Brisbane to Gladstone multihulls winners

Ian Grant, Monday, 24 March 2008

Perrins who jokingly said "I only own one of the two hulls and that’s the one with the fridge" showed the value of a happy and successful catamaran racing partnership with his good mate Mike Hodges when the very comfortable Jeff Schionning designed cruising catamaran Renaissance won the Brisbane to Gladstone race.

The physically tough races spent in the spray drenched cockpit of Scampi A became a distant memory when co skippers Ross Perrins and Mike Hodges protected from the speed sailing spray steered Renaissance to another popular corrected handicap win.

Their victory hung in the balance after Renaissance completed the course in 28 hours 48 minutes to record 10.69 knot average while race officials considered an application for redress from skipper Rob Remilton (Wilparina ll) for the role his crew played in the rescue of the four sailors from the capsized catamaran APC Max.

The George Owen skippered APC Max was duelling for the lead with Martyn Riley’s Raw to the Core when she came to grief off Waddy Point around 11-30 on Good Friday night.

Skipper Rob Remilton’s crew stowed the spinnaker and temporarily withdrew Wilparina II from racing to conduct a search and rescue mission for their unfortunate racing mates.

They executed excellent seamanship finding the inverted APC Max in 55 minutes before spending a further 36 minutes getting their mates safely onboard before they resumed racing.

Wilparina II was noticeably a lot slower with the extra crew weight as she tracked past Lady Elliot Island then onto the finish completing the course in second place behind Raw to the Core with a race average of 12.32 knots.

After the Wilparina II redress was considered the Renaissance crew was officially declared the winner with a corrected time of 22-39-56, 33 minutes 56 seconds ahead of Wilparina II with Mark Wilson’s Viento another 9 seconds astern third.

Raw Nerve the Brisbane to Gladstone multihull class record holder which set an amazing 16.28 knot average over the 308 n/ml course in 2004 remained in the Melbourne boatyard when the smaller Stuart Bloomfield designed sprint machine Raw to the Core showed her class to retain the unbroken record of five major trophy wins for her proud owner.

They were easily the star performers in yet another overnight sprint where Raw to the Core expressed her spinnaker sailing speed to improve from a poor start to take the lead from APC Max at the half way mark off Indian Head.

"It was an interesting and enjoyable race for us with no real problems apart from the start and the slow sail out of the bay."

"But that all changed when we sailed into the fresher breeze off the Sunshine Coast on Friday night."

"The little cat proved to be a joy to sail and we held good numbers reaching a peak of 17.4 knots just prior to passing APC Max," Stuart Bloomfield said.

Her lead was dramatically extended when APC Max capsized near Indian Head.

"We were preparing for a match race and were not sure where APC Max was because there was no sign of navigation lights," Stuart Bloomfield added.

Fortunately the four APC Max crew members were rescued unharmed by Rob Remilton’s Wilparina II crew which continued her race to Gladstone.

Wilparina 11 completed the course in fifth place over four hours astern of Raw to the Core however they are expected to apply for a redress which will ultimately improve her chances in the corrected handicap results which will be officially confirmed tomorrow.