The internationally famed Volvo Globe racing yacht Illbruck V2 which raced as Nokia to smash the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race record has now registered Hamilton Island as her home port.
This impressive Volvo 60 originally designed and built to race under the Norwegian battle flag along the edge of The Great Southern Ocean ice-flow and now registered with the Cruising Yacht Club of Hamilton Island will spend a major part of her racing career in the warm tropical Whitsunday Islands.
The sleek sloop now owned by Bruce Absolon and renamed Nikon Spirit of The Maid to race in honour of his dual Hobart race winner Ausmaid which was dramatically wrecked in a gale off the Sunshine Coast in April 2009 will contest the 2010 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in late August.
Owner skipper Bruce Absolon encouraged with a line honours win in the Coffs Harbour series last January and a second to Black Jack in the Brisbane to Gladstone Race over Easter is currently upgrading the sail inventory.
He has engaged the successful North Loft in Brisbane to add ‘some punch’ to the top speed with a selection of high performance sails.
She presently has the career distinction of recording a peak speed 36.8 knots besides smashing the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race Record in 1999.
“Over time her sails have endured some hard miles and are due to be replaced”
“My plan is to have the sails evaluated to be on the pace for Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in August before heading south again to contest the Pittwater to Coffs series followed by the 2011 Brisbane to Gladstone Race”. Bruce Absolon said.
While Nikon Spirit of The Maid has been proved to withstand the torment of successfully racing in the cold latitudes of the Roaring Forties and the Screeching Sixties she will now only compete in warm water races.
“Our racing environment is clearly defined by nature if palm trees don’t grow there we won’t race there” A joking Bruce Absolon said.