tony
Admin
Admin
| Posts: 3127 |  |
Karma: 14
|
Airlie Beach Race Week 2008 - 2008/08/16 17:00
2008 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week news
Magnificient tropical venue for mid-winter regatta
What a magnificent venue for a mid-winter regatta - the sparkling tropical waters of Pioneer Bay off Airlie Beach on the Whitsunday Coast of Far North Queensland.
Not only is it warm (25 C) and sunny, a 20 knot south-easterly trade wind is whipping up the turquoise waters out on Pioneer Bay, but the facilities at Meridien Marinas Abel Point are second to none on the Australian East Coast.
Abel Point marina, Whitsunday Sailing Club and, indeed, the town of Airlie Beach are a far cry from when I was last here, many years back.
The vast marina complex now provides berthing for 500 boats, from 18m to 60m LOA, catering for local sailing and powerboats, cruising boats, cruise and charter boats, and this week for a record 109 keelboats contesting the Meridien Marinas 19th annual Airlie Beach Race Week.
Overlooking the vast marina, protected by a huge stone break wall, are the stylish buildings that house the marina management and a range of services, including cruise and charter boat operators, boat brokers and other marine services.
Since Meridien took over Abel Point two years ago the Brisbane-based private development company has given the complex an impressive facelift, including expanded landscaping and car parking, and a timber boardwalk with canter- levered awnings. Dredging is also continuing at the marina to meet the demands of deeper draft yachts that regular race or cruise into the Whitsundays.
Meridien is a diversified property development company owned by three Brisbane businessmen (and yachting enthusiasts) - Russell McCart, Richard Barratt and David Roberts. McCart is Rear Commodore of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron and is competing in the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week in his own yacht Night Nurse.
In addition to the Meridien Marina Abel Point, the company has under way the $500 million Port of Airlie marina and apartment development, owns the Marina Mirage Port Douglas and is developing Horizon Shores on the Gold Coast which, when completed, will have 1400 berths, the largest marina in Australia, as well as a sailing club, eco resort, restaurants and other facilities.
This afternoon Abel Point is a hive of activity, many yachts flying colorful flags, skippers registering their boats, crews checking in, and many boats out sailing to test the waters of Pioneer Bay in preparation for tomorrow's opening race, the Double Cone - Armit Island Race.
* In fact, one crewman was so anxious to go sailing on a sports boat that he dashed down to the marine, still dressed in his suit he wore up on the plane and carrying a suitcase. Then, in full view of an appreciative audience, he stripped to his undies (with the girls on the boardwalk singing a suitable strippers tune), whipped out a pair of shorts and a tropical short, and went sailing!
Media Director Peter Campbell
|
|
|
| | The administrator has disabled public write access. |
tony
Admin
Admin
| Posts: 3127 | |
Karma: 14
|
Re:Airlie Beach Race Week 2008 - 2008/08/16 17:01
IRC split into two divisions at Airlie Beach
IR
In the interests of fairer racing, race officials have split the IRC fleet for the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week, which starts on Pioneer Bay tomorrow with the Double Cone - Armit Island Race.
In broad terms, IRC Division 1 will be the larger and faster IRC boats, including the Bakewell-White 52 Wired from New Zealand, the Cookson 50s Quantum Racing from Sydney, Living Doll from Melbourne and Pussy Galore from New Zealand, along with the Corby 49 Flirt, now racing as Audi Centre Melbourne, and the Farr 40s Cracklin Rosie and Night Nurse.
Division 2 includes the Archambault 35 Arajilla, the Sydney 38 Zen and the Murray 42 Secret Mens Business 1 and the RP35 Sea Quest.
'Splitting IRC into two divisions will make for better and fairer racing and give us the ability to set courses more suitable to the various sizes of boats,' Principal Race Officer Tony Denham said this evening at the Abel Point race centre.
Race officials also announced that the Cruising with Spinnaker Division, the largest in the regatta, had been split into two divisions - Division 1 comprising 17 boats and Division 2 of 21 boats.
The Double Cone - Armit Island Race is a traditional opener to the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week, with the larger boats likely to sail a course of about 19 nautical miles.
The forecast is for south-easterly tradewinds of 15-20 knots, giving expectations of some fast and spectacular racing, particularly among the 19-boat fleet of Sports Boats.
Race Week this year has drawn entries from all Australian States and Territories and New Zealand, competing under IRC, Performance Racing, Performance Cruising, Cruising with Spinnakers, Cruising Non-Spinnakers, and Sports Boats and One Design categories.
Media Director Peter Campbell
|
|
|
| | The administrator has disabled public write access. |
tony
Admin
Admin
| Posts: 3127 | |
Karma: 14
|
Re:Airlie Beach Race Week 2008 - 2008/08/16 17:03
RIDE ON THE WILD SIDE.
Airlie Beach Qld Friday August 15 2008.
The thrill seeking Sports Boat class sailors are happy with the expected forecast for the opening race of the 2008 International Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week later today.
Race officials are expecting fast sailing conditions with variable 15 to 20 Knot trade winds to blow over the northern waters of the Whitsunday Passage providing the highly competitive fleet with perfect racing conditions over the Double Cone-Armit Island course.
Competition for the prestigious line honours trophy will hinge entirely on the crew who are prepared to hoist the largest spinnaker then hang on and hope the skipper backs their sail handling skill by avoiding time consuming wipe-out broaches.
All of the leading line honours contenders including the former French Kiss Americas Cup sailor Pierre Gal (Conquistador) and Royal Papua Yacht Club Admirals Cup skipper Bruce Tardrew (No Limits) have experienced some time out in previous regattas and they will naturally be cautious when they negotiate the roller coaster type seaway off Double Cone Island.
This point of the course known as the ‘Graveyard’ will again have some unexpected ‘Pot-Holes’ which will have the potential to sort the best from the rest.
Conquistador, No Limits, and previous regatta line honours champion Vivace skippered by former Australian Junior Offshore Group champion Noel Leigh-Smith will be kept honest by the equally well sailed New South Wales speedster Stealthy skippered by Bob Cowan.
All four ‘sprint machines’ have the crew experience and boat speed to claim the major points in the first race but the result will be decided by the crew who spends the least time recovering from racing along the fine line between distinction and disaster and survive the gybe off Double Cone Island without pitching into a nose-dive.
By Ian Grant.
|
|
|
| | The administrator has disabled public write access. |
tony
Admin
Admin
| Posts: 3127 | |
Karma: 14
|
Re:Airlie Beach Race Week 2008 - 2008/08/16 17:04
Airlie Beach Qld.
Friday August 15 2008
Kiwi sloop dominates.
New Zealand’s power sailing sloop Wired was intelligently sailed in testing light winds to score a comfortable line honours win in the opening race of the international Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week earlier today.
Wired skippered by experienced Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron long distance sailor Rob Bassett simply proved too fast even when the soft south westerly land breeze fell way to a 2 knot drifter near the first rounding mark.
They seemed to have a strong feel for each variable wind change to break away when her spinnaker was the first to fill with a more moderate wind.
“It was a nice feel to slip away with 14 knots of boat speed in a breeze of similar strength”.
Bassett said.
This became the turning point in the race when Wired sealed control of the line honours.
Skipper Bassett and the Wired crew were rewarded with being patient drifting through the calm before sprinting across a surprisingly smooth Whitsunday Passage leaving New Zealand team mate Pussy Galore (Anatole Masfen) to apply a wind shadow over their Australian rivals in a close duel for the minor places.
Wired cleared Double Cone Islands with a race winning lead however they needed to apply a consistent speed to build up time to outsail their maximum 1.401 time correction factor.
They appeared to be in good shape on the windward beat to finish off Airlie Beach.
The slick sailing New Zealand sloop improved her margin on the slog against the wind eventually winning line honours with a 12 minutes 16 second advantage over Pussy Galore with the Sydney sloop Quantum Racing (Ray Roberts) filling third place another 27 seconds off the pace.
“We have made some alterations which has improved our all angle sailing speed”. A happy Rob Bassett said.
He had good reason to be happy with his line honours result but Wired failed to win the more important handicap when Melbourne skipper Chris Dare and tactician Roger Hickman combined to complete the course with a 43 second faster corrected handicap while Wired and Michael Hiatt’s Living Doll filled the minor places..
By Ian Grant
|
|
|
| | The administrator has disabled public write access. |
tony
Admin
Admin
| Posts: 3127 | |
Karma: 14
|
Re:Airlie Beach Race Week 2008 - 2008/08/17 09:21
Airlie Beach Qld Saturday August 16 2008
GOLD COAST CREW HEAD SPORTS BOATS.
Gold Coast sail maker Graham Sheering has successfully applied his skill onto the waters of Pioneer Bay to lead the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week Sports Boat championship.
Sheering was short of a crew and invited his cousin Neil Sheering and Troy Ruston to join him in the limited space on the deck of the ‘baby boat’ Quantum Sails.
What the small 6 m yacht has lacked in size has not prevented the crew from becoming the giant killers of the championship which has attracted Australia’s fastest including the former French Kiss Americas Cup sailor Pierre Gal in the New South Wales sprint machine Conquistador.
The super fast Conquistador left a white water wake on the sun drenched Pioneer Bay winning both races with exceptionally fast course times however her crew failed to generate enough pace to outsail her high 1.020 handicap rating leaving the .801 rated Quantum Sails to be the star performer.
“I thought it would be a good idea to go sailing again and bought the little tacker a few months ago”.
“She was a little tired and had been sitting on her road trailer just gathering dust. I guess it was a case of liking her lines”. Graham Sheering said.
Quantum sails had already won two major trophies before heading to Airlie Beach and her makeshift crew have carried on with that success scoring a second on Friday behind the Runaway Bay Yacht Club team mate Noel Leigh-Smith (Vivace) before taking a firm grip of the ‘Bragging Rights’ in today’s perfect 15 knot trade winds to become the outright series leader with a 2-1-1 (4 point) score.
West Australian Heath Townsend skippering the Melges 24 Kaito remains in contact with a 4-2-7 13 point score, one point clear of Vivace 1-4-9 14 points.
Several angry (Protest) flags were flown on the course however they are not expected to alter the progressive results.
|
|
|
| | The administrator has disabled public write access. |
tony
Admin
Admin
| Posts: 3127 | |
Karma: 14
|
Re:Airlie Beach Race Week 2008 - 2008/08/17 09:23
SCHOOLBOYS IN A CLASS OF THEIR OWN.
Audi Australian IRC class sailing champions Rod Jones and Kai Timm have a good young team on the ‘Bench’ after the Tasqua Youth Squad firmed a strangle hold on the 2008 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week SB3 Dart championship today.
The happy crew of Sunshine Coast teenagers referred to as the schoolboys by their older rivals have shown they are tactically mature to race smart in all conditions to be the masters in a close and exciting series of racing in ideal conditions on Pioneer Bay.
Skipper Matthew Jones (17) the crew spokesperson said “We have made some mistakes, like hitting the start mark and rounding the windward mark in last place as well as some penalty turns but it’s all been good fun”.
“I guess we should be happy this is our first regatta together and we are all improving our crew skills after one training session off Mooloolaba a few days before we came away”.
“However we are all good mates and while it’s always nice to win we are too young to celebrate with our class race mates at the bar.” Jones added.
The Tasqua Youth crew of Jones, Levi Curtis (14), Kris Blanch (17) and Sean Lindsell (17) have celebrated their results with a cold can of Coke and a mars bar and they are proving to be a real thorn in the side of the older and more experienced crews.
This was again the case on Pioneer Bay today when the determined Tasqua Youth crew displayed a maturity beyond their years to win all three windward leeward races.
Races 2 and 3 were very tight and resolved by the minor margins of seconds when the Schoolboys edged out Bowen skipper John McLean and his experienced crew of north Queensland sailing mates in Marine Tech Electrics.
After today’s fourth race Tasqua Youth with her almost perfect score of 2-1-1-1 has broken away to a five point lead over Marine Tech Electrics 4-2-2-2 and the Paul Hunt skippered Magees IGA 1-3-4-3.
Ian Grant.
|
|
|
| | The administrator has disabled public write access. |
|
