Powerboat Editorial

by Bob Wonders on 1 Apr 2009 Welcome, and thanks for stopping by for another edition of Powerboat-World.com

When we ran the report early in the week about the new No Wash penalties in NSW now being as much as $5,500, we were asked by readers, was that a story, we meant to run on April 1st. Sadly no.

Everyone needs to read this story carefully. These laws may apply to you, or may turn up in your State or region soon!

But all is not bad in NSW, the long overdue rationalisation of the Volunteer Rescue Association, the Australian Volunteer Coastguard and the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol into Marine Rescue NSW is gathering pace.

They might get called rag-tops but the other half are living quite fast. Top speed under sail, not diesel or petrol powered hit two impressive new world records this week. A land sailor reached 109.57 knots in the American desert and an Australian sailing boat off Wilsons Prom set a new record of 50.08 knots.

While we are talking speed, we’re indebted to Class 1.com for a most interesting, make that fascinating, glance back at the history of offshore racing’s modern era.

On the other side of the Tasman, those Kiwis are up and running again with a Festival of Speed which will involve ‘planes, trains and automobiles! No, hold that. That was a movie. In Whitianga it will be ‘planes boats and cars; there’s even a match race planned between an offshore racer and a helicopter!

On the Powerboat P1 front, a new team, Team 26, is ready to rock and roll in a tilt at the World championship aboard a new Donzi powered by Sterling V8 engines and with the ’09 season opening in a few weeks, Powerboat-World is right where you’ll keep up with results and feature stories on some of the colourful competitors.

Closer to home, a matter which has detrimental effect on the boating industry as a whole is the urgent need for a major dredging operation on Queensland's Southport Broadwater.

This is a natural resource which a succession of governments have ignored and this week I spoke with one man who understand the problem more than most, Gold Coast City Marina general manager, Dean Leigh-Smith.

Both the trade and consumers are likely to be seriously interested in the Marine Auction in Brisbane next month there’ll be six near-new Sunseeker cruisers going under the hammer at the direction of Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the whisper is…….bargain!. Read all about it.

Before I go, one of the funniest stories of the week, definitely in the 'Ya Gotta Laugh' category comes from Nancy Knudsen our cruising editor brings us news on the boat that did not see the bridge.