By Ian Grant.
Sunshine Coast yacht builder David Biggar will take temporary leave from his busy Stallion Marine boat building complex at Yandina later this month.
However his team of talented craftsmen will continue with their busy workload when David Biggar packs his sea bag for an intense series of ocean racing with Peter Harburg’s Black Jack later this month.
Black Jack which remains undefeated in the major Queensland blue water classics has been nominated to contest the 384 nautical mile Audi Sydney to Gold Coast Race starting on July 31st then will line up to defend her 2009 Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Bay line honours trophy on Friday August 6th.
The action packed challenge involving 732 nautical miles of boat on boat and mate against mate match racing with their almost identical 20 m New South Wales rival Wild Oats X promises to become a State of Origin war on the water.
David Biggar will have little time to think about his profession of building high class luxury catamarans and top performing grand prix ocean racing yachts when the Queensland based Black Jack enters her ongoing duel against Sydney’s Wild Oats X for the honour of holding the award as Australia’s fastest 20m ocean racing crew.
Wild Oats X was tactically well sailed by skipper Mark Richards and crew to claim a decisive 28.43 second per nautical mile victory over Black Jack in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast race last year.
Naturally this statistic favours Wild Oats X to enter the 384n/ml tactical dog-fight as the favourite but the Black Jack racing team remain equally determined to reverse the 2009 result before both crews face up to a similar challenge in the 348 n/ml Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Bay Race which has been dominated by Black Jack with three wins from three starts including winning outright on corrected handicap and breaking the race record in 2009.
“We are up to the challenge”. Black Jack’s principal helmsman Mark Bradford said.
However he understands the importance that each individual crew member commits to keeping the bow spit on Black Jack ahead of the equally determined crew on Wild Oats X in a race which has the potential for the line honours match up to be decided in seconds rather than minutes.
Similar interest will focus on the maiden costal passage race performance of dual Audi Australian offshore sailing champion Rod Jones when he tests the boat speed of Alegria IV against the 2010 Brisbane to Gladstone champion Wedgetail for the first time.
Both the Bill Wild skippered Wedgetail and the sleek new Mooloolaba Yacht Club sloop Alegria IV are identical in waterline length which suggests they are perfectly suited to stage a private ‘drag race’ to decide Queensland’s and possibly Australia’s fastest 12.9m ocean racer.
Time on the water plus the fact that Wedgetail missed their chance to claim second place in the shorter Brisbane to Gladstone by one second suggests her crew should have a slender advantage over Alegria IV.