Airlie Beach Race Week - New Zealand entry takes numbers to 100

by Tracey Johnstone on 18 Jul 2014 The New Zealand boat Bullrush is the 100th entry in this year’s Vision Surveys 25th Airlie Beach Race Week being held from eighth to 15th August 2014.

Janine and Anthony Robinson will be racing their Elliott 12 Bullrush in the Performance Division against a hot fleet including the Farr 40 Bobby’s Girl skippered by fellow New Zealander John Leman. Bullrush campaign manager and crew member, Peter Stewart, expects there will be some healthy competition between those two boats. 'We should be able to match them on speed,' Stewart said.

Bullrush has been campaigned in many blue water races, the most recent being last month’s ANZ Sail Fiji Auckland to Denarau, Fiji race. Stewart said the team copped a hiding on the way over, but they did finish 10th over the line and fourth in their division.

The stopover in Australia is a calculated move for the Robinsons who have raced Bullrush at Airlie Beach in 2005 and 2008. 'It’s warmer over there,' Stewart joked when asked why the team are coming back for a third time. The regatta is also part of the Robinson’s winter Pacific racing program.

Once the boat arrives into Airlie Beach it will be a case of offloading the blue water race gear and handing Bullrush over to the inshore racing crew all of who are New Zealanders. They are an experienced group who have successfully campaigned Bullrush in many New Zealand regattas.

Stewart expects the boat will slip along quite nicely in the Whitsunday winds and in among the very competitive Performance Racing division.

At the finish of the Airlie Beach regatta Bullrush goes back into blue water mode and heads offshore again, this time to Noumea to compete in the New Caledonia Groupama Race in October.

Entries close Friday 1st August 2014.

All details on this year’s Vision Surveys Airlie Beach Race Week is available here.