Wot Now and Black Jack lead entries for Courier-Mail Cup

by Ian Grant on 25 Feb 2009
Wot Now, the exceptionally fast Judel Vrolijk designed TP 52 owned and skippered by 2008 Queenslander of the year Graeme Wood, has set a strong challenge to win the 61 year old Courier-Mail Cup.

The magnificent sterling silver trophy recognised as the symbol of supremacy in Queensland’s award winning Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race has again attracted an interesting list of early entries, including Wot Now and Peter Harburg’s ‘pocket rocket’ Black Jack helmed by Brisbane America's Cup sailor Mark Bradford.

Both yachts which will contest the tactically demanding 308 nautical mile coastal passage race for the first time have the proven blue water racing performance to be listed among the race favourites when Tin Can Bay ‘Old Salt’ and Queensland Cruising Yacht Club life member Clarrie Noble fires the start signal at 11am on Good Friday (April 10).

Black Jack winner of the prestigious line honours title at the 2008 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week combined with completing a rare line honours and corrected handicap win in the longer Brisbane to Keppel race has the consistent all angle speed to add another high scoring result to her log book.
But based on the results from the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race Wot Now deserves to head the leader board as the IRC corrected handicap favourite.

She completed a 628 nautical mile match race against TP52 class rivals with an impressive third overall behind Quest (Bob Steel) and the 2008 Audi Hamilton Island IRC class champion Alan Whiteley’s Cougar ll.

This absorbing tactical ‘drag race’ which lasted for a little over 49 hours resulted in a popular win for the 50th Brisbane to Gladstone champion Bob Steel when Quest completed the course with a 2.65 seconds per n/mile speed average over Cougar ll with Wot Now another 3.39 seconds per mile astern.
Predictably Graeme Wood has prepared a professional challenge by naming eight of his successful Hobart race sailors in the crew.

They include experienced navigator Tristram Eldershaw successful match racing helmsman Michael Dunstan and specialist offshore sailors Julian Freeman, Nick Partridge and Peter Seary.

Collectively the five specialist offshore sailors have logged 64 races over the physically gruelling 628 nautical mile Sydney Hobart course and this experience while facing a warmer racing environment over a shorter distance will be put to the test on this Queensland passage race course which has a history of presenting tactical challenges from start to finish.

Generally the performance over the first 42 n/mls between the start in Bramble Bay and Caloundra Fairway buoy can become tactically challenging before the crews settle into the initial hours of night racing along the Sunshine Coast past Double Island Point, the ocean beach of Fraser Island and the individual battle to extract the required speed to outpace the handicap rating clock.

For the Wot Now crew this will become a test of time and they will need to finish with an average around their Hobart race time of 12.66 knots, to establish any chance of winning over the lower handicap challengers.