Whitsunday SC skipper's Sydney Hobart ambition

11:51 PM Mon 3 Nov 2008 GMT
Whitsunday Sailing Club skipper Leo Rodregius has set his career ambition on gaining a top ten line honours finish in the 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race starting on Boxing Day.

Rodregius will be the sailing master on the 11 year old Volvo Globe Race sloop Telcoininabox Merit in the physically tough 630 n/ml blue water classic which has attracted another high standard fleet including Bob Oatley's defending line honours champion Wild Oats XI which will race under the Hamilton Island sponsorship.

The older Telcoininabox Merit has a proven record as a sprint machine in fresh spinnaker sailing winds and her skipper and crew will be hoping for strong North Easterly winds when they track their course across the storm tormented Tasman Sea.

All of her crew are experienced marine career professionals having logged numerous miles within the Whitsunday Charter Fleet.

They collectively showed their class in a moderate South East breeze to win the line and handicap double in the final race of the Whitsunday Escape Trophy on the warm waters of Pioneer Bay last week.

But the Rolex Sydney Hobart will present the crew with a test of character particularly if a strong Southerly 'Buster' roars in from the Great Southern Ocean.

The 'Brute Southerly wind' has a clearly defined habit of sorting the best from the rest and the Whitsunday sailors will need to pack their sea-bags with several changes of winter woollies just in case because Old Huey (the sailors wind god) will not guarantee the warm water racing crew with an arm chair ride to Hobart.

However skipper Leo Rodregius and crew have continued to improve their understanding as expressed with their runaway result last week.
Merit was given a huge task to outpace her high .930 handicap correction factor but it soon became evident that the power sailing Volvo 60 was at home in the prevailing winds leaving her smaller rivals to stage their own private race for the minor places.

Skipper Leo Rodregius held control of the line honours result when Telcoininabox Merit produced unmatched speed to extend her lead and win the race against the handicapper's clock when she completed the course with 6 minute 24 second win over Treasure Vlll (Harold Menelaus).

This margin progressively allowed the veteran of the World's toughest race to officially register her first line and handicap double on Pioneer Bay.

However while this performance was a convincing result for the Merit crew Craig Piccinelli's Wobbly Boot again proved to be the more consistent performer of the five race series to decide the 2008 Whitsunday Escape trophy champion.

Wobbly Boot with 24 points secured her narrow win over the improving Idle Time (Kevin Fogarty) 24.5pts and the Jeff Brown skippered 007 on 25 points.

The result has allowed the Wobbly Boot crew to retain control of the short course Club championship and their overall consistency in the complete range of winds suggests her popular skipper will need to add a trophy room to his home which overlooks his favoured course of Pioneer Bay.

by Ian Grant

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Whitsunday SC skipper's Sydney Hobart ambition

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