By Ian Grant at Hamilton Island.
Marcus Blackmore’s high performance Hooligan ocean racing crew produced a dominating performance to win the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week grand prix class championship.
Hooligan the former Team Emirates New Zealand Merit Cup winning TP52 completed the Grand Slam on the Australian offshore racing circuit when skipper Marcus Blackmore assisted by his talented crew romped to a runaway win.
They won seven of the nine races and discarded a second in their best 8 races to count eventually claiming one of the most impressive wins ever recorded in the 28 year history of Hamilton Island Race Week.
In fact the superior strong wind sailing technique and boat speed paved the way for Hooligan to complete all races with a collective 24 minute 34 second advantage over the defending champion Loki (Stephen Ainsworth).
When Marcus Blackmore bought the yacht late last year he knew it was fast having won the Merit Cup in Europe but it is well known in sailing circles that fast yachts can become slow without a crew of experienced sailors onboard.
The popular owner skipper supported by the tactical strategy of World Olympic Laser champion Tom Slingsby progressively set the pace winning the first three races before Loki won the next two.
This set the stage for a boat on boat match race between the Hooligan and Loki crews when the sails were tensioned for the sixth race in rig and sail stressing 30-35knot trade winds.
Unfortunately the Loki crew were forced to have their challenge reduced to tatters when their expensive mainsail was extensively damaged during a savage gust.
The damage forced the highly the Loki crew to surrender any hope of matching the consistent speed sailing Hooligan when the TP52 excelled on all angles to eventually win the prestigious championship trophy with the impressive 1-1-1-2-2-1-1-1-1 score while Loki claimed second just ahead of the Victorian yacht Shogun (Robert Hanna).