Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race Underway
The Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race is underway with 23 yachts starting the race in a 12 knot westerly breeze on the waters of Moreton Bay east of Brisbane. The fleet had a clear start at 1100 hours. Right on schedule.
Peter Harburg’s Reichel Pugh 66 Black Jack led the fleet from early on with the Inaugural Line Honours winner Getaway-Sailing.com following close behind. Black Jack’s crew looked excited as they started their first race cruising at a steady 14 knots.
Last years IRC and PHS winners Wedgetail, owned by Bill Wild was cautiously making their way north as they prepare to fight to hold onto to their titles.
The beautiful clear day saw perfect conditions for the fleet that are now bound for Keppel Bay Marina were the festivities will begin once the first yacht arrives.
Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson encouraged the fleet to travel safe as they make their way north.
“The reaching start has me thinking they will cruise up the cost for most of the night and with the current weather conditions the first boat is likely to arrive at Keppel Bay Marina at approximately at 5pm Sunday afternoon,” said Thompson. “The Race Committee has a sweeps stake going for the time of the first boat home. I’m saying 5pm!”
The Beureau of Meterology at last nights weather briefing advised the fleet they would be dealt with fresh winds for the start, however the front predicated came through early at approximately 3am and has since eased considerably. The fleet is in for light and chilly conditions tonight.
An email received from the Radio Relay Vessel Kokoda said it was a beautiful morning for a yacht race. The will follow the fleet north until the last boat rounds Cape Capricorn.
The start was supported by the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Powerboat Cruising Group creating a spectacular display of colour and atmosphere for the competing yachts.
The yacht tracker will begin once the first sked has been completed at approximately 1730 hours.
Black Jack takes line honours in Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel
At 20:13:13 hours Sunday 3rd August Peter Harburg’s Reichel Pugh 66 Black Jack slid across the finish line of the Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race.
As this is the first running of the race to the new destination Black Jack has set a race record that’s going to be tough to beat.
They finished the race almost in complete darkness with only torches and a spectacular meteorite shower lighting the waters of Keppel Bay.
Sailing with their Code 0 at an extraordinary 6 knots in only 3 knots of easterly breeze, the crew received a shout out from spectator craft that were following their progress from this afternoon.
Skipper Mark Bradford was extremely happy with the yacht and the crew he hand-selected.
“We were pretty lucky with the wind but it does look like it has shut down for the night. We didn’t stop during the race at all which was great especially when the breeze did die right off,” said Bradford.
“As expected Black Jack is a pedigree yacht and we are really happy with her performance and that of the crew. We gelled together with the senior guys encouraging the younger crew to get involved.
“This was our first race and already the crew is improving. We are a great team who just want to go sailing. I’d give this performance 7.5 out of ten!” continued Bradford.
Sir Jack Brabham who put his famous nickname to the yacht is thrilled with their performance and wanting to know how many laps the crew had won by. Sir Jack was reminded that this was yacht racing in a straight line!
The next yacht due to finish as at the 1705 sked is Peter Goldsworthy’s Volvo 60 Getaway-Sailing.com. Bill Wild’s Hugh Welbourne 42 Wedgetail is tipped to cross the line in third. In the 2007 race that finished at Great Keppel Island, Getaway-Sailing.com were the line honours winner with Wedgetail taking out IRC and PHS.
Ray Sweeney’s Farr 11.5 Mondo were just rounding Breaksea Spit at the 1705 sked putting them at the finish line in approximately 24 hours time.
For all the latest log onto the official race website – www.brisbanetokeppel.com
Live Sail Die Insider No Crap Olympic Preview (Part One)
By Charles Olney
The venue
An insult to Olympic athletes. This is just another example of the IOC and ISAF showing complete disrespect to all sailors. With sailing having difficulty maintaining its position in the Olympics at all, its hard to fathom why this venue was chosen in the first place and, approved by all the powers that be.
There are better alternatives in China and Hong Kong and it’s a shame that sailing will now be depicted as a novelty event, rather than as an elite competition to decide the worlds best.. Most public interest will be centred around whether the algae problem has been fixed, not on the incredible skills and talents on display in the event itself. Didn’t the nations bidding for the 2008 games have some basic guidelines to work with? No GOLD here!
The Australian Sailing Team (AST)
With the exception of the Laser, the Olympic classes fleets are almost non existent in Australia..Try and find a competitive fleet of Stars or Finns! The result is that some classes had NO competition for selection at all and NO competitor could be found for the Mens RSX!
This makes the task of the AST so very difficult.
But it seems that rather than address the underlying issues, the focus has been to grab only the already successful junior talent, and put all the effort and funding into one, or at best two crews in each class. Very shortsighted and disrespectful towards those who are not quite on their radar screen …… YET!
Until AST/YA understands that this is a sport made up of more than just Sydneysiders and legends, then all actions and results will be viewed as ‘short-term’ glory. The team was in almost exactly the same position going into the 2004 games in Athens. No medals to the ‘medal - maker’,then!
The funding is NOT an issue, as some AST members have been overheard discussing the problem of ‘how’ to spend all the money!
There is no doubt that the sailors will bust their guts for AUS and hopefully all will win Gold. It is, however, highly unlikely, so even one medal will be a welcome improvement on 2004.
One wonders what will happen to funding if NO medals in 2008
Part two will look at our medal prospects.
3 Boat Lengths in the 2009-12 Rulebook
One of the bigger changes in the new rule book are the changes to the mark room zone rules.
The previously blury 2 boat lengths is now a more solid 3 boat lengths. Here’s the new definition of a zone:
Zone: The area around a mark within a distance of three hull lengths of the boat nearer to it. A boat is in the zone when any part of her hull is in the zone.
I had someone ask me the other week how I thought 3 boat lengths would change the tactics in Team Racing. The short and long answer is that it won’t. The new Appendix D changes the definition back to 2 boat lengths…
D1.1(a) In the definition Zone the distance is changed to two hull lengths.
There will be a small change in the rules effect on Team Racing. One of the reasons behind changing 2 boats lengths to 3 was to seek to clear up a lot of the confusion with the hazy distance that was two boat lengths in the 2005-08 rules.
Rule 18.1 previously stated that Rule 18 applied when the boats began to round or pass the obstruction. This meant that in heavy winds and/or with spinnakers, the distance could be 3 or 4 boat lengths. At times it was a judgement call on the behalf of the competitor, judge or umpire.
No more! In the new rules the zone is fixed by the definition, so the zone in Team Racing is now always 2 boat lengths, not when the boats are “about to round or pass”. This should seek to clear up the confusion around when mark room begins to apply and make it easier on competitors and umpires alike.
Jos at Look to Windward also discussed the changes over on his blog
Sailors Fly Their Flag
Six sailors will feature amongst the 204 flagbearers participating in the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.
The International Olympic Committee announced the list of the flagbearers for the 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) shortly before the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the National Stadium in Beijing at 20:08 on 8 August 2008.
The six sailors who will lead their national teams into the ‘Bird’s Nest’ were:
Belgium - Sebastien GODEFROID
Uruguay - Alejandro FOGLIA
Brazil - Robert SCHEIDT
Indonesia - Gusti Made Oka SULAKSANA
Ireland - Ciara PEELO
Austria - Hans Peter STEINACHER
On the honour of being selected as flagbearer, PEELO commented, “The Olympic Games themselves are an inspiration. Honour will help to motivate me to do the best for my country at the Games.”
Australia’s Sailing Flag Bearers have been:
1960 Rome - Alexander “Jock” Sturrock
2004 Athens - Colin Beashel
Who watched the opening ceremony on TV?
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