Two Australian IRC yacht racing championships in three years has allowed Mooloolaba Yacht Club skipper Rod Jones to claim the honour as the nation’s best blue water sailor.
He was born to be a successful sailor following in the footsteps of his uncle Graeme Jones who steered Quartermaster to win the World Quarter Ton class championship in 1983.
As to be expected the science of sailing has changed dramatically over the past 26 years with the modern helmsman forced to have a better than average knowledge of tactical sailing skills and the applied technique to steer fast in all wind and sea conditions.
Furthermore these individual skills developed over racing experience in a wide range of classes from Sabots, to Olympic Tornado catamarans and Etchells proved that the ‘Jones boy’ was ready to test his talent and crew management skills against the nation’s best blue water racing combinations.
His challenge to win the 2007 Audi Australian championship with the well prepared Archambault A35 Alegria at the Geelong Race Week hardly raised a ranking among the list of favourites but that changed by the end of the regatta when the Sunshine Coast crew gained the major points before heading to Sydney for the second regatta of the series.
They carried that successful form to score another convincing regatta win which was further demonstrated when Alegria remained won her class in the 384 nautical mile Sydney to Southport Race.
The success of 2007 encouraged Rod Jones to replace Alegria with a larger and more powerful Archambault A40 which proved to be equally impressive winning 2009 Audi National championship at Hamilton Island last August.
Both National championships although credited to Rod Jones as the owner and skipper were the result of his personal management skills to build a group of individuals into a talented crew.
He also identified that a happy crew is important and always acknowledged the role they played in the ocean racing success of Oceanburo and Alegria.
Meanwhile Rod Jones and Kai Timm have continued with the development of one-design racing off Mooloolaba with the fleet of SB3 sports boats.
As expected this program has attracted the attention of Queensland’s best sailors including 2008 Australian Olympic class coach Adrian Finglas, 2009 World Etchells champion Bucky Smith and gifted young helmsman Sean O’Rourke who were aboard Alegria when skipper Rod Jones steered her to clinch his second Australian title.
Kai Timm has since focused his career on representing Queensland in the Audi SB3 Australian championship series at Port Stephens in April.
His recent win in the 2009 Queensland championship over rival Sunshine Coast helmsman Phil Gray on Brisbane’s Waterloo Bay has naturally boosted his personal confidence but the present friendship will certainly be challenged when the two skippers go head to head for the title on the unfamiliar course off Port Stephens.