Dart SB3 sports yachts used for QLD Match Racing
Sunshine Coast based Oceanburo Performance Sailing delivered an exciting new concept of highly competitive one-design yacht racing with their fleet of Dart SB3 sports yachts.
'Wot Chicks at the Audi SB3 Queensland Match Racing Championship, Photo: Wot Chicks media'
Wot Chicks ©
They staged a very successful Queensland Match Racing championship on the Mooloolaba Dinghy Sailing Club courses last weekend.
The professional management team headed by Audi Australian IRC champions Rod Jones and Kai Tim laid the foundation which provided all 14 teams representing New South Wales and Queensland clubs with an even chance to win the Audi championship trophy.
Every aspect of the event from the on water management to the fellowship sportsmanship and standard of racing suggests this event has the potential to become a major International regatta in the near future.
The exciting format of the Americas Cup type match racing where all crews had an even chance of winning presented a new challenge to Queensland's talented young sailors including Noosa's Australian champion Laser sailor Ryan Palk.
Ryan normally races single handed and he accepted that the series would be a steep learning curve.
However he and several other promising young Laser skippers including Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron's Curtiss Skinner showed they were not off the pace in an unfamiliar class.
Both skippers emerged from the series of physically tough and mentally demanding match racing happy with the knowledge they achieved in racing against experienced match racers.
'Personally I learnt a lot and it was a great experience for my crew' Ryan Palk said.
Curtiss Skinner was similarly impressed 'Match racing presents an exciting challenge and has enormous educational value for all who compete in this form of racing' he said.
They achieved encouraging results with the Ryan Palk skippered Team Tasqua Youth finishing seventh just ahead of the Curtiss Skinner helmed Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Youth team.
However both talented young skippers won the Silver and Bronze medals in the Queensland Youth championship, behind Sean O'Rourke who excelled in all points of tactically testing series steering Team Oceanburo to a perfect score to claim the Audi Queensland championship Open and Youth trophies.
Sean O'Rourke who graduated from Sabot class racing on the Mooloolah River as the Australian champion has continued to develop into one of Australia's most versatile young sailors.
Last year he was a key contributor to the success of the Rod Jones skippered Alegria when the crew won the prestigious Audi Australian IRC Class Ocean racing championship.
He will be back on deck when the Alegria crew chase back to back class wins in the Sydney to Gold Coast race next month before lining up to contest the Brisbane to Great Keppel Island race and the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in August.
Skipper Rod Jones and sailing master Kai Timm have jokingly accepted that Sean O'Rourke following his perfect score Queensland Match Racing success could force a crew change when the Archambault Alegria defends her Sydney to Gold Coast title.
'Sean (O'Rourke) has shown his class to maybe a threat to us 'older guys' but a crew change is unlikely' skipper Rod Jones said.
by Ian Grant 
sunrise beach, QLD
