The 20-year-old Tasmanian timber yacht Intrigue scored her second handicap win over the state-of-the-art carbonfibre Sydney champion Ichi Ban in this afternoon’s race three of Boags Sailing Race Week in Hobart.

In contrast to the postponed light breeze morning race, the afternoon race was sailed in wild west-south-westerly winds sweeping down from the western shore riverside hills in gusts of up to 35 knots.

Many yachts were caught unawares by the gusts and sharp changes in wind direction, with race leader Ichi Ban broaching and also involved in a port and starboard incident with a smaller boat.

Pitch Black turned on a spectacular Chinese gybe in which a crew member was slightly injured.

Intrigue, a Castro 40 in which owner Don Calvert represented Australia at the Admiral’s Cup in 1985, won race three by 53 seconds on corrected time from Ichi Ban, Matt Allen’s two year old Farr 52. Intrigue now has two wins and a second, Ichi Ban a win and two seconds in the IRC handicap division.

While Calvert skippered Intrigue at the 1985 Admiral’s Cup, Allen, then a 23-year-old, was in the crew of Victorian Lou Abrahams’s Challenge.

Calvert said: “We made no mistakes in this afternoon’s race, carried a spinnaker on all running legs, anticipating the gusts and windshifts that always come when the wind blows across the river from the west.”

In the IMS Division Invincible (Harold Clark) scored its second win of the day.

In PHS division 1, Stephen Boyes steered It Happens to first place while Saga skippered by Kerry Boden won PHS Division 2.

The Cruiser division went to the Knoop 10.8, Fine Cotton, skippered by Gavin Anderson, taking line honours and first place on handicap after an excellent start in the early lights winds.