Black Jack
By Ian Grant.
Yandina boat builder David Biggar has finally allowed his wet weather sailing suit to dry after an extensive season of ocean racing on board Peter Harburg’s Black Jack.
The super competitive blue water sailor has returned to an equally busy lifestyle catching up with a back log of building contracts at his Stallion Marine complex.
His sailing career with the Black Jack racing team has been temporarily placed on hold until the next major ocean passage race against their arch New South Wales rival the Bob Oatley owned Wild Oats X.
Their recent head to head clash against Wild Oats X and the larger Sydney maxi Lahana for the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week Gun Boat trophy revealed some interesting statistics.
As expected the longer waterline length allowed Lahana with five wins from nine races to claim the prestigious trophy ahead of her almost identical match racing rivals with a total elapsed time of 16 hours 1 minute 5 seconds while Black Jack 16-8-42 claimed second fastest by 19 seconds from Wild Oats X. Read more…
Southport Yacht Club presents
SAIL PARADISE GOLD COAST 2011
with Feeder Races – Coffs to Paradise and Manly Qld to Paradise 2011
Dates of the Series:
Pittwater to Coffs Race – 2nd Januray 2011
Coffs to Paradise Race – 6th – 8th January 2011
Manly to Paradise Race – 8th Janaury 2011
Sail Paradise – 10th – 15th January 2011
Southport Yacht Club is proud to present the second Annual Sail Paradise Gold Coast 10 – 15 January 2011 with the two Feeder Races, Coffs to Paradise 6 – 8 January and Manly QLD to Paradise 8 January.
The entire concept has been based on a plan to provide the highest level of competitive and satisfying Summer sailing for crews of a wide range of yachts – from Grand Prix to Cruising.
Included in the Sail Paradise regatta will be the RL 24’s, staging their Australian Championships.
With the major fleet consisting of IRC, PHS Racing, Cruising, Sport Boats, Trailable’s and Multihull’s, it is expected that Sail Paradise will attract more than 60 yachts. This entire series is designed to be very much a family affair. While the Sailors are out racing, family and friends can enjoy all the attributes that the Gold Coast has to offer.
For any further enquiries please contact Drew Jones on enquiries@southportyachtclub.com.au
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’. Read more…
By Ian Grant.
Sunshine Coast sailor Phil Gray topped up both his sun tan and trophy cabinet when he cleverly steered Dulon Polish to a 1 point win in the inaugural Audi Hamilton Island Race Week SB3 championship last week.
Gray has proved his talent in other classes including winning the Australian 505 dinghy championship and steering Nortruss G Wizz to two impressive line honours wins in the Brisbane to Gladstone blue water classic.
But last week’s win was one of his best surviving a 9 race duel to beat the Tasmanian World Dragon class champion Nick Rogers in Toll Shipping and the multiple National champion Sail Boarder Dennis Winstanley helming Jump.
Phil Gray and his Dulon Polish crew only won 2 of the nine races compared with 3 by Rogers (Toll Shipping) and 2 by Winstanley in Jump. Read more…
By Ian Grant.
Hamilton Island Yacht Club skipper Bruce Absolon remains significantly proud of the opportunity to now own and skipper one of the World’s best known yachts.
However the ocean racing career of Bruce Absolon has not been all smooth sailing on a calm sea in fact there is a personal meaning behind the name of his famed ocean racer Nikon Spirit of The Maid.
Bruce Absolon became a broken man when his previous yacht the two time Sydney Hobart Race winner Ausmaid was wrecked on Noosa north shore beach on April 2 2009.
Ausmaid was nearing the final stages of her delivery voyage to compete in the Brisbane to Gladstone race when her crew faced an intense and life threatening low depression system off Double Island Point. Read more…
Stephen Ainsworth and his high performance crew of ocean racing sailors outpaced a Rolex Sydney Hobart standard fleet to win the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week and the Audi Australian IRC Ocean racing title on Saturday.
The popular businessman who races yachts for the love of the challenge claimed his career best performance when the talented helmsman Gordon Maguire steered Loki to victory in the Grand Prix series at Hamilton Island on Friday.
There was only a short celebration on the dock at Hamilton Island Marina before the Loki crew were back in a huddle planning their strategy to win Australia’s richest prize in yachting an Audi A5 cabriolet awarded to the winner of the four regatta Australian championship series. Read more…
By Ian Grant at Hamilton Island Friday August 27 2010.
Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki won the prestigious Audi Hamilton Island Race Week IRC championship with a race to spare yesterday.
The Gordon Maguire and Stephen Ainsworth combination started the week long series as pre-regatta favourite and justified their ranking by progressively outsailing the Sydney Hobart standard fleet in a mixed range of winds from light to fresh and frightening.
This performance has been a fitting reward for Stephen Ainsworth who lost his previous yacht of the same name during a violent storm when representing Australia in the Rolex Middle Sea race in 2007.
His new Loki has now proved to be the most consistent on the Australian offshore racing circuit winning the short course Sydney Harbour regatta followed by a convincing win in 384 n /ml Audi Sydney to Gold Coast race capped win a popular win in Australia’s premier race week series yesterday.
They firmed a vice like grip on the trophy after scoring their fifth win from seven races yesterday morning then placed the overall result beyond doubt with a third behind the New Zealand sloop Georgia and Brisbane’s Black Jack in the second windward leeward race of the day
Naturally Stephen Ainsworth was impressed with the performance of his principal helmsman Gordon Maguire and a talented crew.
“The dedication and team work expressed by the entire crew is what got Loki over the line”.
“They are a great bunch of mates and deserve the results which they work so hard for”. Stephen Ainsworth said. Read more…
Wild Oats X, Lahana and Black Jack staged a thrilling nip-n-tuck match race for line honours in the 27 n/ml Audi Hamilton Island Race Week Island passage event in the windy Whitsunday Islands yesterday.
A true Southerly trade wind spiced with gusts recorded at 26 knots propelled Wild Oats X, Lahana and Black Jack into some wild wave riding speeds on the long spinnaker run between Spitfire Rock and Pine Islet.
John Honan co owner of the 30m maxi Lahana described the run as a ride to remember.
“We were in front at Spitfire rock but that fell apart when we blew out a spinnaker” He said. Read more…
Peter Millard’s 30 m maxi sloop Lahana left her rivals trailing a white water wake when she speed sailed to another impressive line honours win in the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week yesterday
Lahana previously considered to be obsolete has been rejuvenated with new sails to become a star performer in the regatta which has attracted a Sydney to Hobart standard fleet.
The Lahana crew combined cleverly to power sail over the 24.3 n/ml Baynham Island course finishing with a comfortable win in the Grand Prix IRC class over the Brisbane pocket-maxi Black Jack helmed by Mark Bradford while 2008 Star Class Olympian Iain Murray steered Wild Oats X into third place. Read more…