IRC winners to hit circuit with Archambault A40RC

by Ian Grant on 2 Apr 2008 The 2007 Audi Australian IRC Class Ocean racing champions Rod Jones and Kai Timm have not rested on their laurels. While they had hoped to defend their title with the new Archambault A40RC, the first of the marque will not arrive until mid April.

As soon as she is off the docks, the duo of exceptionally talented Sunshine Coast sailors will be back flying the Oceanburo ‘battle flag’, fine tuning the Archambault ocean racer, to be called Alegria, in preparation for the Audi Sydney to Gold Coast race in July.

They will be in high racing mode in an extensive winter racing circuit with the new Alegria nominated to contest the 2008 Queensland IRC championship on Moreton Bay before lining up for 348 n/ml Brisbane to Great Keppel Island Race in early August followed by the international Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in late August.

Meanwhile Rod Jones and Kai Timm have remained focused on preparing for the arrival of the high performance European built sloop by introducing an impressive match racing facility at the Mooloolaba Dinghy Club.

The commercial venture the first of its kind in Queensland will professionally manage a fleet of one-design Dart SB3 sports boats in a program of boat on boat mate against mate Americas Cup type tactical match racing regattas off Mooloolaba beach.

As expected the excitement to match race on equal terms in a strict one-design class has attracted a number of Queensland’s most talented sailors including former Olympians and World champions while the gifted young Sunshine Coast skipper Sean O’Rourke heads an impressive youth group.. Sean O’Rourke was among the first to nominate for official launch and orientation day at the Mooloolaba Dinghy Club on Saturday.

He has some important prior knowledge of the class having represented Queensland as the Tasqua Youth Squad skipper in the inaugural Australian Dart SB3 championship held in conjunction with the Skandia Geelong Race Week in January and this knowledge promises to give him a head start when the official match racing championships start on the weekends of May 10, 17, 24.

However while the former Australian Sabot champion remains ranked among Australia’s best young helmsmen and tacticians he is aware there is no short cut to the top ranking in the strict one-design Dart SB3 match racing arena.

All of the sports boats are as close as a clone class can get, the hulls, sails and spars are identical presenting all the competing crews with an even chance off the start line. They all understand the challenge as there is absolutely no margin for any human related mistakes in crew technique or the elected tactical strategy.

In fact this type of racing is very much a serious mind game where each individual crewmember must combine their skill to gain the winning edge with most of the ‘chess on water’ type tactical contests decided by centimetres rather than seconds.

This type of personal challenge promises to introduce an exciting change to Queensland yachting with the program designed to suit all age groups. Further information on the program of championship events including the Queensland title on June 13-14-15 is available from the official website www.oceanburo.com.au