By Ian Grant.
Sunshine Coast Ocean racing helmsman Mike O’Brien had a reasonable excuse to have missed relaxing at home in the brilliant autumn weather over the ANZAC weekend.
Mike O’Brien also temporarily placed his preparations for the 2010 Musto Etchells Australasian Winter championships on hold to accept the principal helming role on Bill Wild’s Wedgetail for the Yachting Queensland State IRC championship on Brisbane’s Moreton Bay.
It was an invitation he could not resist after playing a pivotal crew role with the exceptionally talented and determined Wedgetail crew when the sloop powered to a deserved overall win in the Brisbane to Gladstone Race over the Easter weekend.
Wedgetail has accumulated and impressive log book of results in the major Australian offshore races including her 2010 Brisbane to Gladstone race win over the Peter Harburg owned and Mark Bradford skippered Black Jack but has been sparingly raced in shorter course events.
The Hugh Welbourne designed and Kevin Costin built Wedgetail regarded among Australia’s best 12.8m yachts had a reputation to protect when she lined up to contest the first of the six race Yachting Queensland blue ribbon event over the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron course last Saturday.
As expected there was evidence of a positive tactical attitude when the Wedgetail crew became involved in testing their light wind speed against the recently launched Black Jack Too and the match racing Farr 40’s Bribie Star and Lambourdini.
Apart from looking impressive Black Jack Too built by Stallion Marine at Yandina and suitably rigged with a compete wardrobe of North Sails faced up to her maiden regatta as an unknown performer.
But her unknown form guide soon gained respect when Black Jack Too skilfully steered by Vaughan Prentice recorded a 3-4-4 to hold the edge over her match racing rival Wedgetail 2-7-6 after the first three light wind races.
However the Wedgetail crew who featured in a rare dead heat for the fastest corrected course time with the David Elliott skippered elleven in race five had fought her way back into title contention to hold the progressive lead by a narrow half point over Bribie Star which provisionally held second with a score 5-1-5-4-4 over Black Jack 3-4-4-8-3 when all three crews lined up for the title deciding final.
A split second error turned the final into a tight tactical match race between Wedgetail and Black Jack Too when Bribie Star was recalled for breaking the start.
This crucial error simplified the race strategy for the Wedgetail crew when they focused their attention on match racing against Black Jack Too.
Both crews were rarely separated by more than 12 metres when they became engaged in their own private match race before the lower handicapped Wedgetail won the duel by four seconds to claim the 2010 Yachting Queensland IRC championship trophy.
The normally mild mannered Mike O’Brien openly admitted to a sense of elation when Wedgetail’s owner skipper Bill Wild praised his crew during the championship presentation ceremony.
“We came to the series with the game plan to sail consistently in all six races and we achieved that”. Mike O’Brien said.