CEO of Hamilton Island and master yacht racing helmsman Glenn Bourke  overcame a number of serious setbacks to score a narrow 2 second win in the SB3 Queensland Championship race on Dent Passage yesterday.
After fighting for clear sailing space out of the start the Club Marine crew gradually outpaced their rivals to then misjudge the current and colliding with the rounding mark.
Both sail handlers Rod Jones and Greg Macallansmith who always sail cool under pressure reacted cleverly when Glenn Bourke had to slam Club Marine into a crash tack and re round the mark.
However they appeared to have lost any chance of chasing down the advantage held by race leader Phil Gray in Dulon when spinnakers were set for the power sailing downwind run where the exciting SB3 sports boats scudded at pace before the 20 knot breeze.
Dulon with skipper Phil Gray using the advantage of setting the pace from the front of the fleet correctly applied a tight wind shadow over his nearest rival on the second upwind beat.
Naturally the Dulon crew felt they had the race wrapped up when spinnakers were set for the run to the finish.
But the never say die attitude shown by skipper Glenn Bourke supported by faultless spinnaker setting and gybing by Rod Jones and Greg Macallansmith allowed Club Marine to pave a speed sailing path for to snatch an important race win from Dulon in the final metres of the race.
In the Grand Prix IRC class championship the series favourite Hooligan moved another race closer to winning the prestigious Audi Hamilton Island race week with another convincing win.
Hooligan the re-named Team New Zealand Merit Cup winning TP52 skippered by Marcus Blackmore and racing to the tactical strategy from World Olympic Laser champion Tom Slingsby recorded their fifth win from seven races.
They assumed command with unmatched boat speed to finish with a 1 minute 31 second win over the Robert Hanna skippered Victorian TP52 Shogun while the defending champion Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki filled third place another 3 minutes 15 seconds off the pace.