Surf to City Yacht Race preview
by Peter Hackett 18 Jan 2018 01:57 PST
20th January 2018
Envy Scooters scoots along to Hobart © Stefano Gattini / Studio Borlenghi / Rolex
The 2018 Surf to City classic yacht race is going to be a special one this year, and not just because it is the 25th year that we have been going for the silver on the inside and outside of Stradbroke and Moreton Islands, from Southport to Sandgate.
The additional challenge for crews this year is with the delivery and berthing today and tomorrow, south into the Gold Coast waterways that are already congested in the leadup to the Commonwealth Games. We already dodge zooming jetskis, kitesurfers, windsurfers, adrenalin thunder cats, and cower as the seaplane lands between our masts, but now the big motor cruisers are in such big numbers down there that the water level of the Broadwater could possibly rise without the help of global warming!
That will all blast away in the spray on Saturday when the predicted growing southeasterly wind raises the hopes of a course record that has not fallen for some years.
On the inside course through the southern islands and muddy "drains" of Moreton Bay, the first start is the multihulls, who will probably be led from the start by Shaun Jackson skippering his French Diam 24 rocketship with local imported crew "Wazza" from Cairns for the race (surname withheld for contractual reasons). This boat two-up will beat the pace she displayed in many race-leading reaches in the recent national championships, and will be slugging it out for line honours with the foiling Purple Haze of the McMillan boys from the Gold Coast.
Leading the sports boats with the big kites up will be The Sherrings also from the Gold Coast in Retuned, Andrew Wiklund in Crank, still recovering from a torrid series of regattas in Asia, and David Lambourne in Lambourdini 2. Looking for handicap issues in this Div1 monohull fleet will be Andrew Barney if he can get his Barney Army on board in one piece, and the little Spider, Midnight Madness of Adrian Fawcett fresh from winning the National Arrow Cat Championships.
Heading out through the seaway to a nice long monhull Div 1 ocean race around Moreton Island will be the newly unleashed and alphabetically challenged "Envy Scooters Beach Ball 52" fresh from a close points win in these waters last week. Salacia will challenge for line honours, and many hope that the Salter boys' Dream will blast in from the northern end of the bay to challenge handicap honours.
Div 2 boats will have trouble containing Bazinga, which is greek for "We Win Wags", and the dark horses in this fleet are the classics Laurabada, Pagan, and Tequila, which could have their own event. The two double handed boats Samurai Jack and Apriori will need to watch the sleep rosters carefully as night falls entering the complex and mobile channels of the bay.
Multihulls in the ocean should feature a drag race between Gary Saxby's Boss Racing, with her bottom damage repaired now, and Drew Carruthers steering Rushour to her first hitout after inversion therapy filled the mast with mud. Handicap honours are always on the cards for Hasta La Vista.