Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race- Multihulls preparing for Gladstone

by Peter Hackett on 11 Apr 2014 There has been plenty of multihull action on the east coast in recent months as the biggest bluewater multihull fleet for some time prepares for the start of the APC Logistics MYCQ 50th Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race.

New sails, boat extensions and repaints, carbon mast rebuilds, and foil developments are going to make this race the most difficult ever to pick a winner.

Coincidentally, two of the hottest boats, the extreme opposites in length of trimaran, have been doing a delivery race up this way from Sydney to Mooloolaba in very slow conditions. The smallest boat, the rocket ship all carbon Seacart 30’ Morticia has been reported to have pulled out already and if things were as bad as the zephyr driven start at , it is easy to see why these guys who just won the last two Australian Championships pulled the pin.

They probably ran out of food. Further up the coast, the almost certain Gladstone line honours 60’ foiling trimaran Team Australia is hanging in there near the Qld border in the knowledge that the Gladstone race should have a much stronger breeze.

Sailmaking gurus Gary Saxby and his son Jamie have been busy on the computer designing new and fast sails for their homebuilt rocket Boss Racing for this year, and I was fortunate enough to measure their new gear for the event. I don’t think they would mind me sharing that their latest masthead spinnaker has been cut flatter than his last sails in the hope of generating more apparent wind speed while still sailing deeper angles to get to Gladstone early enough to get the gold again.

At the more comfortable (but still tuned for racing) end of the fleet, last year’s winner Rob Dean on CutSnake has assembled his sailboarding mates again to see if they can get there first without getting the waves to come over the cabin top again. Apparently they are screwing footstraps for the crew all over the gunwales to help control the beast.

All eyes are of course on the accelerating Ita, who although not nominated, is stirring all the wind and waters up to guarantee this will be another interesting ride.