Dibley's 'Out of the Blue' dominates in first Regatta

by Kevin Dibley on 7 Sep 2002 Dibley's 'Out of the Blue' dominates in first Regatta

Name of boat: Dibley 8000 - 'Out of the Blue'
Regatta: 2002 Hoggs Breath Race Week
Location: Airlie Beach, Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia
Class: PHS
Designer: Dibley Marine Architects - Kevin Dibley
Owner / Skipper: Frank Brace - Cairns, Australia

Sailing in their first International Regatta, Frank Brace and crew walked away with the PHS trophy in the small boat division of Hoggs Breath Race Week held from the 9th to the 15th of August in Queensland, Australia . This event has become one of the most contested regattas in Australasia.

Scoring a 19th, 10th, 1st, 1st, 1st, on handicap in conditions that didn't suit her, Out of the Blue proved untouchable in the 20-25 knot conditions.

Capping the handicap wins were line honor wins in the last two races. Says Brace, 'One race was 38nm around the islands in 20-25kts wind but included a very long run. We screamed down the run overtaking all the big boats of divisions ahead. The speed log came out of the water at 18kts so we were going faster than that!

Talk about on the edge and totally under control with not one wipe out!'.

The Dibley 8000 'Out of the Blue' was designed by Kevin Dibley and built by Shayne Young for Frank & Wendy Brace of Cairns, Australia.

The brief was for an easily sailed sports trailer yacht that would excel in 10-15 knots and be highly competitive against the other sport yacht designs out there.
Loosely basing the design on an earlier Dibley success 'Supergroove' which was five-times New Zealand Trailer Yacht Champion, the Dibley 8000 takes the design further with emphasis put on performance and ease of sailing.

To date, she has been unstoppable in conditions under 15 knots and her success last week proved she was unstoppable in the heavier conditions as well.

Dibley, who has been producing winning racing and high performance cruising designs for a number of years, has also been the design support for winning America's Cup designer Laurie Davidson on his non-America's Cup projects.
Designs include the Volvo 60 'djuice Dragons'; the Davidson 58's 'Another Duchess' and 'Shockwave' and the Transpac 52's 'Pendragon' and 'Alta Vita' which was the winner of the 2002 Transpac Race in the TP52 division. Says Dibley, 'We have learnt a great deal working from Davidson on his various projects and have taken that knowledge and put it into our own designs, raising the performance levels accordingly'.

RESULTS: Hog's Breath Race Week Performance Handicap Class Championship Div 2: Out Of The Blue (Frank Brace, Cairns Qld) 1, Impulse (John Crawford, NSW) 2, Idle Time (Kevin Fogarty, Airlie Beach, Qld) 3,Wobbly Boot (Craig Piccinelli, Airlie Beach, Qld) 4, Epsilon (Michael Tromp, SA) 5, Sportscar (Aaron Smith, Airlie Beach Qld) 6.

The Dibley 10 metre 'Babe' will be the next Dibley design to race internationally.
Using the qualifying Races of the 2002 'Sydney to Lord Howe' race and the 2002 'Melbourne to Hobart' race, Babe's skipper Karl Holmes will enter her in the 2003 Melbourne to Osaka Race starting on March 15th.