Single-handed Mooloolaba lady sailor ready for Solo Trans Tasman
by Tracey Johnstone on 25 Jan 2010
Solo Trans Tasman 2010 competitor Jenny Fitzgibbon Tracey Johnstone
Single-handed sailor Jenny Fitzgibbon leaves from Mooloolaba Yacht Club next week to start her trek to New Zealand in preparation for the start of the demanding Solo Trans Tasman Yacht Race.
Quietly spoken, absolutely focused and fully prepared, 32-year-old Fitzgibbon knows what she wants to achieve and how she is going to do it. She has spent the last 18 months based out of Mooloolaba racing with the club in its blue water races in between heading off on her own for over-night timed training.
She has done a brilliant job of driving her boat fast in the club races to lead Division One in the current Sunshine Coast Yacht Sales Gunther Werner Series and to be placed third Division One in the Wharf Tavern Blue Water Series.
While Fitzgibbon with her yacht, Soothsayer, has previously been single-handed sailing on Moreton Bay, the time spent racing and training out of Mooloolaba has proved invaluable to her preparation. 'I wanted to practice in the ocean. I have been sailing solo in the bay since I bought the boat five years ago. When I first came up here I was all over the place with the swell, but it has been well worth the effort. I feel a lot more comfortable with the boat and my skills.'
The Solo Trans Tasman Yacht Race, which starts on the 4 April, will be contested by 20 yachts. The fleet race from New Plymouth on the north island of New Zealand across the Tasman Sea 1283 nautical miles to Mooloolaba.
Preparation of her Sayer designed 10.6m monohull has involved a team of volunteers from Mooloolaba Yacht Club led by 1982 Solo Trans Tasman Race winner Jon Sayer.
'It’s been great to have his help and guidance. He has always been one of my shorthanded heroes so I’ve been very lucky to work with him and pick his brain. He has had a large input to my program helping me with everything. He has done the rig, getting rid of the runners to make life a little bit easier and helped with work on the keel. We have also changed the track positions for the sails. Now he is helping me put the auto helm in.
'In regards to sailing, he is pretty full on. I am probably going to get more of that advice from him in the next few weeks before I go, especially on weather patterns.'
Sayer is confident she will do the race safely. 'She just leaves the dock, gets out there and goes for it. Jen has done the time on the boat. It is a very easily driven boat and has enough speed to get her out of the trouble if something is chasing you,' Sayer said.
Other members of the support team are Barry Woods, Bob Scells, Susie Rasmussen, Trevor Parkes and Gary McCarthy.
The drive to compete in the Solo Trans Tasman started when she purchased Soothsayer. Her dad, John, encouraged Fitzgibbon to take the helm alone. 'First time out I totally s**t my pants. Dad came over in his boat and waited for me to take off from the marina and we went out together. We did that a couple of times. I started to love it. I was scared to start because there is no one to help you.'
From that time Fitzgibbon has pursued knowledge of her boat and confidence in her skills to deal with whatever comes her way whether it is safety, electronics, motor trouble or more. She has completed all the necessary safety training and practiced her skills many times. On the issue of mechanical skills, a challenging cruise with her Dad to New Caledonia and back to Brisbane was a brilliant, but difficult way to learn some hard lessons.
'I have learnt along the way. A few years ago Dad and I were in New Caledonia with Soothsayer and we blew the motor up, then we spent four days pulling it apart and back together. Anything that could go wrong on that trip did. We got 60 knots on the way over, all the electronics died, then we tore the mainsail. We ended up coming back without the motor and got becalmed for two days. We copped everything and learnt heaps.
'Now I do most of the work on the boat myself so feel confident I can fix just about anything that gets thrown at me.'
Fitzgibbon will take Soothsayer from Mooloolaba to Brisbane to complete some final small tasks and Customs clearance before she cruises with her partner, Dan Tooth, and friend Rasmussen to New Zealand. There she hopes to have some time to relax before the race.
Come 4 April all that relaxation will be out the window and Fitzgibbon will knuckle down to the task of single-handed racing. The nerves will no doubt appear as she waves goodbye to her team of supporters and heads out to the start line,
While she claims she will be happy to just to finish, the feeling among her sailing mates at Mooloolaba Yacht Club is that she her competitive spirit will get the better of her and she will be pushing herself and her yacht as hard as possible.
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