Quantum Sails at Skandia Geelong Week

by Media Services on 2 Feb 2007 The IRC class at Skandia Week was a very close affair with one point separating the top three finishers.

The sailing started with two days racing in Melbourne on four trapezoid courses. 'Wild Oats' the Reichel Pugh 98’ supermaxi completely dominated the racing with three firsts on corrected time to compliment her four line honours victories. 'Shogun' Rob Hanna’s DK 46 was the only boat to take a race and was entrenched in second place.

The 40 mile passage race and fifth heat to Geelong on the Friday was one of light winds and frustrating conditions, a sea breeze filling in late brought the smaller boats home quickly and saw Wild Oats tumbled out of first place.

The final days racing was held on the outer harbour of Corio Bay in strong gusty conditions, a torn mainsail on series leader Shogun saw a withdrawal from the penultimate heat and necessitated a quick 40 knot RIB ride back into Geelong with Quantum sailmakers Brad Anson and Tony Bull doing a hasty repair and an even hastier trip back to get into the final heat.

Meanwhile back on the racecourse the much travelled Reichl Pugh 46 'Secret Mens Business' come into contention with a strong win from Ray Roberts 'Quantum Racing' and a third from Chris Dare’s Corby 49 'Flirt' saw the leaderboard close up. 'Wild Oats' dropped out of contention with a broken gooseneck and wild broaches and Chinese gybes were aplenty as everyone realised the series was wide open.

In the final race it was a great display from 'Quantum Racing' to take the points but a second place to 'Secret Mens Business' saw her go to the top of the table. 'Flirt' finished fourth only 8 seconds behind 'Shogun' and as a result saw her tie with 'SMB'.

First place was awarded to Geoff Boettcher on 'Secret Mens Business' on a count back from Chris Dare’s 'Flirt' with Rob Hanna’s 'Shogun' a point away in third.

The final days racing saw the final heat of the Docklands Invitational which had begun prior to Skandia Week proper and a second place to 'Quantum Racing' behind 'Flirt' saw Ray Roberts take out this series in fine form.

Quantum Sails were well represented over the weekend with Ray and his team on 'Quantum Racing', Dave Eickmeyer was a strong member of the 'Flirt' afterguard and Tony Bull was tactician on 'Shogun' with Brad Anson as the principal trimmer.

Bernie Spooner (sail technician) did a fine job in the Quantum Geelong site getting repairs and recuts done and keeping people out on the water.

Other strong performances by Quantum were wins in the Beneteau 40.7 class, S80 class and Super 30’s along with boats near the top of the scoreboard in nearly all classes amongst the 450 competitors.