TAFE students from Victoria get top marks

by Peter Campbell on 19 Aug 2008 The Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week on Queensland’s Whitsunday Coast is proving an exciting finale to a six-week outdoors and on- the-water training project for a group of students from Chisholm TAFE College at Frankston, Victoria. Not only are sailing their first major yachting regatta, but their boat, Mr Bojangles won today’s race four of the Cruising with Spinnakers division 2.

After five weeks in Queensland the students have enjoyed an outdoors camp near Brisbane, bushwalking on Fraser Island, rafting guide training on the Tully River and a week of charter yacht sailing and sea kayaking in the Whitsunday Islands before crewing aboard the Victorian yacht Mr Bojangles in the Cruising with Spinnakers Division 2.

Mr Bojangles, a Northshore 38 from the Hastings Yacht Club on Victoria’s Westernport, is owned by Pauline and Greg Cleaver, both teachers at Chisholm TAFE, with Pauline the skipper for Race Week. After four passages races, the boat is third overall in standings with placings of 1-3-19-1.

‘This is the second year we have raced at Airlie Beach with a group of students,’ explained Pauline, who co-ordinates the Diploma course at Chisholm, ‘This year we have 14 students, all in the second year of their Diploma of Recreation course, which involves achieving organisational and practical training skills in rafting, bushwalking, climbing, bushwalking and sailing activities,’.

‘The students, ten guys and four girls, are aged between 19 and 24, and we rotate them around each day to race with a crew of 11 aboard Mr Bojangles, which also includes Greg and I and Andy Keep, a veteran of many long ocean races.

‘The students did some sail training in dinghies in Melbourne before coming up here, but this is their first experience in keelboat racing.

‘Chisholm Tafe College is very supportive of the project as it gives students the opportunity for experience practical outdoors activities in an environment that is different to Victoria.’

The Cleavers have also sailed Mr Bojangles to Tasmania, cruising down the East Coast to coincide their arrival with the big racing fleets from Sydney and Melbourne, also racing in the King of the Derwent Race.

‘Of course, we are delighted how well we are going in Race Week, winning the first race, getting third in the second and winning again today.’ Pauline added. ’

Today’s 22 nautical mile Molle Islands passage saw the Cruising divisions encounter the strongest winds of the day, 34 knots between Pioneer Point and North Molle Island with 14 boats retiring, mostly with sail damage, while one Sports Boat suffered with a broken rudder.

Mr Bojangles won the Cruising with Spinnakers division 2 by more than six minutes on corrected time from another Northshote 38, Full Frontal skippered Mark Travis from the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club, third place going to Meltemi Jim Shannon’s veteran S&S34 from Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.

After four races, Full Frontal still heads the leaderboard with 17 points from Breakaway, Arthur King’s Adams 12 from Balmain Sailing Club on 20 points and Mr Bojangles on 24 points, closely followed by Ingenie (Rosie Colahan) on 25 points, represented Melbourne’s Royal Brighon Yacht Club.

Today’s strong winds around the Molle Island suited the powerful Sydney yacht Holy Cow!, John and Kim Clinton’s Beneteau Oceanis 523 from the CYCA, scoring a 6 minutes 20 seconds corrected time win in Cruising with Spinnakers division 1 from French Bee, Robert Greasley’s Beneteau 42s7 from Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. Third place went to Copernicus, Chris Stockdale’s Radford 12 from Mooloolaba Yacht Club.

Overall, the Moololaba yacht White Pearl, Gary McCarthy’s Simonis/Voorgd design, leads Cruising with Spinnakers division 1 overall with 21 points from a consistent 6-3-7-5 scorecard. ‘We had another sound race out there today,’ the crew declared as they relaxed aboard after the hard race.

Second overall in division 1 is Don Algie’s Warwick 66 Storm 2 which powered around the course in 2 hours 42 seconds but placed 9th on corrected time. Storm 2 is on 21 points followed by the CYCA-based Swan Sarabande (Basil Diethelm) on 25 points, followed closely by Esprit on 26 points, Holy Cow! On 27 points and Hans-On on 28 points.