No stopping the Smiths

by Ian Grant on 7 Oct 2009
Sunshine Coast sailing brothers Casey and Bucky Smith have expressed their personal determination and sailing skill to join the World’s yachting elite. Their individual sailing careers built from a humble beginning with club racing on the Sunshine Coast has become the success story of 2009.

They were destined for success showing a rare form of dedication to make the most with a mix of low budget race weary dinghies and sharpies to ultimately turn them into the star performers in the class.

The important time spent in ‘Struggle Street’ provided the Smith brothers with the opportunity to appreciate the value of understanding and improving their sail fast technique.

Earlier this year Bucky played a major tactical role when Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron skipper Jason Muir steered Racer XY to a runaway win in the Audi World Etchells championship over the Royal Brighton Yacht Club course in Melbourne.

He celebrated his first World championship Gold Medal with crew coach Adrian Finglas while Casey was living his dream sailing the extreme test of skill and endurance as a key crew member on Puma in the Volvo around the World race.

At the time Casey and his Puma crew mates were dealing with their own challenge of sailing ‘on the edge’ in a game of catch up against the Ericsson 4 crew skippered by Brazilian Olympic Star Class Gold Medallist Torben Grael and were unaware that Bucky had added a World title to his personal log book.

However Casey who has developed his career around ocean racing capped a major milestone when he was presented with prestigious Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics trophy for outstanding seamanship during The Volvo Race.

Both Smith brothers are equally proud of each other’s achievements with Bucky accepting a crew role when Rod Jones steered Alegria to win the Audi Australian IRC class ocean racing championship at Hamilton Island in August.

When Bucky modestly accepted his Audi championship medal he said 'I’ve got some interesting career plans which are under discussion at the moment'. He has always set his goals with a positive plan and his next career venture is focused on the 2012 Olympic Regatta in England.

The Olympic campaign was officially announced in late September with Bucky Smith presently preparing to contest the monotype Finn class championship at the International Sail Brisbane regatta on Moreton Bay next month.

Finn class racing is described as a human torture test where the sole crewmember spends long periods in the hiking straps in the bid to gain a centimetre by centimetre boat speed advantage over their rivals.

Bucky has accepted this challenge and is presently testing his speed and tactical skill against the equally talented World championship winning Gold Coast skipper Brendan Casey.

Both skippers have ‘done the hard yards’ which suggests they will be well prepared for the challenge to represent Australia at the 2010 World Championship in Miami (Florida) before facing further intense international regatta racing against the World’s best Olympic Finn dinghy skippers on the intensely competitive European circuit.