Brisbane to Gladstone – in a class of their own

by Ian Grant on 13 Apr 2009 Blue water yacht racing tutor Bill Sykes (55) created his own special chapter in the 61 year history of the Brisbane-Gladstone Yacht Race over the Easter weekend.

There was an expression of pride when the 21 Rolex Sydney-Hobart race veteran stepped ashore at the Gladstone Marina on Saturday after he had spent the previous 27 hours 11 minutes 52 seconds racing hands-on with an enthusiastic crew of youngsters discovering new challenges on the deck of the TP52 Wot Yot.

Bill Sykes had successfully raced over this tactically demanding 308 nautical mile course well before most of his crew were born winning in 1983 on the Royal Papua Yacht Club sloop Di Hard.

In 1983 his sailing mates including skipper Bruce Tardrew represented a group of hard core ocean racing veterans while his 2009 crew apart from Scott Marshall (46) and Jason Natherson (30) came from the Youth programme funded by 2008 Queenslander of The Year Graeme Wood.

The ten new generation sailors aged between 17 to 22 and representing New South Wales and Queensland clubs developed a life term bond of fellowship and respect.

Collectively they had only logged a limited list of offshore racing miles but this never dampened their enthusiasm when Wot Yot lined up against some of the best in the nation including the older and more experienced sailors on Black Jack, Quantum Racing and Wot Now.

However they had not answered the ‘ring of the ships bell’ to sit in a warm class room environment below deck they were ready to look listen and learn about reefing, changing sails plus hoisting spinnakers, steering gybing and developing friendly teamwork.

They all rallied to the challenge of racing under pressure a feature which contributed to Wot Yot sailing above her 1.3290 handicap rating by .84 seconds a nautical mile to win the match race over Wot Now.

'I was particularly impressed with their individual role of bonding into a team who were determined to help each other'. Bill Sykes said.

Racing on a TP52 is no arm-chair ride however the Wot Yot crew who raced ten nautical miles with a three metre split in the Jib-top headsail waiting for a 26 knot rain squall to pass on Good Friday night had good reason to be proud of their second place result finishing only 25 minutes 59 seconds astern of race winner Quantum Racing and 4 minutes 19 seconds ahead of Wot Now.