Brierty set to tackle big boat racing

by Lisa Ratcliff on 23 Feb 2007 West Australian yachtsman Alan Brierty, best known as the owner of the Sydney 38 Limit, has decided it’s time to flirt with big boat racing. He has purchased Chris Dare’s champion Victorian Corby 49 called Flirt and will contest the Audi Sydney Southport Yacht Race starting Saturday 24 March 2007.

'I wanted a competitive 50-footer without a canting keel and which rates well. I take ownership of the boat mid-March in Melbourne and from there it will be a quick delivery to Sydney for a last minute name change before we contest the Audi Sydney Southport,' said Brierty, a civil mining and earthworks contractor based in Perth.

Brierty figures campaigning two boats will probably mean flying across the country with his Perth based crew at least once a fortnight, a far cry from mid 1990’s when he used to truck a previous boat, Once a Jolly Swagman, across the Nullarbor, sleeping on the boat along the way. After a decade-long absence from the sport, he chartered a Sydney 38 for the 2004 Sydney Gold Coast, won his division and has fallen back in love with yachting.

Brierty is planning to keep his Sydney 38 in Sydney for one design racing and contest all the major offshore races with the Corby 49 including the Audi Sydney Southport, Brisbane to Gladstone, Audi Sydney Gold Coast and Mackay Races, Airlie Beach and Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

'I think we are going to have a lot of fun,' added Brierty, who has joined forces with Rolex Sydney Hobart veteran and blue water champion Roger Hickman who was instrumental in Dare’s many successes during the past season including winning their division of the Rolex Trophy Rating Series, winning Sailing South on IRC overall and placing second at Skandia Geelong Week on a countback.

The friendly merger of the Dare/Brierty crew may even extend to Chris stepping aboard his former boat, which will be renamed Limit, for some of the long ocean races.

David Pescud’s Lyons 54 Sailors with disABILITIES was the first entry in this year’s Audi Sydney Southport Yacht Race and he has since been joined by a quality early line up which includes Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin, Matt Allen’s Jones 70 Ichi Ban and Chris Bull’s Jazz.

Jazz is the leading boat in the CYCA’s Blue Water Pointscore Series heading into the Audi Sydney Southport, the final race of the series, and typical for a pointscore of this calibre, there is a momentous tussle amongst the top IRC placed boats with the UK boat holding a two point margin over local favourite, Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas’ AFR Midnight Rambler.

In the Tasman Performance Series, the PHS division of the pointscore, there is even less in it with Tony Levett’s Horwath BRI just edging out Rob Reynolds’ Pla Loma IV by a point with the same gap back to the third placed Nips N’ Tux, Howard De Torres’ IMX 40, which is also running third in the Blue Water Series (IRC).

The Audi Sydney Southport has replaced the traditional Sydney Mooloolaba Yacht Race as the pre-Easter closing race of the 2006-07 summer offshore pointscore from which the CYCA’s Blue Water Champion will be named. The CYCA is considering several destination options for the final race of its prestigious Blue Water Pointscore Series for the 2007-08 season.

The Notice of Race and Entry form for the Audi Sydney Southport are available to download from http://www.cyca.com.au/editorial.asp?key=795 and will be available in hard copy from the CYCA Sailing Office this week.

Entries close 5pm on 8 March 2007.

www.southport.cyca.com.au