Brisbane to Gladstone multihull race departs today

The Brisbane to Gladstone Multihull race starts today it's an interesting and diverse multihull fleet this year which sees a good mix of cruising and racing multihulls. The absence of Team Australia this year will mean more of a Corinthian race for line honours.

The entrant list is here and a small description of each craft:

http://www.mycq.org.au/index.php/2014-brisbane-to-gladstone/the-entrants

The tracker:

http://yb.tl/mycq2015

More details at the Multihull Yacht Club of Queensland website:

http://www.mycq.org.au/

 

Looking like Morticia the giant killer has done it again, is 30' the smallest boat that can enter ?

 

I cant see anything in the Notice of Race specifying a minimum size for the race but you do have to meet Cat 2 multihull safety requirements to be eligible. I seem to recall that the trimaran Riverside Oaks did the BtoG and it's about 28'.

 

The Seacart 30 Morticia took line honours. It will take some time to sort out OMR handicap which is the big cheese in this race. Chillpill in second and Fantasia third over the line. Morticia claimed line and OMR honours, Chillpill second on OMR and J'Ouvert third.

The MYCQ Brisbane to Gladstone leaderboard page:

http://www.mycq.org.au/index.php/2014-brisbane-to-gladstone/brisbane-to-gladstone-leaderboard

 

Morticia was very well sailed in a reasonably rough start to the race. There was some more competition to her that pulled out - there was a fair bit of carnage. Worst luck had to be Darren Drew whose Top Gun was going well and giving Morticia a real run at the start until the mainsail pulled its head off and they had to turn back - new looking sails too. The old Indian Chief (Boatworks) pulled out at the same spot and headed to Mooloolaba with some bolt trouble.

On Friday night conditions were good for fast and hard sailing. The breeze was an easterly slant rather than the more usual soueaster which mean that screechers were sailed at their closest angles putting some high loads on the boats. The boat I was on, Fantasia, had a big screecher (beautiful carbon triradial built by Saxby) that we couldn't quite stay on course with so our track goes up and down a bit.

The track of Chillpill goes down somewhere off Fraser island too. They had their screecher up but got water in through hatches and had to bear off to ease things until the water was pumped out. The guys on Cut Snake, a Stealth 12, were absolutely flooring it but pulled the leeward bottom gudgeon off the port stern along with some net attachment damage.

The angle gpt better at the top of Fraser Island and then wind eased off as well. On Saturday our hopes of a 24 hour run were dashed when the wind went right away. The boats like Rush hour(Rogers 12) that headed inshore straight after Lady Elliot Island went into nothing at all and spent the day barely moving. The leaders were looking for breeze and Morticia and Chillpill made the outer markers with the tide on the flood. With the breeze easing and heading Boss Racing (an open 9m or so cat) had the worst of fighting the tide and pulled out with a few miles to go as they were heading back to Brisbane with the ebbing tide. Fantasia spent about 3 hours working very hard to stay in the same spot - our track looks as if we were doing exhaustive main overboard practice but finally the tide eased and the wind picked up enough for us to do the last four miles. If we had not stopped those last three hours Fantasia could have won OMR, but the tide Gods play a big role in the Gladstone - last year Morticia had the Gods against them and this time they relented. Chillpill crossed the line after Morticia and with minutes until the tide turned.

NSW sailor Steve Barton had his Pescott 11.7 - Jouvert - sailing very well against the tide, the experience of designer Pescott and builder Ross Blair helping scrape the sand banks to get out of the contrary current. To a very hospitable reception from the Mayor - she greeted Fantasia at 2 am with a big smile.

A race of two distinct halves with a bit of luck thrown in. The Morticia guys were sailing right on the edge for 11 hours on the run up the Fraser coast. It is good to see some young sailors in a race with an average age of 55 or so. I had a great time racing with the Fantasia crew - she must be one of the fastest liveaboard boats around - I saw 20 knots around 11pm on the first night but she just stayed fanging along whenever we could get that amazing screecher up.

cheers

Phil Thompson

 

Thanks Phil, good read.

 

Thanks for the race report Phil some nice photos by Jules at Vidpicpro of the multi fleet and Fantasia doing her thing on Facebook.

http://vidpicpro.com/galleries/brisbane-to-gladstone-2015-multis/

and some more from Chris Dewar on Facebook taken from Renaissance:

https://www.facebook.com/TheMYCQ/posts/764961040288886

 

A world on water report with some video from the start of the Brisbane to Gladstone multihull yacht race the segment starts at about 10:40.

https://youtu.be/Bl_gaIdAmJQ

 

"The monos start 20 min earlier so when the multi's overtake them the spectators won't laugh at them "

Funny, very funny