Fahrenheit running hot at Airlie Beach Race Week

by Peter Campbell/Al Constable on 16 Aug 2008 Townsville-based marine biologist Andy Muirhead races his 24-year-old yacht Fahrenheit just once a year – in the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week off the Whitsunday Coast resort town of North Queensland.

Today he achieved his first-ever race win at the regatta with the Farr 11.6, taking out the Performance Racing division by a massive 12 minutes on corrected time.

‘For the rest of the year, the boat is my home at Townsville,’ said Muirhead, who works in marine science at the Australian Institute of Marine Science just out of Townsville.

‘I take all my normal home-living gear off the boat, invite a few friends from all around Australia to join me – and away we sail south to Airlie Beach,’ Muirhead said. ‘This year I have my brother with me, along with friends from Darwin, Wagga Wagga and Adelaide in making up a crew of eight.

‘Most are experienced sailors, including guys I used to sail with in a S80 in Darwin and others who sail a Melges 25.’

Muirhead said Fahrenheit had been built in 1984 and he had owned it for the past three years. ‘It’s an old hull, the boat has been around Townsville for years, but it has a modern keel and today’s 15 knot south-easterly breeze suited us well on the race around the Molle Island,’ he said.

‘Mind you, it is a bit embarrassing to win by such a margin,’ the Townsville Cruising Yacht Club member added rather apologetically.

Fahrenheit won the Performance Racing division today from another veteran boat, Reignition, Charles Wallis’ MBD42 from Whitsunday Sailing Club, third place on corrected time going to the Mooloolaba yacht Cadi, John Netherton’s Jones 42.

While Fahrenheit’s winning margin was 12 minutes plus, the gap between second and third was a mere 23 seconds.

After two races in the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week Fahrenheit heads the points with 6 points from a 5th and 1st. In second place on 11 points is Another Fiasco, Damien Suckling’s Jutson 43 from Abel Point Yacht Club with placings of 3rd and 8th. Also on 11 points is Esoteric, Colin Forster’s Northshore 370S from the Whitsunday Sailing Club which has placed 4th and 7th.

Fourth, on 12 points, is first race winner Ian Short Sails, Mick Hinchey’s Melges 32 from Lake Macquarie Yacht Club which today placed 11th.

Tomorrow (Sunday) the IRC fleet will contest two windward/leeward races while other divisions will sail passage races in the Whitsunday Islands Group.

Race 2 in Cruising with Spinnaker, John Clinton’s Holy Cow flew its distinctive cow hide spinnaker to a handicap. Sarabande (Basil Diethelm) was second and Don Algie’s Storm 2 third, continuing her good form of yesterday (first placing in Race 1).

Overall, Storm 2 leads from Esprit (Garry Anderson) with Sarabande third.

The crew of Hans-On, Nick Thomas' and Col Cox's Hanse 370e from the Mooloolaba Yacht Club are hoping to dazzle the opposition in the Cruising with Spinnaker division into submission with their bright and multi-coloured parrot shorts; striking, both on the water and off. Apparently, the crew chose the board shorts for this year's regatta, not realising they were only available in 'smaller sizes'. Hurried alterations took place and the crew now parade daily in 'full splendour'!

Last year the Hans-On crew chose distinctive shirts, with black and white handprints all over them, and this year the parrot head shorts are their secret weapon. Entering into the spirit of the regatta and following its theme 'The Tropical Shirt Regatta, or in this case 'The Tropical Shorts Regatta', this crew has to be in contention for the trophy for the 'Best Dressed Crew.'

‘After a good first race on Friday we did not sail to our best in yesterday’s Molle Islands Race…we were a bit over-canvassed,’ said Hans-on’s co-owner Nick Cox who owns the Hanse 370E with Col Thomas. ‘With the rock-hopping tacking down the shore we didn’t have time for a sail change.’

Most of the colourfully dressed crew are from Mooloolaba – all men except Cristy Sullivan, the brand manager for Mount Gay Rum from Sydney. ‘We met her last year at the Parrot Head Party, took her sailing and she has become hooked on it,’ Cox added.

Among the crew are two Sydney Hobart Race winners, Gino Knezic who won the 1988 race overall with Illusion, and Robert Speedy who was in the crew of Sailors with disabilities which won the PHS Division in the 2007 race. Gino also lives on the Sunshine Coast and these days races a ‘Gino-modified’ Elliott 7.

‘Gino is a great guy to sail with…in all, it’s an excellent crew of gentlemen of mature years…probably the average age is 60 – but only in body, not mind,’ Cox added.

Delphian (John Sloan) won Race 2 on handicap in the Cruising Non Spinnaker division. Keith Munro’s Time Lord continued with excellent form and placed second again today, after a second placing in Race 1. Qld Marine Services, skippered by well known John Galloway, was third.

Overall, Time Lord leads from Delphian and from Joie de Vie (Martin Cross).

Delphian, John Sloan's McIntosh 47, has a secret weapon too, and some may say an unfair advantage, in their assault on this year's class trophy. Delphian actually has two skippers! Kanga, a large blow-up kangaroo appropriately kitted out in the team's colours, sits at the back of the boat each day keeping a watchful eye on proceedings.

After the completion of racing, the Competitors Marquee proved a hit with the sailors and ‘tall tales and true’ were freely being recounted after another great day's racing out on Pioneer Bay.

Full results available at : www.airliebeachraceweek.com.au