Hollis in Heaven

by Ian Grant on 18 Apr 2006 Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron’s Peter Hollis better known for his World championship Gold Medals in the single handed Contender dinghy added more glitter to his impressive trophy cabinet over Easter.

The talented helmsman has recently focused his career on ocean racing with the Hugh Welbourne designed Heaven Can Wait.

As expected the association has been a success with Heaven Can Wait finishing with a top fifteen line honours result in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race last December, followed by the prized ‘first to finish’ trophy in the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club’s 2006 Brisbane to Gladstone race on Easter Saturday night.

This was a special result for Queensland’s Heaven Can Wait crew that ended the domination in recent years by the Sean Langman skippered New South Wales pocket maxi AAPT and Grant Wharington’s Victorian super-maxi, and race record holder, Skandia.

The power sailing maxi Skandia looked set to claim the line honours trophy again this year when she led Heaven Can Wait, Bill Wild’s Wedgetail, the Kevin Miller skippered Quest of Queensland and the smaller Mooloolaba sloop Corum (Michael Balkin) out of Moreton Bay on Good Friday afternoon.

But Skandia’s race was over before she reached the 50 nautical mile mark in the 308 nautical mile blue water classic, when the critical canting keel control mechanism failed just before she reached Coolum.

Unfortunately her crew headed by the former Brisbane to Gladstone race record holder Kerry Spencer could not repair the fault at sea and were forced to retire, somewhat with wounded pride.

This left the Heaven Can Wait crew with no ‘pacemaker’. However they collectively demonstrated that good ocean racing sailors never waste an opportunity by winning the 2006 line honours title by 2 hours 34 minutes 43 seconds over Wedgetail, with Quest Of Queensland another 1 hour 14 minutes 43 seconds astern.

Her course time was also rewarded with a win on Performance Handicap when they outpaced the lower handicapped QCYC sloop Jo (Mark Bucknall) and Trumpeter (Charles MacDonald).

Heaven Can Wait missed a clean sweep of all the major trophies when Michael Balkin steered his Hugh Welbourne modified Mumm 36 Corum, to become the 58th winner of The Courier-Mail Cup with her faster 6.22 second per mile corrected handicap course time.

In other classes Jo won the Performance Handicap Division 2 from Trumpeter and Lloyds Business Broker Too Impetuous (Rudy Weber), while skipper Rudy Weber won the Veteran class from On Tap (Marc Stuart) and Graffiti (Steve D’Arx).

Long term Gladstone race skipper Peter Holm piloted the comfortable Marriah to be the best of the cruising class winning the predicted log event by 2 points from Sunfast One ( John Banck) with another 1 point to Jo.


RESULTS.

Qld Cruising Yacht Club 2006 Brisbane to Gladstone ocean race Line Honours: Heaven Can Wait (P Hollis) 35-16-32 1, Wedgetail (W Wild) 37-51-15 2, Quest of Queensland (K Miller) 39-05-58 3. IRC Hcp: Corum (M Balkin) 45-04-45 1, Heaven Can Wait 45-36-41 2, Sirromet Life Style Wine (M Spies) 45-41-19 3. PHRF: Heaven Can Wait 36-58-08 1, Jo (M Bucknall) 37-27-58 2, Trumpeter (C MacDonald) 37-37-47 3. Div 1: Heaven Can Wait 1, Wedgetail 38-07-09 2, Berg Engineering Immigrant (J Paul) 38-28-01.3. Div 2: Jo, Trumpeter 2, Lloyds Business Broker (R Weber) 38-17-19 3. Veterans: Lloyds Business Broker Too Impetuous 1, On Tap (M Stuart) 39-13-01 2, Graffiti (S D’Arx) 39-22-36 3. Cruising Class: Marriah (P Holm) 105 pts 1, Sunfast One (J Banck) 103pts 2, Jo 102pts 3.

Qld Multihull Yacht Club 2006 Brisbane to Gladstone ocean race Line Honours: Raw Nerve (M Riley) 26-00-02 1, APC Max (T Considine) 28-53-44 2, AYS Raider (J Berg) 30-22-56 3. IOMR Hcp: AYS Raider 29-59-03 1, APC Max 31-04-38 2, Raw Nerve 31-32-47 3. Performance Hcp: Foxy (S Russell) 27-07-56 1, Wilparina 2 (R Remilton) 29-02-43 2, Raw Nerve 31-12-02 3.