New boats spice up Sydney-Gold Coast fleet

The unique boats will debut in this year's Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race starting Saturday 1 April 2006.

Leslie Green's Swan 601 Ginger arrived in Sydney with less than two weeks to the start of the 384 nautical mile 'rock hopping' race to Queensland and the crew is on a tight schedule to have the boat race ready.

The Swan 601 Class is growing in popularity with seven one design yachts currently on the water including Jim Swartz's Moneypenny which won in the inaugural US IRC National Championships in January, narrowly beating 2004 Rolex Sydney Hobart Overall winner Aera.

Green, a Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) member for 47 years, plans to contest all the long ocean races out of Sydney with his new boat, including the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart, an event which has sparked the interest of a least two other overseas Swan 601 owners, according to Green's boat manager and mainsheet trimmer Peter Bourke.

In true Swan style, Ginger will be one of the best looking boats in the fleet of 45 yachts and will be slightly more comfortable than most with its luxurious interior, which includes an owner's executive cabin that can be removed for racing.

While Ginger will weigh in around one third heavier than the hot competition in the 60 foot range, including Steven David's canting keel Reichel/Pugh Wild Joe and Stephen Ainsworth's fixed keel Reichel/Pugh Loki, "it's a good all round boat and ability is one thing but in this race tactics, particularly on the first night, is all important," said Bourke.

"We will have good sail area but we won't surf downwind as quickly as the other boats," added Bourke.

Ginger will carry a top crew north including sailing master Gordon Maguire, champion match racer Katie Spithill, who recently finished second in the Harken Women's International Match Racing Regatta, Richard Allanson from North Sails, the sail makers for Nautor's Swan globally, and CYCA Rear Commodore and current Ocean Racer of the Year, Matt Allen.

Unlike Ginger, which isn't expected to reach her optimum in heavy running conditions, the new Stomp 38 called Stomp, which arrived in Sydney less than two months ago, will prove hard to catch in a following breeze says owner Nick De Laine, best known for his other boat De Light.

The 12-foot rotating 'prodder' or bow sprit, huge asymmetric spinnakers and new design keel bulb on Stomp means it will be capable of "extreme speeds downwind and reaching," says De Laine.

"We'll beat a Farr 40 upwind 50 per cent of the time and downwind it will be a horizon job", says De Laine, who, with a co-owner has formed Tactical Marine, the Australian distributor for the new generation Stomp 38s which are being built by Stompcraft in Saigon.

This 38-foot "racer cruiser will be stacked with good sailors rather than rock stars" for its debut race and will be out to demonstrate this new class to potential buyers.

Queensland entries Alacrity, Matthew Percy's Beneteau 40.7, and Bill Wild's Wedgetail are also first time entrants in the Sydney Gold Coast as is Andrew Buckland and Andrew Hunn's canting keel Cape 40 Mr Kite, which was launched at last year's Hamilton Island Race Week.

A highly experienced ocean racer and 18-foot skiff sailor, Buckland's radical carbon fibre "mini Volvo 70" is best suited to "less than 10 and above 16 knots so we'll be hoping for both these and not much in the middle," says Buckland, who has the DK46s Quantum Racing and Shogun, and the Welbourn 42 Wedgetail, in his sights

A fleet of 45 will set sail at 1pm on Saturday 1 April 2006 for the closing race of the CYCA's 2005-06 summer offshore season and the feeder race to Southport Yacht Club's new Club Marine Commodore's Cup Regatta and annual Easter weekend Brisbane to Gladstone Race.

Official web site goldcoast.cyca.com.au