Cool Trade Winds - hot racing
'Don Algie's Storm 2'
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The waters of the warm Whitsunday Passage promise to become another scene of spectacular sailing when the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week fleet compete for important championship points over the Whitsunday Sailing Club courses later today.
Winds were a little unstable over night as another cool air flow twisted the breeze back to an unpredictable South Westerly earlier this morning, however there is a strong chance that a more reliable 15 knot South East trade wind will blow in by start time this morning.
One skipper who will be encouraged with the possible forecast is the regatta founder Don Algie who has helmed his magnificent sloop Storm 2 into a four point lead in the Cruising with Spinnaker class championship.
More importantly the Storm 2 crew are in a strong position to win a special trophy as the best performed local yacht in the highly competitive regatta which has attracted entries from New Zealand and Australia's major clubs. Storm 2 as her name suggests likes some furious 'grunt' in the breeze and always records her best results when the leeward rail is awash.
As expected principal skipper Don Algie and his twin brother Bob who had spent a stint in the driver's seat were happy with their third place in yesterdays 22 n/ml Molle Islands Passage race when they charged to another comfortable line honours win completing the course in 2 hours 45 minutes 59 seconds.
However their 18 minute 13 second margin over the Gary Anderson skippered Sandringham Yacht Club sloop Esprit was not quite fast enough for Storm 2 to outpace her 1.235 handicap correction factor.
John Clinton's Holy Cow was the first to spoil the post race party on the deck of Storm 2 when they completed the course with 3-24-08 corrected time which ultimately allowed the fun loving crew to give a blast of the Cow Horn when the returned to the Meridien Marina Abel Point and a dockside celebration.
Regatta handicapper Colin Pruden proved to have a good understanding of the speed potential of the class with Holy Cow .978 finishing 24 seconds ahead of Sarabande (Basil Diethelm) .951 with Storm 2 another 27 seconds away.
In other classes Michael Hiatt's Cookson 50 leads IRC Div 1; the 2007 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week IRC champion Arajilla (Geoff Pearson) leads IRC Div 2. Townsville skipper Andy Muirhead heads the Performance Handicap class with Fahrenheit with the Sunshine Coast Ocean Buro Youth squad skippered by Matthew Jones leads the SB3 Dart class.
by Ian Grant 
nedlands, WA
