2012 Brisbane to Gladstone Multihull Yacht Race

Well what an historic event and ‘Team Australia’ cleaned up the all comers sailing record for the course plus won the race on OMR as well. The new record now stands at 16 hours 28 minutes and 21 seconds and this was in relatively light conditions!!! Sean Langman , owner/ Skipper of Team Australia reckons that given favourable conditions for the entire race he may be able to knock a further 2 hours off this time next year. He may well have plenty of encouragement next year as Simon Hull could be here from New Zealand with another ORMA 60 ‘Team Vodaphone’ which should make for a really exciting event. Match racing ORMA 60’s WOW!!!

Ian Grant has written an excellent article on the race which is included elsewhere with first class photos as always by Julie Geldard. There are some photos below of the start taken from the land by Kay Stamp. Thanks Kay for passing them to us.

For the record having a look through the club archives it appears that breaking the record and winning the race on OMR is not a first time event this year. It would seem that it has been done three times before. The first time was by the great Hedley Nichol that Ian Grant refers to in his article and Hedley broke the record and won on handicap back in the first race 1964 on board his self designed and built trimaran ‘Vagabond’ in a time of 32 hours 8 minutes &  34 seconds. Hedley won line honours and on handicap in 1965 and similarly in his trimaran ‘Privateer’ in 1966. Unfortunately no times were recorded in our records for neither the 1965 or 1966 events. So we don’t know if Hedley beat his own record in these next two years. It should be pointed out here that the handicap rating system used in those days was using the Royal Yachting Association of England Formula.

The next skipper to make such a historic race win in both breaking the record and winning on handicap was Syd Luxford on board his trimaran ‘Renegade’ in a record time of  29 hours 52 minutes & 47 seconds. Two years later in the 1971 race John Hitch on board his Trimaran ‘Manta 11’ lowered the record to 26 hours 4 minutes & 33 seconds and also won on handicap. The handicap placing’s were determined on the new QMYC rule devised by Bill Wilson which was introduced for the first time for the 1969 race.

While the course record was lowered in 1982 by Adrian Rogers on board his 50+ ft catamaran ‘Shotover’, he did not win the handicap prize as well. The next skipper to take out the record and win on handicap in 1993 was Paul Nudd on board his 40ft catamaran ‘XL 2’ in a time of  21 hours 1 minute & 30 seconds. Paul Nudd’s handicap win was under the IMO rule.

In 2004 Martin Riley on board his Crowther  catamaran ‘Raw Nerve’ lowered the record to 18 hours 55 minutes and 9 seconds but he did not win the double of handicap as well.

It is interesting to note that the new course introduced for the 2006 starting from Manly did not produce a record winner and the first year we returned the start to Shorncliffe the record was significantly lowered.  & the same boat winning on OMR!!

RESULTS

Start 06/04/12, 11:00:00