By Ian Grant.
Peter Millar’s speed sailing catamaran Cynophobe is poised to retain a stranglehold on the line honours trophy in The Great Whitsunday Fun Race over the Whitsunday Sailing Club course on Pioneer Bay this weekend.
Both owner skipper Peter Millar and sailing master Dave Chittleborough have dominated the first to finish title since 2005 when they cleverly crewed the smaller catamaran Spud Gun to three runaway wins before Cynophobe was launched 3 weeks prior to the 2008 event.
At the time the Cynophobe crew were confident the new catamaran had the potential to carry on from the success of Spud Gun but they were faced with ‘ironing out the new boat bugs’.
However the new Tony Grainger designed and Dave Chittleborough built Cynophobe which contested her first race with boat yard dust in her bilge proved to be an instant success winning her first Great Whitsunday Fun Race line honours with a super fast 15.2 knot average.
Cynophobe has continued to produce unmatched all angle sailing speed and her crew are never happy when both hulls are glued to the water.
Naturally they are far happier when the sails are fully loaded with wind and the trampoline is drenched with spray.
The crew have continued to refine the speed potential with some outstanding results in the recent Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week.
Based on their best five races to count the Cynophobe crew who finished fifth overall on corrected handicap behind their Whitsunday Sailing Club mate Bob Thomson in Sirocco, the Brisbane trimarans Moving Finger and Intrigue and the Keith Roberts skippered local trimaran Wild Thing won the line honours title by 28 minutes 20 seconds over Moving Finger.
Cynophobe naturally performs at her best when there is some real grunt in the breeze however the early arrival of the summer sea breeze could provide her crew with a searching light wind test on Saturday.
Dave Chittleborough openly admits the speed sailing catamaran will be hard pressed to protect their reputation and their unbroken run of line honours will be under a serious threat in winds under 10 knots.
“Cynophobe becomes a little ‘sticky’ in light breeze but we have to learn to deal with what blows over the deck”. Chittleborough said.
However Cynophobe remains as the pre-race favourite with Sirocco and Rum Raider jointly skippered the husband and wife team of Scott and Vicki Millar being the most likely to capitalise if the wind fails to generate the required velocity to allow the Cynophobe crew with the opportunity to fly a hull.