Mooloolaba Yacht Club’s Commodore Bob Robertson will have his back to the wall when he defends the Performance handicap trophy in the Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Bay race starting on August 6th.
The experienced blue water racing salt and his long term sailing mates showed they were far from being a spent force when they crewed the Farr 40 Cracklin Rosie to a memorable performance after almost 41 hours of intense tactical racing over the demanding 348 n/ml course last year
Skipper Robertson first sailed into Brisbane to Gladstone Race history over 28 years ago when he steered Hot Prospect II into third place and has since added a Sydney Hobart Race bronze medal to his impressive trophy cabinet which also includes Gladstone Race Courier-Mail Cup wins with Seller’s Witchcraft II and Corroboree.
However winning on the modern day ocean racing circuit has become far more competitive for the veteran skipper and his crew and there is a promise that the tactical warfare will become more intense with several skippers focusing their tactical attention on matching the pace with Cracklin Rosie.
The Cracklin Rosie crew have proved they are up to the task but there will be little rest for skipper Robertson who will surely be forced to make minute by minute updates to his tactical strategy.
This will officially become a reality when Cracklin Rosie and her five almost identical Farr 40 rivals Bribie Star (Ken Down), Bobby’s Girl (John Leman) elleven (David Elliott), Lambourdini (Howard Lambourne) and Night Nurse (Russell McCart) start their 348 n/ml match race.
Naturally all six crews have the potential to be the star performer in the class and the veteran Bob Robertson has never been known to take a backward step in what promises to become a tactical ‘dog fight’.
Bribie Star presently holds the honour of being the fastest Farr 40 with her narrow 10 second or .029 seconds/per nautical mile winning advantage over Cracklin Rosie last year while the Cracklin Rosie crew clearly won the Performance Handicap trophy over her rivals.
“Sure it’s going to be tough and you are only as good as your next race but we are planning to be in the thick of the action both day and night”. Robertson said.
As expected the six boat Farr 40 match race the first ever staged in a major Queensland offshore race promises to be a highlight while a similar intense drag race for line honours between Queensland’s race record holder the Peter Harburg owned and the Mark Bradford skippered Black Jack and her New South Wales rival the Bob Oatley owned and Mark Richards helmed Wild Oats 10 promises to become a State of Origin war on the water.
Both high performance ocean racing yachts are identical in waterline line length and the crews are intensely competitive with the Black Jack crew who remain undefeated in Queensland coastal passage racing facing a supreme test of strategy and endurance to protect their reputation and sailing space from their equally impressive New South Wales challenger.