Australian Multihull Championships - Trilogy crew set a new standard

by Ian Grant on 23 Sep 2011 Corsair Seawind Australian Multihull Championship, hosted by Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron for Multihull Yacht Club Queensland, was held from 19 to 23 September 2011. Keith Glover and his Trilogy crew set a new standard when they claimed the series trophy with six wins from six races.

They had claimed the championship after scoring a comfortable win in race five on Thursday however both Keith Glover and his principal crew mate Ben Kelly believed they had a point to prove.

Sure skipper Keith Glover, Ben Kelly, Brendon Mann and Harry Bethwaite enjoyed a small crew celebration after race five however the ‘crew vote’ was unanimous on chasing a possible six from six.

Trilogy the unchallenged form boat of the series was again cleverly sailed in the bay passage race outpacing her .939 handicap correction factor to eventually claim a comfortable 4 minute 40 second win over the South Australian trimaran Wilparina 11 (Rob Remilton) with the Julian Griffiths steered Sunshine Coast catamaran Hot Vindaloo into third another 1 minute 55 seconds off the pace.

'I guess the result has justified taking on the new learning curve associated with the canting mast, however Trilogy now races with a smaller sail area and is certainly faster'. Keith Glover said.

APC Mad Max again dominated the line honours but skipper George Owen who had seemed certain to wrap up the Silver Medal comfortably had his back to the wall to ward off a late charge from Hot Vindaloo.

The APC Mad Max crew who finished the fastest with an elapsed time of 2 hours 25 minutes 32 seconds understood that their handicap calculated time of 2-45-37 was under a serious threat from their lower handicapped rivals.

Thankfully Wilparina 11 which managed to win her match race against Hot Vindaloo by 2 minutes 37 seconds ultimately allowed APC Mad Max which finished sixth fastest on corrected time to win the Silver Medal on count back over Hot Vindaloo.

Veteran multihull sailor Tony Goshnick produced a form reversal when he steered Outrage to a runaway 32 minutes 31 second win over the Division two champion the Linda Renouf skippered Dash.

However Outrage which previously recorded a 5-8-8-8 only managed seventh place overall while Dash which finished all six races in the top three won the Division two championship by six points from Frassid (Shaun Fishley) with another two points to Iain MacDougall in Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron website