Madman’s Woodyard to Rollercoaster

by Al Constable on 1 Aug 2004 David Bonallo and Chris Bowling sailed in the first Sydney to Gold Coast race in 1986 aboard Madmen’s Woodyard, now the same pair of sailors are sailing north in style aboard the Sydney 32 OD Rollercoaster, the first of its marque to race to Southport.

This morning the biggest little 32 footer is in the back half of the fleet, but doing well, a mile ahead of the Pacific 50 Dreamtime and is two miles ahead of the Beneteau 47.7 Eagle Rock.

The crew of six includes another Sydney 32 owner, Chris Bran, Geoff Hogg, a well-known Young 88 sailor, Chris Bowling from Redrock, his nephew Morgan Bowling and a UK sailor Ian Fletcher.

David Bonallo reports ‘It’s a nice easy race. The start was slow, but we stayed on the eastern side, knowing the first pressure would come there. So we did OK.

We were hoping for much more breeze in this race. Chris is a mad Hobart racer and he is keen for us to go south, so we wanted some real breeze to really test here. What we already know from the offshore racing we’ve done, she’s a pleasure in a seaway, she’s dry and she’s spacious. Not like Madmen’s or Redrock at all.

But right now we, like the other 74 boats in this race would love to see some water on the deck!’