Four Days until the 3rd Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht

by Suellen Hurling on 28 Jul 2009 The countdown is on for the third Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race and the final preparations are being made by the competitors and the race committee.

With only four days until the start of the race additional features have been to the Google Maps yacht tracker with land based spectators now able to view a yachts latitude and longitude during the race.

'We have to work with the technology that’s available to us as we don’t have trackers for the yachts yet,' said Brisbane to Keppel IT Manager Tom Johns.

'By combining the technology of Twitter, Google Maps and SMSing I think we have a fantastic product that will keep web followers up-to-date with their favourite yachts. ' said Johns.

Peter Harburg’s Reichel Pugh 66 Black Jack and the Ray Roberts owned and skippered Cookson 50 Evolution Sails will be the two yachts at the front of the fleet this year. Harburg and his crew recently competed in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race along with Mondo (Ray Sweeney), Ray White Castle Hill - Tartan (Ian Sanford & Barrie King), Carbon Credits (Trevor Bailey), Local Hero (Peter Mosely) and Chancellor (Edward Tooher).

'We have more yachts joining us this year that are racing in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast race which is a positive sign,' said Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Commodore and Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel entrant Russell McCart.

'We hope that as the years go by more and more yachts will choose to continue travelling north and join the Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race,' said McCart.

McCart will hit the start line in his Farr 40 Night Nurse alongside three other Farr 40’s for this year’s race. Bribie Star (Peter Sherwood), Cracklin Rosie (Bob Robertson) and e11even (David Elliott) will all fight to be fastest Farr 40 in the fleet and gain honour amongst mates.

For more information on the third Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race visit www.brisbanetokeppel.com.

Register for FREE SMS Updates and receive progress reports during the race – www.brisbanetokeppel.com/sms