Rod Jones sets Archambault A40 for Audi Nationals

by Ian Grant on 13 Nov 2008 Australian IRC Class Ocean racing champion Rod Jones and his crew has entered the challenge to win the 2009 Audi National championship with the impressive Archambault A40 Alegria.

Skipper Jones will have a good guide on boat speed when Alegria lines up against Australia’s best blue water racing crews in the Rolex Regatta off Sydney Heads next month.

The new Alegria proved to be a star performer with her maiden regatta Silver Medal at the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in August after leading the championship into the final windward beat of the championship deciding race.

Both skipper Jones and sailing master Kai Timm forced the former Rolex Sydney Hobart Race winning skipper Michael Spies and the New South Wales crew on eventual winner Honeysuckle into a spirited nip-n-tuck duel before the Sydney sailors claimed the trophy.

This result has ranked the Mooloolaba Dinghy Club crew among the top contenders for the Rolex Sydney Regatta while they remain totally focused on the more important opening regatta for 2009 Audi Australian championship on Victoria’s Corio Bay in late January.

“Our Oceanburo performance racing diary will also include the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta in February, followed by the Brisbane to Gladstone race over the Easter weekend and the Sydney to Gold Coast Race in July plus the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in late August”. Rod Jones said.

Meanwhile his key crew mates Kai Timm, Sean O’Rourke, Gregor MacAllansmith and Noosa’s Australian Blazer 23 champion Chris Annear will continue to refine their individual tactical skills with racing on the mentally demanding circuit of one-design racing in the exciting SB3 Dart sport boat class.

Sean O’Rourke expressed his exceptional talent when he out thought and outpaced a competitively strong interstate fleet to win the Queensland Match Racing championship with a perfect score off Mooloolaba in June and this result suggests he and the Tasqua Youth squad crew will be among the front runners for the Queensland Open fleet title series on Brisbane’s Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron course later this month.

He is presently based in Sydney and has continued to refine his match racing talent against Australia’s best young One-design racing helmsmen winning his share of the intense tactical stoushes which suggest little has changed with his skill and determined attitude.

Another major result promises Sean O’Rourke with a promotion into the ‘rear guard’ when Alegria heads into her State of Origin war on the water against the parochial New South Wales crews during next month’s Rolex Regatta.

Sean has the runs on the board and another major result in the Queensland SB3 Dart championship will enforce a crew reshuffle in the helming department when the new Alegria carries the Queensland and Mooloolaba Dinghy Club ‘battle flags’ into the important ocean racing events including the 2009 Audi Australian championship final at Hamilton Island next August.