Farr South from the far south of Tasmania

• NEWS
• 18 Aug, 2005 01:54:00 PM

Farr South from the far south of Tasmania

The aptly named boat Farr South will represent the southernmost yacht club in Australia, Port Esperance Sailing Club at Dover in the far south of Tasmania, in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

The aptly named boat Farr South will represent the southernmost yacht club in Australia, Port Esperance Sailing Club at Dover in the far south of Tasmania, in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Club member Ian Hall has lodged his application to enter the race with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the first Tasmanian boat to be nominated so far for this year’s 628 nautical mile ocean classic.

“Farr South has an impressing pedigree and a crew well used to the ‘Roaring Forties’, looking forward to a fast race home,” says owner/skipper Hall. 

Among the experienced ocean racing and cruising crew is 72-year-old “sailing legend” Bill Wright, a veteran of many Sydney Hobart and Bass Strait races, a Tasmanian circumnavigation and a circumnavigation of the world.

Farr South is a Farr/Jutson 37, which as Hot Property won the IMS divisions of the Melbourne to Hobart and Melbourne to Devonport Races and also placed third in its division in the 2000 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

“We bought the boat 18 months ago with the intention of sailing in last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart but decided we needed to do some more work on the boat,” adds the owner/skipper, who owns tourist holiday cottages on the shores of Port Esperance, named after one of the ships under the command of the famous French navigator, Admiral Bruni d’Entrecasteaux, who discovered, charted and named these waters in 1792.

Port Esperance is a large bay at the southern end of the d’Entrecasteaux Channel, with the village of Dover, 82 km south of Hobart, the centre for salmon, abalone and crayfishing enterprises

Port Esperance Sailing Club has 20 senior members with a small fleet that includes cruiser/racers, a Mumm 30, a Dragon and a Jubilee, as well as a five Mirrors and other dinghies for training juniors.

Each Easter the small club is host to many visiting yachts and dinghies for the Port Esperance Sailing Festival, with Farr South taking line honours in the annual race from Hobart to Dover in 2004.  So far this year the boat has finished third overall in the Partridge Island Race and contested the Bruny Island Race.