Raw Nerve dismasted in Bass Strait

by Ian Grant on 11 Mar 2002 Martin Riley's Brisbane-Gladstone Multihull race record challenger Raw Nerve was dismasted in Bass Strait on Saturday.

The recently modified Loch Crowther designed catamaran, which took line honours in her only Gladstone race start three years ago, was on the initial stages of her delivery voyage to Brisbane.

According to a coast guard report the dramatic dismasting occurred at 3pm south of Eden ending owner skipper Martin Riley's quest to match race the almost identical Noumea catamaran Rogntudjuuu (Philippe Coste) for this years line honours title and possible record time.

Riley had hand selected some of the best offshore racing catamaran sailors to go head to head with Rogntudjuuu but now he faces the task of returning to Melbourne and hopefully preparing for next year.

Luck has certainly robbed skipper Riley of the chance to prove he has potentially the fastest catamaran racing off the Australian coast.

His match race against Rogntudjuuu and the smaller Gold Coast 'flying machine' Flat Chat skippered by Jamie Morris was being promoted as a feature in the annual Easter classic sailed over a 308 n/ml coastal passage course.

All three catamaran sailing crews were also favoured to make a challenge on 20hour 35minute 2second record set by Rogntudjuuu last year.

Meanwhile Flat Chat will be hauled out of the water to have a rudder replaced after she collided with a sleeping shark when setting a record in the recent 90 nml Southport-Brisbane Surf to City race.

'The rudder is shot to bits, which is not surprising when we slammed into the shark at 18knots'. Morris said.

Morris is also looking for a break in the weather to trial some new sails off the Gold Coast before the race starts on March 29th.