Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week - The Sails Evolution

11:31 PM Thu 13 Aug 2009 GMT

'Steve McConaghy - tactician on Evolution Racing, will have his work cut out today.' Click Here to view large photo

Ray Roberts has campaigned Quantum Racing very successfully over recent seasons. There is a change of name to Evolution Racing, but the boat and crew will be as hard to beat as ever.

Roberts commented dockside 'Conditions are going to be tough over the next few days in this regatta - Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week. For Evolution Racing, which is a canting keel Cookson 50, we will do best in more pressure, we need around 12 knots to really make gains from the keel. So we expect to do it tough for a little while.

'However we are a well oiled machine. We have Steve McConaghy doing tactics as usual and we have two America's Cup racers Ed Smyth and Dan Slater, who will add extra strength.

'This is a very good fleet. Michael Hiatt's Farr 55 is a great boat and the new Scarlet Runner, the Reichel Pugh 52, already has shown she is going to be tough to beat. Robert Hanna's Shogun, the old Living Doll the Cookson 50 now with fixed keel, has had good IRC performance gains, she is very competitive particularly in light airs.

'This regatta is going to be about who sails the smartest, across the whole week in all kinds of conditions. Today it will be like sailing at the Phuket Kings Cup. Light and shifty and that always brings out the very best in Steve, so we will see how we go.'

And the name change? Roberts explained. 'All the Australian Quantum lofts and the New Zealand loft and my Singapore loft and a couple in the USA have switched to Evolution Sails.

'I've had a good relationship with Quantum Sails over the years, but we've chosen to go in this new direction with the new technology. Above all it's about the new US membrane technology.

'Today on Evolution Racing we have a brand new square top Evolution sail. The sails are certainly impressive and we expect to see this new technology spread throughout the Asia-Pacific fleet.'

by Brendan Maxwell