J130 Ragtime takes Dual Honours in Surf to City Race

by Ian Grant on 19 Jan 2003 Steve and Cindy Everett’s J130 Ragtime proved she is a strong contender to win the Performance handicap class in the 2003 Down Town Duty Free Brisbane to Gladstone race by winning the line and handicap double in the Surf To City race.

The short distance passage race from Southport north to Cape Moreton and into Moreton Bay to finish off Sandgate proved to be a light headwind endurance test.

Normally 15-20 knot southeast trade winds provide the fleet with an enjoyable spinnaker sailing sprint but they were forced to face more than 14 hours at sea slogging against 10-12 knot headwinds to complete the 92.7 n/ml course.

J 130 Ragtime noted for her impressive results in down wind races showed she was no slouch in doing the hard yards against the wind.

Her average speed of 6.54 knots based on a rhumb line plotted course of 92.7 n/mls was impressive considering she logged many more miles tacking along the ocean shore of Stradbroke and Moreton Islands.

No skipper reported an exact count of the tacks but one crewmember summed it up by saying “It was a big work out and not a type of race you could say was enjoyable because it was bloody hard work”.

However the J 130 Ragtime crew which finished at 2311 hours on Saturday night well after the pubs closed toughed it out to salvage time against their .9702 handicap rating to win the race outright by 17 minutes over Lewis Perrin in J- Walk-in with Simon Steenland’s Belle another 17 minutes astern third.

There were also two very impressive performances on the equally difficult inshore course, which featured a long and tiring slog in narrow channels when the Brendan Eagan designed catamaran Insulation Solutions (Bob Engwirda/Mick Ray) and Alan Carwardine’s high performance Stealthy claimed there class line honours.

The twin-hulled flyer Insulation Solutions again firmed her skipper’s claim of being an all rounder logging 8.98 knots from her 5hr-34min-50sec. Elapsed time while Stealthy the line honours winner in the mono hull class averaged 7.03knots.

Nevertheless this was another impressive result for the Stealthy crew handing a light head wind sailing lesson to their rivals and therefore holding the honour of being the pacesetter for sports boat racing in Queensland.

However despite their impressive course times both Insulation Solutions and Stealthy failed to score outright on handicap.

Dennis Wilkins helmed the Southport Yacht Club catamaran Dog House to win the Multihull class from The Dragon Fly (Toby Somerville) and Peter Hackett’s Intrigue.

In the monohull class Gold Coast skipper George Filippow steered Group Therapy to a 2 minute 48 second win in the 51 boat fleet from Ron Guy in Nikita with John Sowell in Moet another 2 minutes 6 seconds away third.