Tamar Yacht Club adventure sailor Tristian Gourlay has entered his much-travelled yacht Force Eleven in this year’s Launceston to Hobart Yacht Race.
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Gourlay and Jamie Cooper sailed Force Eleven, an Adams 11.9, in this year’s Melbourne to Osaka two-handed yacht race.
The gruelling voyage to Japan added 5500-nautical miles to the thousands the Launceston yachtsman has sailed in Force Eleven, including the Melbourne to Vanuatu and winning the two-handed division of last year’s Melbourne to Hobart West Coaster.
Force Eleven is one of three entries from Tamar among the increased fleet of 25 for this year’s 285nm L2H announced by the Derwent Sailing Squadron.
The others are Lawless, Stephen McElwee’s Green 31 from Port Dalrymple Yacht Club, and Sassy, Tim White’s Delphia 37.
Lawless, which finished second overall in the 1984 Sydney-to-Hobart, continues to race competitively at club level and this will be the 31-footer’s fifth L2H.
Sassy, designed by Andrew Skrzat and built in Poland, will be sailed by the same crew of family and friends as in last year’s L2H.
Derwent and Tamar have again joined forces to conduct the race which will start from Beauty Point at 9am on Tuesday, December 27.
Heading the fleet is record-holder The Fork in the Road, Gary Smith’s Bakewell-White 42, which has taken line honours six times since the L2H was inaugurated in 2000, and also won one race overall on corrected time.
Other past overall winners are Jeff Cordell’s Mumm 36, B&G Advantage, Stewart Geeves’ Young 88 Footloose and Paul Einoder’s Beneteau Oceanis 34, Off-Piste.
Last year’s AMS, IRC and PHS and overall winner, Mako, is not entered but runners-up in the three handicap categories, Prion (AMS), Footloose (PHS) and B&G Advantage (IRC) are back.
Newcomer to the L2H, with strong potential under IRC and AMS is Shaun Tiedemann’s Philosopher, a Sydney 36cr and three-time Australian Yachting IRC champion, which has proven to be very competitive in Hobart and nationally.
Philosopher contested the Maria Island race for the third consecutive year, having been runner-up under IRC and AMS in 2016 and 2017, winning PHS in 2017.
Another strong IRC contender is the syndicate-owned Filepro, a Lyon 40 skippered by Tim Gadsby which previously raced as Nexedge in 2015.
Originally named Micropay Cuckoos Nest, Filepro won the 1993 Sydney-Hobart on corrected time after surviving a gale-force battering in the Tasman Sea.