Tow Truck wins FKP Sydney to Mooloolaba IRC

by Rob Kothe on 12 Apr 2003 Lake Macquarie entrant, Anthony Paterson’s Mumm 30, Tow Truck, which towed three quarters of the remaining 40-boat fleet in its wake on the first night of the 2003 Race will be the clear overall winner in IRC.

While official results are hours away, the corrected time calculations suggest that Tow Truck has won by at least an hour from the Sydney 38 Cuckoo’s Nest.

After that first night’s wild ride, owner Anthony Paterson was understandably ecstatic with the 30’ yacht’s performance.

He and Brett Philby have been campaigning the boat hard and are keen to sail in the Tour de France Voile, which is the very competitive Mumm 30 offshore classic in France.

Brett commented this morning from the Mooloolaba Yacht Club

‘We had the opportunity on the first night with a bunch of young dinghy sailors to see just how hard we could push the boat. The conditions were just perfect for us, we had perfect angles, five talented steerer and we had great sails, from Hood Lake Macquarie. That spinnaker we used on the first night was a winner.

That night set the race up for us, but we kept attacking all the time, even when it lightened off.

We almost caught the 47-50 footers again last night on the South Stradbroke shore. We closed to 300 metres of Sting, Ausmaid and Ausmark and then they just got a puff and were away. but we could see their stern lights all night, so we figured that was still pretty alright.

The only thing that disappointed us a little was that James Neil and the guys on 31 footer The Cone of Silence caught us at Point Cartwright and sailed through us in the last few miles. They are just too fast on a two sail reach for us, but we blasted them on handicap.’

Neville Stevens from Lake Macquarie joined in the praise this morning

‘Congratulations to Anthony (Patto) Patterson and crew, the speed you got were fantastic. I wish I could have be there to feel the exhilaration; the young guys certainly did the job for you.

After all that time on the deck, they will probably sleep most of the week-end’

For the record, Tow Truck had three experienced Mumm 30 sailors Brett Philby 39, Gary Van Dijk 40, Anthony Paterson 33 and then a group of young Lake Macquarie sailors: 21 year old Richard Howard and his 20 year old brother Will, Jonathan Bromilow 20 and a young English sailor Madeline Leek who is just 19 years.