The News Review:
- Liberals push pricing trial in Tasmania
- Armada of yachts heading for Hobart
- Storm Bay Weather key to Hobart record
- Everybody has a chance in quest for overall trophy
- Solo Circumnavigators pass in Southern cean
- Libs call for more spending on ageing population
Liberals push pricing trial in Tasmania
abc.net.au – Dec 23, 2007
The Liberal Party wants all grocery items to be displayed on a cost per gram basis so shoppers can compare product values more easily. The pposition Leader Will Hodgman says Woolworths is considering trialing unit pricing in some Australian supermarkets next year. “I’ve written to them to suggest that they look at doing so in Tasmania” Mr Hodgman said. “I’ve received a very positive response from Woolworths so if they’re prepared to consider it I think the State Government in Tasmania should be as well because at the end of the day this is about delivering benefits to Tasmanian shoppers” he said.
Armada of yachts heading for Hobart
Sail World – Dec 23, 2007
Westcoaster fleets have also remained quite small. This year however the centenary celebration of the Rudder Cup race across Bass Strait has seen a record 55 boats entered for the Heemskirk Consolidated Melbourne to Hobart Race (M2H) with the fleet heading down Tasmania?s East Coast ? the same route as the expected 82 starters in the Rolex Sydney Hobart. Joining them near Eddystone Point on the northeast tip of Tasmania will be a fleet of 27 yachts in the inaugural Clive Peeters Launceston to Hobart Race (L2H). Potentially there could be more than 160 yachts sailing down the Tasmanian East Coast between December 29 and 31. ‘It could be a real traffic jam off Cape Raoul once they round Tasman Island and sail into Storm Bay’ commented one skipper. ‘Parking the boats in Sullivan?s Cove could be big problem for the yacht club and port authorities. ‘ Volunteers manning the finish box at Castray Esplanade below Hobart?s historic Battery Point certainly face a heavy workload… ‘Parking the boats in Sullivan?s Cove could be big problem for the yacht club and port authorities. ‘ Volunteers manning the finish box at Castray Esplanade below Hobart?s historic Battery Point certainly face a heavy workload. The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania is the host club for the Sydney Hobart the Derwent Sailing club hosting the Melbourne to Hobart but both fleets will use the same finish line. The super maxis and 60 to 70-footers in the Rolex Sydney Hobartt should finish well clear of the bulk of the three race fleets but there is bound to be some close tacking or gybing up the Derwent and some crowding on the finish line. ‘The race from Melbourne to Hobart plus the new race from Launceston has attracted many boats and crews from Hobart’ Commodore Alastair Douglas of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania said today. ‘It has caused a shortage of volunteers who play a major role in finishing the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race?instead of being in Hobart to welcome the yachts they have gone sailing themselves this year’ he added. The Rudder Cup celebrations and the decision by the cean Racing Club of Victoria to send the Melbourne to Hobart fleet on a ?one-off? course around Tasmania?s East Coast instead of the West Coat has boosted the fleet setting sail from Portsea just inside Melbourne?s Port Phillip to a record 82 boats.
Storm Bay Weather key to Hobart record
Sail World – Dec 23, 2007
10 am on the second day The previous record set by Nokia in 1999 was one day 19 hours 48 minutes and two seconds and on that occasion winds on Storm Bay reached 40 knots as a south easter blasted up the coast. Tacticians aboard Wild ats XI and City Index Leopard believe their boats could smash the existing race record by between four and 10 hours given favourable weather conditions. Current forecasts suggest that the race leaders will struggle with 10-14 knots as they close on the Tasmanian coast on Thursday night with lighter conditions on Friday morning. It might be that if the record is to be broken it will have to have been powered by the earlier winds down the NSW coast and across Bass Strait. However Michael Coxon from North Sails believes that Wild ats XI giant new high tech Code Zero might be the weapon that gets her home. With this newly designed sail ats XI has hit 14 knots in just seven knots of breeze and that could allow her to tippy toe home well that’s 14 knots in supermaxi terms. But there is along way to go yet there has hardly been a Hobart without a gear failure on one of the big boats.
Everybody has a chance in quest for overall trophy
Sail World – Dec 23, 2007
But if the nor?easter is very fresh Rosebud could get way from us. ‘ There are many factors all unknown at this stage which will determine the overall winner. While their families are lost in the Christmas blur skippers and navigators right across the fleet are pondering whether the first front will be 20 knots or 35? Will it come in time to slow down the maxis or after they are already safely in Hobart? Where are the currents and will they be fast enough to decide the outcome like they were in 2006? What will the winds do off the Tasmanian coast? And then there is the fickle Derwent River. Sail into it at the right time of day and you can storm up to the finish line like a hero. After midnight it can become a very large parking lot. ‘Probably the most pre-eminent yachtsman I know is Syd Fisher’ Hickman says ‘and Syd?s always said the race should finish at Tasman Island. He says would have won dozens.
Solo Circumnavigators pass in Southern cean
Sail World – Dec 23, 2007
While Frenchman Francis Joyon was travelling east across the Southern cean below Tasmania this week in a very expensive trimaran he – probably without knowing it – passed close to another solo sailor going in the other more difficult direction also on a solo sail around the world but in a very modest 38 year old Cheoy Lee 40. Canadian Glen Wakefield is attempting to become the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world westwards (against wind and current) from North America. (There’s always a record to break if you can only find it) n his 12m yacht Kim Chow he is on the 88th day of his journey and has reached Australia having rounded the southern tip of Tasmania. At last report he was in the Southern cean headed for the Falkland Islands.
Libs call for more spending on ageing population
abc.net.au – Dec 23, 2007
A report from the Council of Ageing Tasmania recommends more money be spent to meet the needs of an ageing population. The opposition spokesman for community development Jeremy Rockliff says a program run by the council needs to be re-started with a new injection of funding. “The council of Ageing Tasmania has made a number of requests to the state government to start up a new living longer living stronger program” Mr Rockliff said. “It was a very successful healthy living program that was engaging many older Tasmanians” he said. Tags: aged-care liberal-party public-sector social-policy activism-and-lobbying programs-and-initiatives tas.