By Ian Grant.
Whitsunday Sailing Club skipper Craig Piccinelli has achieved some remarkable results with his modified Young 88 class sloop Wobbly Boot.
Skipper Piccinelli has cleverly developed the yacht into a strong Performance Handicap class competitor winning a major share of club races on Pioneer Bay.
As a result his personal trophy cabinet is presently stacked with important ‘silverware’ including the career distinction of winning the Boss Hog trophy as the star performer at the Airlie Beach Race Week plus numerous other short course races.
However the inform Wobbly Boot crew are about to face a serious challenge against their combined sailing skills and friendly care free attitude.
They have nominated to contest the 2010 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week Grand Prix IRC championship in mid August where the ‘baby of the fleet’ will match her boat speed against some of the beat ocean racing combinations in the Southern Hemisphere.
However skipper Craig Piccinelli remains unfazed with the task of testing his crew skills and the boat speed of Wobbly Boot to win their share of sailing space over experienced New Zealand skipper James Farmer’s Georgia and Ray Robert’s helming the 2009 Race Week IRC title silver medallist Evolution Sails.
All three radically different designed yachts crewed by skilled offshore sailors have an equal chance of winning off the start line but that can change dramatically during the ‘drag race’ to record the faster corrected handicap.
Both Georgia and Evolution Sails will naturally have a speed advantage leaving the smaller and slower Wobbly Boot to play catch up.
However the Wobbly Boot crew have the important minutes and miles of racing on their home waters which is expected to be an advantage.
Meanwhile the Wobbly Boot crew will continue to refine their tactical strategy and boat speed with short course racing in club events to be on the required pace to race competitively in their first Grand Prix class regatta.