Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race departs with RP66 Alive sailing double-handed

Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race departs with RP66 Alive crusing double-handed

by Nic Douglass 20 Jun 01:07 PDT
20 June 2024

The 343 nautical mile Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race, hosted by the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, started on Thursday 20 June following a prolonged delay because the race committee waited for the breeze to achieve the beginning space.

The early lead was taken by double-handed entry Balancing Act, the J/99 co-skippered by Tony Crander & Andrew Turnbull-Miller.

Nevertheless it was Alive, the Sydney-Hobart successful RP66 co-skippered by Duncan Hine and Glen Myler, that made the a lot of the constructing breeze, rapidly shifting to the entrance of the fleet of seven, however for the primary time additionally crusing within the double-handed division.

“That is the primary time the boat has endeavoured to do a two-handed race, so we’re fairly enthusiastic about that”, stated Alive co-skipper Duncan Hine previous to the race.

The boat is racing underneath the identical handicap as when it gained the Tattersall Cup, the Rolex Sydney Hobart general final yr, with these further crew, and full sail suite on board.

“Making an attempt to work out the best way to do all of the features on the boat which is designed for twelve folks to race when there’s now simply two of us in there makes it fairly thrilling. The forecast shouldn’t be very beneficial to us. We’ll be racing very conservatively, simply making an attempt to get a deal with on the job mainly”, he confessed.

“It is an amazing race and an amazing membership and it is actually good to have this race right now of the yr”, Hine concluded, and whereas being modest continues to steer even in robust situations.

“We have had an fascinating day for the beginning of the race”, stated Mark Gallagher, Race Director.

“First off we had our Race Officer fall sick, so we needed to scramble for an additional Race Officer, and by chance Louise Davis, one among our Membership Race Officers was out there and he or she stepped as much as the plate at exceptionally brief discover”, he stated.

“We knew the situations had been going to be mild, however they had been lighter than anticipated”, he continued.

“We tried to get a begin away at 1100 on schedule, sadly within the final 30 seconds, the breeze dropped out fully, and it would not have been a good begin for opponents”.

“We hoisted the AP and waited and watched the climate in our neighborhood and to the North. It actually was not trying good. However simply earlier than 1400 which was going to be our cutoff time, the breeze kicked in, thank goodness! We had been capable of in a short time get a race away, at 1406, simply three hours delayed”.

The opponents on clearing Moreton Bay and the turning mark will then proceed north on the course to cross Woman Elliot and Woman Musgrave Islands, and onto the end line off Keppel Bay Marina.

Regardless of the delay, the primary finishers are anticipated late on Saturday 22 June with a change anticipated tonight to provide opponents a speedy run house to the end.