By Ian Grant.
The tropical sailing paradise of the Whitsunday Islands supported by the friendly fellowship of the Whitsunday Sailing Club has continued to become a destination of choice for major dinghy and yacht racing championships.
Later this year the Whitsunday Sailing Club will host the Australian Tasar dinghy championship followed by the popular Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week and the Australian Corsair national series.
Both the Tasar and Corsair associations selected Whitsunday Sailing Club to host the events on Pioneer Bay because of the excellent competition courses supported with a friendly club social atmosphere and trendy post twilight lifestyle on shore.
The Tasar and Corsair are popular family classes with the Corsair initially designed by Australia’s original Americas Cup designer Alan Payne to provide a perfect platform for both the young and not so young to compete in racing at the club, state and national level.
They are simply rigged with a jib, mainsail and spinnaker which are the ideal sail combination to educate younger sailors while also testing the tactical skills of the experienced ‘old salts’.
In fact they are the perfect class for sail training and are an exciting dinghy to crew in the cut and thrust associated with fleet racing which will be revealed on Pioneer Bay when Australia’s best crews compete for the prestigious Australian championship trophy.
Local Corsair sailors Bruce Carter and Jim Hayes who won the National Silver Medal on Brisbane’s Bramble Bay in 2008 followed by a fourth place in the recent series on the New South Wales course at Budgewoi believe they will be on the pace to be a Gold Medal challenger on their home course.
Racing at home will be a decided advantage however Carter and Hayes are far too experienced to accept that this will provide the necessary speed sailing edge.
However they will be race prepared with the important club racing and training sessions playing a role to further improve their crew skills.
Meanwhile Jim Hayes will have the opportunity to gain further important fact finding time in his role with club sail training.
His extensive sessions on the water have allowed him to personally understand when to tack and where to go and dodge the flow of current.
Skipper Bruce Carter has similar long term experience but while they are happy to contest the championship in their own aquatic playground they are not prepared to make any pre-title predictions.
Their collective experience combined with a 2-4 from the more recent National championship regattas suggest skipper Bruce Carter and tactician Jim Hayes affectionately known as the ‘senior citizens’ will present a strong challenge when the championship final is decided off Airlie Beach.