Old Yachts dominate Brisbane Gladstone race

by Ian Grant on 8 Apr 2007 The windy and wet 306 n/ml Brisbane to Gladstone race proved to be another triumph for the oldest yachts in the fleet when the 41 year old Brisbane sloop Saltash 11 won her eighth Courier-Mail Cup.

Saltash II a modified Yachting World Diamond Day Sailor romped to victory with unmatched boat speed slicing a path up over and sometimes through the white crested 3 metre waves to score a commanding win over the modern Sydney yachts Quantum Racing (Ray Roberts) and Wot Yot (Graeme Wood).

Her prospects of winning appeared remote until her talented crew contributed to a race winning performance in the roughest and toughest section from Lady Elliot Island into the finish in Gladstone Harbour.

Skipper Ian Wright conceded they were not in good shape when they tracked a course from Breaksea Spit to Lady Elliot Island.

'We had a short crew meeting and decided to put the hammer down' he said.

Saltash II responded surfing the groundswell to a peak speed of 17.6 knots when the gusty breeze built to 35 knots.

'She (Saltash II) is just a joy to sail in the stronger winds and she gave us a thrilling ride across the top of Hervey Bay,' Wright said.

The rest is now history with Saltash II spoiling the provisional party celebrations for the Quantum Racing and Wot Yot crews when she power sailed past Gatcombe Head and on to the finish off Auckland Creek to claim another milestone in Brisbane to Gladstone race history.

Her crew of skipper Ian Wright, Bill Wright, Peter Cavill, Tony Reik and Trent Rowell who have a collective 96 race experience demonstrated their skills as talented fresh wind sailors with their deserved win.

They enjoyed a relatively uneventful race compared with their match racing rival the 42 year old Gladstone sloop Wistari which also showed that age is no barrier when the weather turns sour.

Wistari a four time Gladstone race winner blew out spinnakers was wiped out in a wild sideway broach down a rogue wave and despite finishing with her favoured heavy wind spinnaker in the rag-bag still managed to fill fourth place.

'We had our moments and broaching down the wave with the mast tip wind gear in the water was something that the crew would not like to experience again'. Skipper Scott Patrick said.

But there was a nice end to their race with Wistari winning the Noel Patrick Memorial, 4th overall in the Grand Prix IRC class, 3rd in Performance Handicap and 2nd to Saltash II in the Veterans class.