Hollis in Heaven
Apologies for the lack of story, OG is actually up in Gladstone, getting drunk, ringing me nonsense at 2am and getting ready to help sail Heaven Can Wait Back to Brisbane. Here’s the final wrap up from Ian “Stripey” Grant, who we have to thank for all the great stories and updates throughout!
“I’M BACK!!! Some extremely interesting stories from the antics in Gladstone will be here soon! I’m in recovery mode at the moment…” – OG, Tuesday 18th April 2311 hours.
Line Honours – Heaven Can Wait (Peter Hollis)
IRC – Corum (Michael Balkin)
PHRF Div 1 – Heaven Can Wait (Peter Hollis)
PHRF Div 2 – Jo (Mark Bucknall)
PHRF Overall – Heaven Can Wait (Peter Hollis)
Veteran – Lloyds Business Broker Too Impetuous (Rudy Weber)
Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron’s Peter Hollis better known for his World championship Gold Medals in the single handed Contender dinghy added more glitter to his impressive trophy cabinet over Easter.The talented helmsman has recently focused his career on ocean racing with the Hugh Welbourne designed Heaven Can Wait.
As expected the association has been a success with Heaven Can Wait finishing with an excellent top fifteen line honours result in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race last December followed by the prized first to finish trophy in the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club 2006 Brisbane to Gladstone race on Easter Saturday night.This was a special result for Queensland’s Heaven Can Wait crew who ended the domination in recent years by the Sean Langman skippered New South Wales pocket maxi AAPT and Grant Wharington’s Victorian super-maxi and race record holder Skandia.
The power sailing maxi Skandia looked set to claim the line honours trophy again this year when she led Heaven Can Wait, Bill Wild’s Wedgetail, the Kevin Miller skippered Quest of Queensland and the smaller Mooloolaba sloop Corum (Michael Balkin) out of Moreton Bay on Good Friday afternoon.
But Skandia’s race was over before she reached the 50 nautical mile mark in the 308 n/ml blue water classic when the critical canting keel control mechanism failed just before she reached Coolum.
Unfortunately her crew headed by the former Brisbane to Gladstone race record holder Kerry Spencer could not repair the fault at sea and were forced to retire somewhat with wounded pride.
This left the Heaven Can Wait crew with no ‘pacemaker’ however they collectively demonstrated that good ocean racing sailors never waste an opportunity by winning the 2006 line honours title by 2 hours 34 minutes 43 seconds over Wedgetail with Quest Of Queensland another 1 hour 14 minutes 43 seconds astern.
Her course time was also rewarded with a win on Performance Handicap when they outpaced the lower handicapped QCYC sloop Jo (Mark Bucknall) and Trumpeter (Charles MacDonald).
Heaven Can Wait missed a clean sweep of all the major trophies when Michael Balkin steered his Hugh Welbourne modified Mumm 36 Corum to become the 58th winner of The Courier-Mail Cup with her faster 6.22 second per mile corrected handicap course time.
In other classes Jo won the Performance Handicap Division 2 from Trumpeter and Lloyds Business Broker Too Impetuous (Rudy Weber) while skipper Rudy Weber won the Veteran class from On Tap (Marc Stuart) and Graffiti (Steve D’Arx).
Long term Gladstone race skipper Peter Holm piloted the comfortable Marriah to be the best of the cruising class winning the predicted log event by 2 points from Sunfast One (John Banck) with another 1 point to Jo.
