Queensland IRC and Sail Mooloolaba Keelboat Championship preview
by Tracey Johnstone 27 Jun 2014 17:42 BST
28-29 June 2014
The Fat Controller at the start of the Brisbane to Gladstone Race © Nathan Wallace / Queensland Cruising Yacht Club
Sail Mooloolaba: Queensland IRC and Sail Mooloolaba Keelboat Championship preview
The big boats come out to play this weekend in the Queensland IRC Championship and Sail Mooloolaba Keelboat Regatta.
It's quite some time since host club, Mooloolaba Yacht Club (MYC), has seen a fleet of this quality and quantity race at Mooloolaba.
In the IRC championship 14 boats have entered with 11 coming from other ports. The biggest boat in the fleet is Tam Faragher's Ker 50, Kerumba. They will be up against Vaughan Prentice's Reichel Pugh 42 Black Jack Too and two Farr 40s – The Fat Controller and Bobby's Girl - for line honours.
Prentice reports the Black Jack Too team have been racing quite a bit against Kerumba on Brisbane's Moreton Bay. Given the right wind conditions, Prentice said they can beat them across the line.
"What's let us down a lot of the time and given it's wind dependent, it's only a little boat with a bow sprit and no spinnaker pole. With windward/leeward racing, it's got to be quite light for us or probably above 17 knots for us to be competitive with the likes of a Marten 49 for line honours and the Farr 40s for IRC victory because they just pole back and doodle along down the course.
"In eight knots and below we are in the same ball park as everyone has to sail VMG angle downwind. Everyone is sailing at pretty similar angles. Once you get over that, between nine and 17 knots, boats with spinnaker poles can just brace aft and run dead down the track where we still have to sail angles," Prentice said.
Prentice is hoping the recent modifications to the trim of the boat will keep them in the top group this weekend. They have ensured the centre of gravity in the boat is a lot lower than what it was, moved the fuel tank out of the stern and put it to closer to the middle of the boat, moved the batteries down lower and increased the length of the bow sprit.
"The other good thing is we have in our favour, although we might not be that great downwind, is that if there is a nice 15 knots it will certainly make sure the other crews have to be sharp in their drops and gybes with spinnaker poles and hopefully we can with some good crew work, make it all happen," he added.
Cameron and Lesley Pryce's Farr 40, The Fat Controller, has travelled down from Keppel Bay Sailing Club to compete in this weekend's IRC championship.
Purchased in August last year, Pryce has raced her at Keppel Bay against the local fleet and then in this year's QantasLink Brisbane Gladstone Yacht Race. Unfortunately time constraints stopped them from completing that light air race.
Pryce is tapping into the local sailing conditions knowledge by bringing on board some Sunshine Coast sailing talent. Dinghy and keelboat champion and now sailing coach, Jordan Spencer, will be back on the mainsheet. Spencer was on board for the first time for the Gladstone race which he described as more of a drift, than a race.
In the middle will be family friends and Mountain Creek dinghy sailors, 16-year-old Dylan Bagguley and his brother, 19-year-old Reece Bagguley.
As to the boat's quirky name, the bubbly Lesley Pryce reports it comes from the Thomas the Tank Engine books. With a penchant for boat names that often raise a querying eye, Lesley said that after reading the books she remembered the head of the railway's name and just couldn't go past it when it came to naming their newest acquisition.
In the Keelboat Regatta, 15 boats have entered including the 54 foot Jeanneau Vanilla from Victoria. They will be up against Buderim's Dean Corbett with his 54 footer, Veloce.
The handicap honours are going to be hard to predict as the fleet ranges in size from an Elliott 780 through to the big 50 footers.
While several boat owners and crews huddle around the official notice board loudly discussing the starting Performance Handicaps, others are busy preparing their boats for the expected stronger breeze weekend.
In the Spinnaker Division, Nic Cox and Col Thomas's Adams 10 Ella will be bringing out their new set of Quantum sails to show off this weekend while John Davis has recruited the talented MYC Youth Development Program member Todd Billington for his JOG 28 footer, State of the Ark. Billington was a member of the MYC youth team to contest last weekend's Queensland Match Racing Championship.
"I am pleased he is able to sail with us. I will probably get him on the helm downwind so I can trim the spinnaker and then get him to trim the main upwind," Davis said.
In the Non-Spinnaker Division, John Parkes's little Spider 22, from New South Wales's Wangi Wangi Sailing Club at Lake Macquarie, will be challenging the bigger boats on handicaps.
Prentice may get his wish for the weekend of breeze above the 17 knots. The weather models are currently forecasting a 15 to 20 knot northerly on Saturday followed by an easing 15 knot flat water, shifty west-south-west on Sunday.
For more event information, go to www.sailmooloolaba.yachting.org.au