By Ian Grant.
When Australia’s SB3 sports boat crew of skipper Glenn Bourke, Rod Jones and Greg Macallansmith finished a close 4th in the 2011 World championship in England they made a personal commitment to win a medal at the 2012 series at Hamilton Island later this year.
They have plans to set the benchmark in Australian fleet racing at the 2012 Australian championship on the tricky River Derwent next month before contesting the Queensland championship during the Southport Yacht Club Sail Paradise regatta in March.
In actual fact their sailing wet suits will have little time to dry out with the Club Marine Blue racing team nominated to contest all of the major class regattas in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland with the month of May the only period left vacant in their racing diary.
The trio of talented one-design sports boat sailors were in brilliant form when they recorded a runaway win in the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week series on the windy Dent Passage course last August.
Glenn Bourke a former Australian Olympic Laser class helmsman and CEO of the international standard Hamilton Island resort expressed his skills with his Sunshine Coast crewmates Rod Jones and Greg Macallansmith has set a promising challenge in place to end the high performance English sailors domination at the past four World championships.
This will not be an easy assignment but the Club Marine Blue crew promise to press home a decisive local course advantage when the first World championship to be decided in the Southern Hemisphere is contested in the warm tropical Whitsunday Islands from December 12-20.
Meanwhile the exciting standard of fleet racing in Australia has attracted the attention of the exceptionally talented skippers Nathan Outteridge and Matthew Belcher who have been selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Olympic regatta in London later this year.
Both skippers have shown an interest in being on the starting line at the 2012 World championship with Matthew Belcher and his 470 class Olympic team mate Malcolm Page gaining valuable fresh wind sailing experience during the 2011 Queensland championship at Hamilton Island in August.
The high performance Club Marine crew are excited about the opportunity to race against a number of the World’s high profile sailors including the Olympians Nathan Outteridge and Matthew Belcher and World Dragon class champion Nick Rogers from Tasmania plus the defending champion Geoff Carveth of England.
After winning the State championship in August Glenn Bourke said “We were happy with a strong result from a fresh wind regatta which tested our skill and endurance”.
“However that result is history and our attention will now be focused on being physically and mentally prepared to be on the pace for the World championship”.
That long campaign starts in the cooler latitudes of Tasmania next month where local idol Nick Rogers is expected to be the pacesetter when the strong fleet of SB3 sailors test their tactical reputations to become the 2012 Australian champion.