Oceanburo/Alegria wins QLD IRC State title

by Ian Grant on 1 May 2008 The Sunshine Coast’s Oxygen Sailing Team on Oceanburo/Alegria injected some fresh air into Queensland Ocean racing when they won their second consecutive State IRC championship on Moreton Bay last weekend.

Owner skipper Rod Jones combined cleverly with Glen Coulton, James Walker, Kai Timm, Gary White, Chris Annear, Ben Calder, Greg McAllansmith and Sean O’Rourke to win the four race series by a commanding 8 points.

This was a repeat of their 2007 Queensland championship success when the crew cleverly sailed a variable wind system to pilot the 2007 Audi Australian IRC champion Oceanburo/Alegria to another outstanding major championship win.

The result was a fitting reward for skipper Rod Jones and his talented crew who collectively completed the bay passage and short course series with a 5 minute 51 second corrected time advantage over the Luke McGrath skippered Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron sloop Brookwater Golf while RQYS Commodore Kevin Miller’s Farr 40 Bribie Star claimed third another 4 minutes 6 seconds off the pace.

All three crews won a heat but it was the more consistent all angle sailing speed of the committed Oceanburo/Alegria combination sailing their final series aboard the high performance Archambault A35 class sloop that proved to strong with their 1-3-4-1 (9) penalty point score.

At various times the crews on Brookwater Golf (5-1-9-2) 17 pts and Bribie Star (12-2-1-9) 24pts showed they had the pace to press the Audi Australian champion Alegria but the Sunshine Coast crew answered the challenge with their more consistent handicap rated boat speed.

Both minor medal winning skippers Luke McGrath and Kevin Miller can be exceptionally happy with their Queensland championship results particularly the heat wins achieved against the 2007 champion pacesetter Alegria which outpaced the best in the nation during the Skandia Geelong Race Week and the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta to set up her Australian championship success by winning her class in the Sydney to Southport race.

The high performance Archambault A35 Alegria which was sold after Rod Jones accepted the sleek Audi A4 as the 2007 Australian champion was re-chartered when the delivery of his new European built Archambault A40 rc was delayed.
However the crew who were very familiar with which rope to twitch maintained the faster sail shapes completing the successful ‘come back’ to add another major title battle flag to the bragging wall of the Mooloolaba Dinghy Sailing Club.

'These guys (the crew) will form the basis of our team on the new A40rc which arrived in Mooloolaba earlier this week'.

'We can now concentrate on race tunning for an extensive program of ocean racing' Rod Jones said.

The Oxygen Sailing Team will face their first serious test in the new sloop when they represent Queensland in the 2008 Audi Sydney-Gold Coast race starting on July 26.

They will then enjoy a short break in the warm comfort on dry land before repacking their seabags to answer the August 1st start signal for the 348n/ml Brisbane to Great Keppel Island race which will be their final evaluation trial for 2008 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in late August.