Bumblebee 5 heads Australian Team for Southern Cross Cup

The Australian Yachting Federation today announced the Australian team for the 1999 Southern Cross Cup offshore yachting teams event, a 10 race series starting next week in Sydney and ending with the Telstra Sydney to Hobart ocean race at the end of the month.

The team, chosen on IMS handicap results in last weekend's Ord Minnett Regatta, comprises:

• Bumblebee 5 (NSW), a Murray/Burns/Dovell-designed, high tech 62-footer with a carbon fibre hull and mast, owned by John Kahlbetzer and skippered by designer Iain Murray. Recently broke the race record for the CYCA's Flinders Islet race.
• Ausmaid, a Farr 47 which won the 1996 Telstra Sydney to Hobart and is now owned by South Australalian yachtsman Kevan Pearce and skippered by Peter Bellingham. Ausmaid was also part of the winning Australian team at the 1996 Kenwood Cup in Hawaii.
• Atara, a Lyons 43, chartered and skippered by Roger Hickman. The boat came third in the 1996 Sydney to Hobart and has continued to do well over the years, including wins in the Sydney to Southport race and the CYCA Blue Water Pointscore.

The Southern Cross Cup, for teams of three yachts, is sailed in conjunction with the Telstra Cup on Sydney Harbour and off Sydney Heads between December 15 - 20 but unlike the stand-alone Telstra Cup for individual yachts, also includes the 630 nautical mile Sydney to Hobart.

Victoria's team will comprise the 70-foot maxi yacht Wild Thing, owned by Grant Wharington, Chutzpah, a 35-footer skippered by Bruce Taylor, and Lou Abrahams' Sydney 41, Challenge Again, all three coming from the Murray/Burns/Dovell (MBD) design team.

The New South Wales team will be headed by George Snow's Jutson 76 maxi, Brindabella, joined by Graham Gibson's Farr 46, Ninety Seven, and the Murray IMS 41, Terra Firma, owned by Stewart Niemann and Peter Bartels.

Brindabella and Ninety Seven are both former line honours winners of the Sydney to Hobart while Terra Firma was the IMS overall handicap winner in 1995.