Gladstone Race skipper hopes to turn the tide

by Ian Grant on 2 Apr 2012 Jeffrey Paul, skipper of Gladstone’s Port Curtis Sailing Club Farr 30 Immigrant has the recent form guide to warrant recognition among the favourites to win the 64th QantasLink Brisbane to Gladstone Race over the Easter Weekend.

The Immigrant crew who suffer with sharing limited crew quarters on board the baby 9.24 m sloop have shown the only way to limit the suffering is to sail fast.

They set a career best course time of 32 hours 21 minutes 19 seconds in 2010 to finish third overall behind the larger yachts Wedgetail and Black Jack and were narrowly beaten by 2 minutes 51 seconds by the 20.3m Black Jack for third place last year.

This form of a 3-4 suggests the aggressive Immigrant crew remain rated among the top contenders to contest for the honour of becoming the 64th winner of the prestigious Courier Mail Cup.

Jeff Paul has proved to be the class master in this physically demanding coastal passage race and is determined to again dominate the 308n/ml match race over his Brisbane rival Lewis Perrin’s Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron sloop Italian Job.

But while the previous race results and boat speed favour Immigrant rival skipper Lewis Perrin has left nothing to chance this year.

The underwater surface of Italian Job has been scrubbed squeaky clean and skipper Perrin has nominated a quality crew including the talented Josh Walker which presents a warning that the baby speed sailing Gladstone Farr 30 Immigrant will be hard pressed to win the honour of being the class fastest into her home port.

However Jeff Paul who has been known to race his yacht on the fine edge between distinction and disaster personally believes they are up for the challenge.

'We have proved our ability to master the tactical and physical demands of ocean racing having sailed consistently in moderate to fresh winds,' he said.

Immigrant convincingly answered the challenge last year finishing the boat on boat match race with a faster 7.88 seconds per nautical mile advantage.

While Jeff Paul and the Immigrant crew are expecting to race under pressure they remain confident of holding onto the honour of winning the battle between the ‘baby boats’.

Similar interest will focus on the match race for the first to finish trophy when race record holder the Grant Wharington skippered Wild Thing enters into a match race against the 2011 line honours champion Lahana (Peter Millard) and the 2009-2010 trophy winner Black Jack (Mark Bradford).