By Ian Grant.
Tony Donnellan's Townsville Sloop Quatro
Townsville Cruising Yacht Club skipper Graham Donnell is among the latest high profile ocean racing sailors to confirm his entry for the 2010 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week from August 12-19.
The entry from Graham Donnell and the impressive New Zealand TP52 Georgia has set the foundation for Race Week 2010 to become another outstanding promotion for the community of Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Sailing Club with a number of first time entries among the 87 skippers who have officially accepted the official invitation from Race Officer Denis Thompson.
Last September Graham Donnell and his Quattro crew proved that the 11m Greg Elliott designed Quattro was a light wind pace setter when they won the Sun Ferries Race Magnetic Island Race Week IRC championship.
Quattro clichéd the title following an absorbing five race duel against the defending champion Wayne Millar helming the Sydney 41Zoe.
The Quattro crew while having the advantage to race in relatively unchallenged space still had to use smart tactical options to finish with the faster corrected handicap point score.
They wrapped up the series with a consistent 1-1-1-2-2 score while Zoe and female skipper Belinda Cooper who has also nominated for Airlie Beach Race Week skippered the Cairns Yacht Club sloop Groove to fill the minor places.
Quattro has been entered in the IRC Cruising class championship and will need to produce the same consistent all angle sailing speed from her Sun Ferries win on Cleveland Bay for skipper Graham Donnell and crew to protect the reputation against an impressive line up including the two Brisbane yachts Ocean Affinity (Stewart Lewis) and Stomp (John Moore) and the Royal Perth Yacht Clubs Wyuna (Dennis Vincent).
The advantage of local knowledge will also favour the Whitsunday Sailing Club crews onboard the Jeff Brown skippered Double O Seven, Grizzly (Chris Jiggins) and Sunrise (Helen Shipsey) when the sails are tensioned for the honour of winning the class championship.
“Unfortunately due to the unstable economy and work commitments forced us to miss Race Week 2009.”
“However the Quattro crew are looking forward to returning to enjoy another great week of racing “Graham Donnell said.
This stand alone championship regatta which officially launches the annual Festival of Sails in the Whitsunday Island region has attracted another competitive and widely diversified fleet including Queensland’s and possibly Australia’s fastest ocean racing catamaran the Peter Millar skippered Cynophobe.
The exciting twin hulled ‘flying machine’ which regularly flies the windward hull when sprinting in the fast lane at speeds above 20 knots has become a short priced favourite to set some new course times during the regatta when competing for the inaugural Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week Multihull class championship.