Fahrenheit running hot at Airlie Beach Race Week
Townsville-based marine biologist Andy Muirhead races his 24-year-old yacht Fahrenheit just once a year - in the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week off the Whitsunday Coast resort town of North Queensland.
'Wobbly Boot - Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week 2008 Day 2'
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Today he achieved his first-ever race win at the regatta with the Farr 11.6, taking out the Performance Racing division by a massive 12 minutes on corrected time.
'For the rest of the year, the boat is my home at Townsville,' said Muirhead, who works in marine science at the Australian Institute of Marine Science just out of Townsville.
'I take all my normal home-living gear off the boat, invite a few friends from all around Australia to join me - and away we sail south to Airlie Beach,' Muirhead said. 'This year I have my brother with me, along with friends from Darwin, Wagga Wagga and Adelaide in making up a crew of eight.
'Most are experienced sailors, including guys I used to sail with in a S80 in Darwin and others who sail a Melges 25.'
Muirhead said Fahrenheit had been built in 1984 and he had owned it for the past three years. 'It's an old hull, the boat has been around Townsville for years, but it has a modern keel and today's 15 knot south-easterly breeze suited us well on the race around the Molle Island,' he said.
'Mind you, it is a bit embarrassing to win by such a margin,' the Townsville Cruising Yacht Club member added rather apologetically.
Fahrenheit won the Performance Racing division today from another veteran boat, Reignition, Charles Wallis' MBD42 from Whitsunday Sailing Club, third place on corrected time going to the Mooloolaba yacht Cadi, John Netherton's Jones 42.
While Fahrenheit's winning margin was 12 minutes plus, the gap between second and third was a mere 23 seconds.
After two races in the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week Fahrenheit heads the points with 6 points from a 5th and 1st. In second place on 11 points is Another Fiasco, Damien Suckling's Jutson 43 from Abel Point Yacht Club with placings of 3rd and 8th. Also on 11 points is Esoteric, Colin Forster's Northshore 370S from the Whitsunday Sailing Club which has placed 4th and 7th.
Fourth, on 12 points, is first race winner Ian Short Sails, Mick Hinchey's Melges 32 from Lake Macquarie Yacht Club which today placed 11th.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the IRC fleet will contest two windward/leeward races while other divisions will sail passage races in the Whitsunday Islands Group.
by Peter Campbell 
Devonport, TAS
