Saturday morning was hot and humid at Southport Marina and it was a releif to be motoring out to the start off the Seaway.

101 boats entered  for inshore and offshore event from the Gold Coast to Sandgate.

10 am 5 knots of wind from the north for the start with 30 offshore monos and 5 Multihulls who drifted over the start line fortunately with the tide in our favour. A little bit of confusion between the two “Not a Diamonds”  as one of them was over the line but which one. It turned out to be Brady and the youth Squd on the Not a Diamond 40.

The wind moved around to the east a little and built to a steady 8 to 10 knots and after about an hour the front runners settled into their positions which remained for much of the remainder of the race with the David Redfern’s new” Not a Diamond” in front followed by Ocean Affinity, Aurics Quest and Kerisma.

For us the battle between ourselves B52 and the First 45 Banter for 5th placing was to dominate the remainder of the race.

“Keep close to North Straddy they said, stay out of the southerly tide” and we did with 37 tacks to Point Lookout but it payed off and we passed Banter and were close to B52 and Kerisma as we went in close to the shore rocks at the headland.

Going up Moreton Island the wind increased to 17 knots from the north by the time we went around the top. We elected to ease sheets and stay inshore of Kerisma and B52 which seemed to pay off as we were up with them but about a mile inshore  expecting to get the usual lift up the beach which did not come resulting in the need for a tack to clear Cape Moreton which allowed them to lead us by about 10 minutes.(Bugger!!)

From Cape Moreton to NE2 was a great two sail reach in 15 to 17 knots of wind. We had planned to use our jib top for this leg but the wind had clocked around a bit to the west and we were powed up enough doing 9’s and 10’s in a beautiful “Barmy” night with the smell of hot food wafting out of the cabin.

Around NE2 (Thought I saw some paint them B52 on it ??) the entrance to the North East Channel and up Kite and tide with us gybing our way up towards Tangalooma then to our surprise B52 appeared about a boat length in front of us ( Think they were running in stealth mode) and was the Kerisma’s stern light about half a mile away?

Half way accross the bay the wind died and went to the west – Down kite and up “Jib Top” but for some reason we could not get it up so back to jib. By the time we sorted ourselves out B52 had passed us (Skipper not happy)

Then the breeze came back from the north at 7.5 knots. The only sail packed was our brand new A4 from Hood ‘s. Up it went and off we went doing 8 knots in 7.5 knots of wind. (Skipper now happy) It did not take long to reel in B52 and we finally beat them in by 5 mins with Kerisma 9 min in front of us. Our elapsed time being 14 H 22 Min 19 Sec’s

Overall result: For some reason we were in Div 2 for IRC which we won and Dv 1 for H/cap for which we came 2nd. If we look at the overall results David Redfern’s new “Not a Diamond” had the double with wins in IRC and H/Cap  with ourselves second in both.

Not a Diamond was approx 2 hours in front of Ragtime with Ocean Affinity about an Hour behind them and Aurics Quest 48 min behind Ocean Affinity  then Kerisma. Ragtime, B52 and Banter. The rest too far back to see their lights !!

Thanks to my crew who put up with their “cranky old skipper”

Chris Morgan

RAGTIME a J130