinghy Group, Sandy Bay Sailing Club, Kingston Beach Sailing Club, Lauderdale Yacht Club, Midway Point Yacht Club, Port Dalrymple Yacht Club and the Tamar Yacht Club.
Sandy Bay Sailing Club, which will host and national and world championships for the International Cadets and the Australian championships for the Optimists in December and January, is well represented in the Audi Showdown 2012 by entries of Cadets and Optimists.
For more information or to enter go to:, http://www.ryct.org.au/index.php./audi-showdown-2012
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