Strongest IRC Fleet Ever to Tackle Audi Victoria Week

Audi Centre Victoria leads the fleet on Corio Bay last January. Image copyright Andrea Francolini.

by Di Pearson

The strongest IRC grand prix fleet seen anywhere in world since for some time will venture into Victorian waters to take part in the annual Audi Victoria Week, to be held from January 21 and finishing on Australia Day, January 26.

According to Melbourne yacht owner Chris Dare, skipper of the Corby 49 designed Audi Centre Melbourne, “There has no better 40 to 50ft IRC Grand Prix fleet racing anywhere in the world for some years. At Audi Victoria Week you’ll have to be at the top of your game every day if you have designs on winning.”

Dare, who includes himself in that statement, is right and other competitors agree. “The competition’s always been good before, but it’s been more scattered. This time, the best boat in the 50ft plus range will be there,” says South Australian yachtsman Geoff Boettcher who is bringing his new Reichel/Pugh 51 to Victoria.

“It will be full on and the most competitive fleet I’ve ever sailed in – and I love that – because we haven’t been tested at a regatta yet, but we sure will be at Audi Victoria Week. It will be our first opportunity to see where we really lie in the scheme of things,” Boettcher conceded before adding: “it’s a great equal group.”

These top grand prix yachts will race in Division 1 of the six-race Audi Series, all taking their chances at winning the first round of the Audi IRC Australian Championship and in the long term, the Championship itself.

The Series starts on January 23, with the 34.3 nautical mile Passage Race from Melbourne to Geelong, where racing, hosted by the Royal Geelong Yacht Club, continues on Corio over the next three days on windward/leeward courses. “I hope it’s light in the morning with the breeze whipping up in the afternoon as it usually does on Corio Bay,” says Chris Dare who, like most others, feels Corio Bay delivers a good balance of sailing conditions.

Coming fresh off the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, some of the competition Dare and Boettcher refer to are the TP 52 contenders, Bob Steel’s Quest (NSW) and Victorians; Rob Hanna’s Shogun (winner of the First Yacht Under 15 18.5m across the Sydney Hobart finish line), Calm (Jason VanderSlot/John Williams/Graeme Ainley) and Alan Whiteley’s Cougar. Scarlet Runner, Rob Date’s new Reichel/Pugh 52 which broke the Cock of the Bay record in December, rounds of a strong Victorian challenge.

The biggest threat to all of them is Michael Hiatt’s Farr 55, Living Doll, also from Melbourne. “Michael’s definitely got the size advantage and the points on the board, he’ll start favourite,” says Dare adding, “Whoever wins will have to be consistent. You don’t necessarily have to win a race, but if you are in top three, one fifth place and you’ll be out the back door.”

Dare delivers a warning too: “The Sydney boats won’t have it all their way this time; they’ll have to get used to the fact that Melbourne has built a strong IRC Grand Prix group of yachts that races against each other every week. It won’t be like previous years, because racing has got tighter in Melbourne and a one minute handicap will win or lose you five places.

Racing will be tight, very different from anything any of us has raced at in the last year; there will be some interesting and excellent racing,” Dare predicted.

Adding to an already top-class fleet is the Rolex Sydney Hobart overall winner, Andrew Saies' Two True from South Australia, new Beneteau First 40, which will head up Division 2. He is an Audi Victoria Race Week regular with his former Beneteau True Blue who has notched up divisional placings over the years.

Saies was looking forward to trading blows with Wicked, a second new Beneteau First 40 owned by Victorian Mark Welsh. However, Wicked lost her mast returning home from Hobart to Melbourne and won’t have her new rig in time.

“I wasn’t aboard, but the guys fell off a big wave in 30 knots around 11.30 at night and when the hit the bottom the mast was no longer in the boat,” Welsh explained.

“The mast broke at the first and second set of spreaders; it was a bit of a mess and the guys had to cut it away. We won’t get our new mast from France in time to compete at Audi Victoria Week and I’m very sorry for that,” said Welsh, who like his friend Saies, is a regular who has won many divisional prizes with his former yacht Alien.

However, Saies will be able to butt bows with the likes of Alan Woodward’s Beneteau First 45, Reverie (Vic), which finished second last year and Peter Coleman’s Victorian fourth place getter, Just a Minor Hickup, a Hick 39, among others.

The Audi IRC Series is just one of 19 classes and divisions racing at Audi Victoria Week in 2010, which includes two Australian Championship events.

Audi Victoria Week