Catamaran Champion chasing seventh Brisbane to Gladstone Race title

by Ian Grant on 9 Apr 2009 Gold Coast Ocean racing catamaran skipper Jamie Morris is pleased with a possible strong wind forecast for 2009 Multihull Yacht Club of Queensland Brisbane to Gladstone Race starting from Manly at 11am on Good Friday.

Morris who skippered his power sailing catamaran Flat Chat to a rare line honour and corrected handicap win in 2002 has assembled a very experienced crew in an attempt to win his seventh line honours title at the helm of the comfortable 15.85m Gary Lidgard designed catamaran Avalanche.

Veteran blue water sailor Duncan Van Woerden and his master 5 accredited marine skipper daughter Heidi will share watches on the helm with Jamie Morris and dual Brisbane to Gladstone race winner Joel Berg.

All four are highly experienced and will extract the fastest possible boat speed from Avalanche which clipped a peak speed of 18.9 knots during a recent fresh wind sail evaluation trial off the Gold Coast.

Her speed has been enhanced with a new set of high performance SailTech sails plus a ‘circus tent’ size spinnaker which promises to bump her career best speed above 19 knots.

“We are all mindful of racing for fun but I am sure that will change before the start signal is fired” Jamie Morris said.

“There is just too much at stake to simply back off, we all love to race and we will almost certainly hoist the big-bag (spinnaker) for the final 87 nautical mile leg from Lady Elliot to the finish in Gladstone Harbour” he said.

Avalanche has firmed as one of the favourites to win the race on corrected handicap and presents a distinct challenge to the 2008 multihull race champion Renaissance co-skippered by owners Ross Perrins and Mike Hodges.

Both crews will square off at the start and will continue to remained focused on a second by second match race from start to finish with the Avalanche crew banking on their ‘secret weapon’ spinnaker to be the deciding factor.