Weekly Powerboat and Fishing Summary

FISHING

The Moreton Bay Fishing Classic will be held 6-11 August, and is designed to be fun for everyone while promoting responsible resource conservation and environmental fishing practices. Anyone can enter the Classic, which was the first of its kind held in Brisbane last year.

This year the tournament is offering an estimated $200,000 in prize pools, including a first prize of a fully fitted out Signature 540F fibreglass fishing boat with trailer, second prize of a Suzuki Grand Vitara 3-door four-wheel-drive, and third prize of a Malibu Two XL Angler Ocean Kayak. The Classic is expected to attract a crowd of more than 1,000 and is open to everyone prepared to abide by the rules of the competition. The event offers a children’s competition and offshore, inshore, and foreshore fishing. For more details check out MBTBC.com.

LOUISIADES RALLY

The Louisiades Rally for yachts and powerboats over 30 feet will be conducted from 5 September to 11 October departing and returning to Cairns. Participants will cruise in company across 520 nautical miles of the Coral Sea, to the Louisiades Archipelago in Papua New Guinea. The program of events includes sailing canoe racing, feasts, sing sings, skull cave visit, traditional dancing, a remote river trip, school and hospital visits and more. The program also allows plenty of time for independent exploration to the islands and their friendly communities. Entries close July 1. Louisiades Rally.com.

POWERBOAT RACING

Australians Steve Nugent and Pete ‘Mudguard’ McGrath racing Team Three won the Superboat class in the seventh round of the Rayglass New Zealand Offshore Powerboats Championship. Several of the teams that had looked secure at the top of the table ran into problems. The current leader Doosan was leading the race until lap three when their starboard engine shut down, and though restarted, proved unreliable for the rest of the race. The Rayglass NZ Offshore Powerboat Championship concludes on Auckland Harbour on 8 May. NZ Offshore.co.nz.

Following six months abroad, the Class 1 fleet is back in Europe. After being based in the UAE for the last two months of 2009 for the Abu Dhabi and Dubai Grand Prix, and to sit-out the winter before heading to Brazil for this season’s-opener in Rio de Janeiro in March, the 5500 cubic metres and 700 tons of Class 1 hardware - seven raceboats, trucks and trailers, two Nor-Tech 3600 Supercat pace boats, seven workshops, seven hospitality rigs and five trucks carrying support equipment, ribs and pontoons - finally arrived back in Savona, Italy this week. Class-1.com.

NEWS BRIEFS

A deep ocean current with a volume equivalent to 40 Amazon Rivers has been discovered by Japanese and Australian scientists near the Kerguelen plateau, in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean, 4,200 kilometres south-west of Perth. CSIRO.au.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

May 2 -- Bridge to Bridge Powerboat Race, Upper Hawkesbury Power Boat Club UHPBC.net.

May 2 – NSW PWC Bridge to Bridge Race from Wisemans Ferry to Windsor NSWPWC.org.au.

May 20 - 23 -- Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show, Gold Coast. Sanctuary Cove Boat Show.com.au.

May 20 – 23 -- 1770 Festival, Town of Seventeen-Seventy, Queensland. Celebrating the "Birth Place of Queensland", this festival has been an annual event for 17 years and commemorates the visit of the Endeavour and landing of Lt. James Cook and his crew in May 1770. 1770 Festival.com.au.

May 21 – 30 -- Port Douglas Carnivale, Tropical North Queensland. Carnivale.com.au.

May 27 – June 21 -- Vivid Sydney, a festival of light, music and ideas, featuring the spectacular illumination of the Sydney Opera House sails. Events NSW.com.au.

June 13 - 14 -- The Oceanic Whitsunday Boat & Leisure Show, Meridien Marinas Abel Point Marina, Airlie Beach. Whitsunday Boat Show.com.

June 26 – 27 -- Australian Offshore Superboat Championship - Round 2, Mackay. AOPC.com.au.

July 1 - 5 -- Melbourne Boat Show, Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Melbourne Boat Show.com.au.

Photograph: Signature 540F fibreglass fishing boat with trailer is the first prize at the Moreton Bay Fishing Classic