25 yachts set for windy start from Redcliffe Jetty

by Chris Howell on 20 Feb 2008 A quality and varied field of 25 yachts has been finalized for the start of the Fairway Challenge on Saturday 23 February at the Redcliffe Jetty. Entries include comfortable cruisers to well campaigned race boats.

The Fairway Challenge is an 80nm Yacht Race that incorporates both bay and open ocean sailing. The 2008 race will be the fourth time this popular event has been staged by the Moreton Bay Boat Club Sailing Branch.

It is now also a very useful preparatory race for the Brisbane to Gladstone that now requires that all boats entering have to have completed two 50nm races in the previous 6 months before the race.

The course of the Fairway Challenge is very nearly the same as the first stage of the Brisbane to Gladstone course. Many a Brisbane to Gladstone race has been won or lost in Moreton Bay and the Fairway Challenge is a great opportunity for teams to familiarise themselves with the course before Easter.

The event starts to the East of the Redcliffe Peninsula and, after 2 short spectacle legs along the foreshore, follows a course to the NW Fairway mark involving minimal use of the major shipping channels.

Boats such as Rick Morgans' Dreamlover, which competed and won the Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht Race late last year and the Sayer design down hill flyer Wasabi, which competed in the Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race. Other entries include Pagan, a beautifully presented 1962 timber Seabird design and Wahroonga, a 41' cruising Ketch.

The weather forecast does not look like being a repeat of the inaugural running of the event, where there was little or no breeze for the start. Instead the sprint leg just of the shoreline from Redcliffe to Woody Point and back will make for spectacular sailing in what promises to be windy conditions. Following the sprint leg it is off to Moreton Island and out to sea to the Fairway Marker near Caloundra and then back to Scarborough.

For spectators the best vantage point would be on the water, otherwise the Redcliffe Jetty will provide great views of the start and of the turning mark before the yachts cross Moreton Bay. The yachts will be in close proximity to the shore from the Redcliffe Jetty, south to Scott's Point with the race starting at 11.00am on Saturday morning and returning to Scarborough late Saturday night.

The presentation of trophies and prizes will be held at the Moreton Bay Boat Club at 10:00am on Sunday morning.

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