Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Race – North Sails Team ready to compete

by North Sails on 16 Jul 2015 2015 Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Race – North Sails staff from across the country will be competing in the race starting on the 25th of July. Here is a look on who is sailing and some of the latest updates with the yachts competing in the 384 nautical mile race.

Michael Coxon and Nick Beaudoin / Loyal
Nick Beaudoin and Michael Coxon shall again join the crew of the maxi LOYAL for the race north. Nick who is our service manager looks after the sail inventory and is the principal trimmer whilst Cocko is sailing master/tactician working with owner Anthony Bell.

This is LOYAL's first outing since damaging the bow sections on the first night of the Hobart Race resulting in LOYAL's retirement so we are looking forward to a positive result in the Gold Coast. We are hoping for fresh conditions which LOYAL revels in.

Mark Bradford and Vaughan Prentice / Black Jack
Skipper Mark Bradford and Vaughan Prentice from the Brisbane loft will again be taking the Volvo 70 Black Jack owned by Peter Harburgup North to take on the 100 LOYAL. It’s part of the circuit and the numbers are always good, so good competition is always on the cards, says Mark. We’re constantly updating the boat in every way; new sails etc., so we are closing the gap. We’re looking forward to the race; it’s a rare opportunity to check ourselves out against the 100 footers and other big boats – and the main overall contenders.

Richard Allanson / Chinese Whisper
Rupert Henry has just bought to Sydney the JV 60 Jethou previously owned by Sir Peter Odgen. Jethou, now named Chinese Whisper is a JudelVrolijk design which was successfully campaigned in the Mini maxi class in Europe. Richie will be joining them on board as a lead trimmer and will be commissioning a new 3Di RAW offshore mainsail for the race. Rupert is planning on competing in the CYCA Blue water point score and Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Chinese Whisper will be definitely a hot contender to take home some silverware this year.

Alby Pratt / Ichi Ban 52
Alby will be on board sailing with Matt Allen on the new Ichi Ban 52 (ex Shogun V). Sporting a larger TPT Southern Spars mast and deeper fin, Ichi Ban has recently been optimised for IRC in consultation with JudelVrolijk, Southern Spars and North Sails. With Southern Spars and North Sails both part of the North Technology Group, the sails fitted to the millimetre straight out of the bag! Upwind sails are constructed in our new 3Di RAW technology. This yacht will definitely be one to look keep an eye on for the overall IRC title if conditions favour her division. Matt will be taking Ichi Ban to both Airlee Beach and Hamilton Island race weeks where Billy Sykes will be joining them for the Northern tour.

Billy Sykes and Nick Davis / Swish
Steven Proud is again taking on the trip north. Billy Sykes and Nick Davis will both be on Swish. Nick is from our Western Australian loft and will be the primary trimmer and Billy from the Sydney loft will be tactician / helmsman for the race. After an extensive ‘Jenny Craig’ program and bulb modifications managed by David Sampson (Hightower) Swish will be in her new trim ready to take on the competition. We have a few new sails on board including a larger fractional code zero (FR0) and 3Di Genoa Staysail. The plan is to sail with only nine people to keep the weight down to a minimum so let’s hope for a downwind race!

Peter Antill/ Pretty Woman
Peter recently competed in the Brisbane to Noumea race on Pretty Woman with owner Richard Hudson, finishing third on IRC. After the race, they left Noumea straight away in order to get back to Sydney in time to do the Southport race, a round trip of 2,000 nautical miles. Pretty Woman is due back this weekend to again prepare for another offshore race.

Stewart Gray / Cougar II
Stewart has been working closely with owner Tony Lyall on optimising and upgrading Cougar II to be more competitive under IRC. ‘We have worked extremely hard on the configuration of the boat over the last 12 months to decide where in which we actually want the boat to sit on the water within the current fleet of 50+ footers’ Stew says.

With a number of TP52’s of the same year as the Cougar, we felt it was important to make the boat faster and increase the IRC rating accordingly.

We did this by not just making everything bigger, but choosing select big ticket items with the smallest possible penalty.

All of these new sails and the modifications to the boat and rig have made the biggest performance jump I have seen in a yacht. The boat is better balanced, faster and more and competitive than ever.

With the addition of a new 3DL Square top mainsail, larger asymmetric spinnakers, Fractional code zero (FR0) and some new 3DL headsails, Cougar is well on the way to being the dark horse to watch in this year’s race.

Aaron Cole / Patrice
Aaron Cole who heads North Sails in Melbourne shall be racing north on Tony Kirby's Kerr 46 Partrice. Az's years of offshore experience and sail set up and trimming expertise shall compliment Patrice’s talented core crew from NSW and Victoria. Aaron trained with the crew last weekend and was impressed with the McConaghy built yacht and crew and is looking forward to conditions suiting the smaller sized boats knowing a number of his NSW fellow work mates are on bigger boats.

Julie Burke and Jack McMahon/ Wax Lyrical
Julie Burke and Jack McMahon will both be sailing on the X-50 Wax Lyrical with Les Goodridge.

Pat Smith / Merlin
Pat Smith will be on with Olympic gold medallist and legend David Forbes on the Kaiko 51‘Merlin’. Merlin was one of the first adopters of the new 3Di technology and the first in Australia to use 3Di for an in boom furling the mainsail. After five years of hard ocean miles with this mainsail competing in all the CYCA major offshore races, Blue water point score, Ocean point score and Sydney to Hobart’s, David is planning on competing in the great race again this year.