Australian Multihull Championships – Ripping around the islands

by Peter Hackett on 28 Sep 2017 They may possibly not be in the next America’s Cup, but our high-flying multihulls have learned plenty from the last few years of 30 knot gybes and 20 knot tacks, and are keen to show off in the coming week around the islands of Moreton Bay.

With the last of the interstate boats lined up to be measured at RQYS Manly, it is a good time to guess which boats will be the winners while the OMR (Offshore Multihull Rule) ratings are being calculated.

The racing starts with this weekend’s popular Nautilus Marine St Helena Cup on Saturday 30 Sep and Sunday 1 Oct. Big fleets of all sorts congregate at this event around St Helena and Green Islands, and this year the races are being used as invitational curtain-raisers for the Australian Multihull Championships at RQYS Manly.

The real races start with heat 1 on Monday Oct 2 right through to Saturday with a Wednesday layday if all goes well. Breezes are predicted to start mild, but can only get stronger as the northerly gradient of past weeks gets another squeeze.

Fleets are traditionally division one and two, with all the rockets out the front in division one, and the more comfortable (but still of course faster than most monohulls) trailable trimarans in division two.

Way out in front should be the orange Extreme 40 Boatworks with Julian Griffiths and motor racing legend Tony Longhurst hanging on to the throttle. Always on one hull, they will want mild winds as the strong stuff can make this boat too hard to handle.

Not far back will be Chris Wren’s “bloody big Nacra” Catalyst which this lucky writer got to enjoy a ride on this Wednesday, flying a hull in eight knots for the whole race. Abreast of her will be Ullman Sails, a highly optimised Mad Max, now with add on t-foil rudders and a deck-sweeper mainsail designed to squeeze every knot out of the rig. And zipping around in a handicap-honours seeking frenzy will be the three recently immigrated French Diam 24’s from clubs all along the east coast.

Bigger ocean-going boats like Rush Hour and Boss Racing will be the dark horses in the passage courses around a selection of islands from Green, St Helena, Mud, and Peel. Sunbakers on Horseshoe Bay better hold on to their towels!

Division two could be even closer with most competitive boat likely to be John Dowling’s Endorfin, a newly sourced Victorian built F22 to replace his team of A-class guru’s old steed which got them second in last year’s Aussie Championships on Lake Macquarie.

They will have to work hard to hold off the Bribie Cup winning form of Tony Eppell’s Corsair 36 Spook, and the second placed in that race home-grown Bramble Bay favourite F-Bomb, which started life as a couple of Tornado cat hulls and a few sheets of plywood for a centre hull.

Another frenzy of three smaller Corsair Pulse 600 trimarans is untested in this fleet, but if performance at the last Asian regattas is anything to go buy, we had better get the flyswats ready!

Spectators are welcome at RQYS for the championships, with all starts and finishes right outside the entrance leads.

Race schedule is here with Monday’s start at 1200 and all others 1100.