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Spinnaker Tales - by Ian Grant - 2008/07/30 07:05
SPINNAKER TALES.
By Ian Grant.
Bob Robertson the colourful veteran of Queensland Ocean racing will rug-up and brave a bitterly cold environment this weekend to protect his respected career reputation.
His usual personal pride will be evident when the Caloundra ‘Old Salt’ packs his sea bag and prepares the navigator’s nook for yet another challenge to add more career points to his already impressive blue water log book.
There will be an element of personal confidence on Saturday morning when he and his Cracklin Rosie crew enter into a 348 nautical mile tactical dog-fight for honours in the Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race.
Robertson better known around the Australian offshore sailing circuit as Sir Robbo of Queensland has the career distinction of being among Queensland’s more successful blue water racing skippers.
He has finished third overall in a gruelling Rolex Sydney Hobart race beside celebrated two Brisbane to Gladstone Race wins plus major results in the Sydney to Mooloolaba and winning the prestigious Hahn Baynham Island race trophy at Hamilton Island Race Week.
This experience combined with a super competitive attitude will be tested when Cracklin Rosie weathers the Fairway Buoy off Caloundra on Saturday afternoon.
By then both skipper and crew are expected to be engaged in a history making match race against their almost identical Farr 40 class rivals the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron sloops Night Nurse (Russell McCart) and Kevin Miller’s Bribie Star.
Bribie Star was the top performer in the 308 n/ml Brisbane to Gladstone Race over Easter and her sailing master Peter Sherwood is relatively confident of retaining Queensland’s fastest Farr 40 title.
But Bob Robertson has never been known to take a backward step in a tactical dog-fight which suggests the Farr 40 class match race will become intensely competitive when the three crews share similar sea space to beat the 7.63 knot course average set last year by Night Nurse.
Interest will also focus on the course times of the former Globe race champion Getaway-Sailing.com which won line honours in 2007 with an average speed of 9.08 knots and Wedgetail’s corrected handicap winning speed average of 7.37 knots.
Wedgetail will again set the bench mark for the fastest corrected handicap course time following another convincing speed sailing performance during the Audi Sydney Gold Coast race last weekend.
Special interest will also surround the majestic 40 year old Brisbane yacht MDBS Spirit of Koomooloo skippered by Mike Freebairn.
Skipper Freebairn and crew showed that age was no barrier when they claimed second place to Wedgetail last year and a more favourable forecast promises to give the old sloop another strong chance to upset her modern rivals.
“Spirit of Koomooloo loves a slog in a fresh breeze she has had her hull scrubbed and is ready to race”.
“We have also upgraded the nav-station to include the latest Bigpond Wireless Broadband mobile card technology which will allow access to update weather maps and apply the important forecasts to our race strategy”. Skipper Freebairn said.
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