Alegria wins Audi Aust Ocean Racing championship

by Ian Grant on 2 Aug 2007 Mooloolaba sloop Alegria expertly raced by a talented crew of Sunshine Coast sailors upstaged a number of Australia’s most experienced crews to win the Audi Australian Ocean Racing championship.

Remarkably the Archambualt A35 Alegria one of smallest yachts in the 72 boat fleet won the championship with a regatta to spare after producing unmatched handicap rated speed to win her class in Sydney to Gold Coast race on Monday night.

Skipper Rod Jones and tactician Kai Timm showed that the Queensland ‘battlers’ racing with a conservative budget could not only match their big budget rivals but show it was possible to win with a production boat.

Alegria racing the French built Alegria under the Ocean-Buro battle flag firmed a grip on the prestigious National Title trophy following impressive IRC class wins in the Skandia Geelong Race Week in January and an equally convincing performance in the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta in March.

While these wins made their rivals sit up and take notice the overall championship battle was far from over with the Sunshine Coast crew needing to retain their form over the 386 nautical miles of testing offshore racing between Sydney and the finish line off Southport’s Main Beach.

The odds were stacked against Alegria when the coastal weather system favoured the big boats with fast spinnaker sailing winds which fell away to fickle and drifting conditions north of Cape Byron for the slower yachts.

However while the dusk to dawn hours were cold and the variable winds became even more unpredictable the Alegria crew kept a relentless attitude by logging the required speed to keep their title winning chances alive.

Her course average of 6.5 knots was not fast and her crew who spent most of their race time of 2 days 8 hours 46 minutes and 39 seconds living on hope that they had sailed fast enough were rewarded with another deserved victory.

Their perfect 1-1-1 score paved the way for a special crew celebration while the high performance Sydney sloop Quantum Racing (Ray Roberts) and the well sailed Victorian yacht XLR8 owned by the well known Troon family and skippered by World Etchells champion John Savage duel for the minor medals during the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week from August 18-25.

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