All aboard
by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS 9 Sep 2018 15:00 PDT
ichi Ban, Hamilton Island Race Week  © Craig Greenhill / Salty Dingo/Hamilton Island Yacht Club
In what seems like only a moment ago, we looked at Mr Kite, which is for sale at the approachable price of AUD185k. It raised the spectre that FAST40+ and the like have not entirely taken off here in AUS, with short-handed 40-somethings more popular, but it is the pointy end at 52 feet, that is alive and kicking. Maybe it is because IRC is still so dominant here, unlike the Northern hemisphere.
Interestingly, there really are quite a few in the country now, probably something like 15. Indeed, they span the best part of two whole decades, and there's well and truly a pace differential to be had, depending on configuration and weather conditions. Equally, the fleet represents quite a few of the best names in naval architecture: Farr, Judel/Vrolijk, Botin, and even Nelson/Marek (many a race win in that lot!). Equally, the builders and component manufacturers look like a bit of a who's who, too – with Goetz, Green Marine, Cooksons, Harken, Southern Spars, Lewmar, and North Sails popping up repeatedly.
Some owners have stayed there in the village of the teepees the whole time. Others had a spell off, only to return very recently. Some went away, and are now happily playing in other sandpits. Clearly, there has been no shortage of braves and squaws to become part of the tribe, but what then for those wanting to get amongst it now, and not placing themselves into a boat that has not already done a lot of service?
Given that you want to play in the village, you will need a 52, whether or not it is a TP (still inside the box rule), or IRC optimised, for being a 51 or 55 just won't get you the entry ticket, as was found out last time. So with that in mind, I saw that Jason Rowed from Race Boats has these two offerings.
First one is a craft penned by the highly successful team at Reichel/Pugh, which is an outfit that was not part of our list a little earlier. Could this be enough to give you an edge? Mick and the team at Cookson's built her for the 2008 season, she won last year's IRC European Championship, has a huge black sail wardrobe from North Sails, her own cradle for dry sailing if that's where you're headed, and six B&G jumbos on the stick.
The next one is a 2011 Judel/Vrolijk made by Green Marine in pre-preg carbon with a Nomex and Kevlar core from a single mould (so you'd reckon she'll be ultra stiff), and features a high-end Southern Spars stick, halyard locks, carbon standing rigging, and her own cradle, too.
Ensign Racing (part of Ensign Ship Brokers) is also actively involved in the race boat area, and possesses a well-known and experienced team to look after your requirements. It consists of Lee Randall, Ron Jacobs and Mark Hellyer. They recently sold Bob Steel's Quest, the Mark Mills 41 that was built as a MAT1180, and now calls Hong Kong home. They also found a new home for the Farr 36, Corum, which offered sweptback spreaders, and a new keel and rudder.
With regards to the current topic, Randall said, "If you have the desire, as well as the boat and crew management to go with it, we can certainly get you into the mix with a great 52-foot racer. We are working with a few parties right now to have them ready the 75th Hobart, next year. It is still the most competitive inshore and offshore going around in Australia, so it is no wonder that there is strong interest in the category."
"There are many who are taking a good look at it, with some very keen to step up from displacement style craft." On this last point, and for those who are not quite there yet, soon we will have a new Bavaria C45 Ambition in Australia. This is the racier version, that loses the BBQ and so on, but gains a prodder, 2.7m lead keel, and 1.5m taller rig, so this looks to be pretty super dooper. Do check it out, because we were pretty impressed with the Bavaria C45 Style, which had no go faster bits at all. The Bavaria C45 Ambition appears to have all the right numbers, and we're not talking polars. We are talking about the all-important number on the certificate.
Right oh - here today there are some gems for you to review. We have information about Wendy Tuck, Maiden to sail again with Tuck, Caffari and Henderson to Skipper her, the Maxis in Sardinia, Melges 40, RS21, Transpac, Optis, Andrea Francolini supplied numerous galleries for us to review, kiteboarders, blind match racing Worlds from Scotland, the Golden Globe, boat watching season comes to an end (which means the Southern one is about to kick off), J/70s and J/111s, and certainly there is much, much more.
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John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS