August 29, 2010

In the closest ever finish in the four year history of the Audi IRC Australian Championship, Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki and Harvey Milne’s Aroona went-blow-for-blow in the fourth and final event at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week to decide the winner, and this afternoon, Ainsworth received Australia’s richest prize in sailing.
 
Representing the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney, Ainsworth, who launched his Reichel/Pugh 63 in December 2008, did not realise he had won the Championship until this afternoon, thinking his main foe Milne had beaten him to the punch after the results see-sawed between the two all week.
 
In the end, Loki won by a mere 0.31 of a point after finishing the four-event series on 13.21 points, with Aroona second on 13.52 and Peter Horn’s King 40, Canute, was third on 18.53 points. All three yachts come from NSW.
 
Ainsworth was understandably over the moon when Audi Australia’s Managing Director, Uwe Hagen, presented him with the keys to a brand new A5 Cabriolet 2.0 TFSI quattro S tronic valued at over $90,000 at Hamilton Island Yacht Club this afternoon. Loki‘s owner was also presented with the elegant Perpetual Trophy designed by John Woulfe.
 
 
“It was a battle to the end, but obviously the best boat and crew have been victorious,” Uwe Hagen said on handing Stephen Ainsworth the keys outside the Hamilton Island Yacht Club this afternoon.
 
“I’m speechless,“ Ainsworth said when told of his win. “I was sitting on my boat this afternoon thinking “I’ve lost the Audi; you’ve made my wife very happy, because I promised her the car if I won it – she’s been checking it out to see if the golf clubs will fit in the boot,“ he said.
 
Ainsworth confessed he had taken his wife Nanette and friends sailing in today’s final race, thinking he had just missed out on winning. “I even steered to give Gordon (Maguire) a break for the day – we just went out to have a bit of fun.“ Fortunately, that fun translated into a second place.
 
There was plenty of support at presentation for the well-liked yachtsman, including Hamilton Island owner Bob Oatley, and Hamilton Island Yacht Club commodore Iain Murray.

On being presented with the keys to his new car, Ainsworth said: “I go out to sail and to enjoy racing, because I love sailing – to win the Audi is a bonus. I thank my great crew – what a roller coaster ride this has been.“
 
Now in its fourth edition, the Audi IRC Championship starts with Audi Victoria Week in January, a mixture of offshore and bay racing. Round 2 is the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta in March, sailed inshore and offshore, followed by the 386 nautical mile Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race at the end of July and climaxing with Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, contested in the magical Whitsunday Islands, where over 200 entries enjoyed the full gamit of conditions over seven testing days of racing.
 
It takes everything one can muster to win yachting’s pre-eminent Championship, in which 144 boats took place this year, but to do so when your main rival is racing in another division (Loki in IRC Grand Prix and Aroona in IRC Passage 2, in which Canute also raced), demands a certain audaciousness.
 
Both boats crews’ also had to fight off advances from other Championship contenders from within their respective divisions, the Championship taken out of their control to a certain degree, leading to a rousing finale.
 
In the ring for the final round and punching above her weight was the Archambault 31 Aroona, her rival, the Reichel/Pugh 63 Loki, was at her best in the hands of Irish sailing boffin Gordon Maguire.
 
Loki settled in early, running away from main contender Living Doll, a Farr 55 owned by Michael Hiatt from Melbourne, reeling off two bullets in the opening races and continuing on for a runaway victory, but Aroona’s crusade went to the wire. Milne came into the final day locked on equal points with Local Hero from Sydney and finished second in division to her nemesis.
 
Harvey Milne gave himself the best chance of winning the Championship by contesting all four events, of which the three best results count in the final tally. However, he didn’t bargain with the power of Loki, which won its division in the latter three events.    
 
On winning Division 1 at the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta, Ainsworth said: “Absolutely I’ll be at the remaining regattas; I’d love to win an Audi and I’d really love to have my name on that Championship trophy.” Today he got his wish.
 
Such is the dedication of Ainsworth’s crew, under the watchful eye of Gordon Maguire, they were in a class of their own in the IRC Grand Prix division at Hamilton Island this week where Ainsworth pumped out five wins from nine races; their worst result a fourth place which was used as their drop. They are undisputedly, the best yacht and crew in Australia this year.
 
A new scoring system was put in place for the 2010 Audi IRC Australian Championship which has worked well. “The perception was it was easier for the smaller divisions to win, so we have a new formula to calculate the winners of each event this year,” Principle Race officer Denis Thompson said.
 
The fifth edition of the Audi IRC Australian Championship, endorsed by Yachting Australia, commences with the 2011 Audi Victoria Week starting January 20.
 
In a first for the Championship series, major sponsor, Audi, has partnered with ONE in 2010 and the highlights from each regatta will be shown nationally following each round of the series.

August 28, 2010

The closest divisional battle of the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week was within IRC Passage 2 where Harvey Milne’s Archambault 31 Aroona from Sydney and the Matthew Owen skippered BH36 Local Hero, racing with a majority ACT crew, fought tooth and nail for seven days over nine races to finish a point apart.
 
Owen clinched the series with today’s 17 second win over Aroona in the Lindeman Island Race, not a bad result for a bunch of dinghy sailors from Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin campaigning a 15 year old boat.
“Does it get any closer?” questioned Owen this afternoon. “We sailed the ultimate race today and we are really happy it all came together for us. We just hope we didn’t cost the Aroona boys an Audi.”
 
Owen is referring to the four-part Audi IRC Australian Championship which began in January and came down to a week-long tussle between Aroona and IRC Grand Prix division winner, Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki, the eventual Championship winner by 0.31 of a point.
 
“I’m very happy for Local Hero’s owner Peter Mosely who strangely I met in a bunker at Middle Head in Sydney while we were both watching our boats race in the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta,” said Milne today “We got him at that regatta and in the Southport race, and he has got us here.”
 
Neither both was ever out of the top three, Local Hero finishing on 8 points with four firsts, two seconds and a third place and Aroona scoring three firsts and four second places.
 
Overall winner of the IRC Passage 1 division, Ray Roberts’ chartered Farr 42 Evolution Racing, had the series wrapped up with a ribbon on top once the scores from the penultimate day’s islands race were tallied, but still sailed today, taking the accelerator off slightly to finish a relaxed fifth in the Lindeman Island Race.
 
“It’s been a fabulous week, the sailing has been terrific and so have the courses,” said Roberts. “Our consistency got us to the front of the pack, plus I had a great crew including Jamie MacPhail calling tactics, Tim Davis on trim, and father and son team of Richard and Farr 40 runner up at the recent worlds, Andy Hudson.”

Apart from adding to his already ample trophy collection thanks largely to his four wins from seven races plus other low scoring results, Roberts’ regatta highlight was when a big humpback whale leapt out of the water in Dent Passage right in front of his boat.  
 
Alejandro Perez Calzada’s stately Spanish S&S design Charisma, which is currently on a world cruise and comes complete with espresso machine – was deceivingly fast at Race Week and gave Evolution Racing a good run for their money to finish second on 19 points nine points behind Roberts.
Third was Peter Horn’s King designed Canute from Middle Harbour Yacht Club.
 
Ben McGrath’s Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Beneteau 40 Iago was the winning boat in Performance Racing division 1, narrowly out-sailing Terry Archer’s Bashford/Sydney 40 Questionable Logic by two points. Third was Rob Bassett/Brett Russell’s Bakewell White 52 Wired from New Zealand.
 
In Performance Racing division 2, Ian Ford’s chartered Beneteau 40.7 called whalewatchingsydney clinched the series from Matt Allen and Warwick Rooklyn’s Melges 24 called Bandit, also a CYCA registered boat.
 
“I’ve been sailing with the same crew for the past four years and we’ve been nudging at this result for a while. From my 23 Race Weeks this is definitely my best result as skipper,” said Ford.
 
“We come together once a year from Melbourne and Sydney, fly in on the Friday afternoon and go for an hour’s sail in case we’ve forgotten where things are before starting the regatta on the Saturday.”

August 28, 2010

The large contingent of cruising boats at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week once again provided the colour and spectacle, particularly in today’s Lindeman Island Race when 200 strong fleet split into their respective divisions and set off from the same extended starting line off Hamilton Island’s Catseye Bay.
 
Each division was called to the start line at five minute intervals by race officer Megan Kensington, leaving the fly boys of the IRC grand prix division until last to work their way along Pentecost Island and through the entire Race Week fleet.
 
The final kite run to the finish in Dent Passage was a blaze of colour with spinnakers filling the horizon with the two giant superyachts Perseus and Kokomo pressed up reaching in under the fleet with their acres of spinnaker stretched.
 
The mighty Condor, David Molloy’s charter maxi that has a long and colourful history in Australian ocean racing muscled its way through the Cruising division 1 fleet to finish top placed boat.
Molloy today paid tribute to two key crew members, Japanese sailmaker Seiichi Wosheikawa, who drove for most of the final Lindeman Island Race, and Peter Jervis, an air traffic controller from Sydney. Both have been Molloy’s guests for the past three years and “make the boat hum” said the winning skipper.
 
After running aground last year and finishing last, Molloy is delighted with Condor’s result this week. It was a narrow victory with Bill Hili’s Salona 44 C’est La Vie finishing just three points behind. Bruce Gray’s Inon was third.
 
Victorious in Cruising division 2 was Kym Clarke’s South Australian Beneteau Imagine, two points separating first and second placed Espilon, Annie McComb’s Cavalier 395 sailing for the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania. Third was Bo Wharton’s Mango Madness.
 
Jonathan Threlfall’s Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron Jeanneau Sunfast 36 Campeador won Cruising Division 3 on a countback, beating Peter Lewis’ Charlie’s Dream having put away enough early wins to counter their lacklustre result in today’s final Lindeman Island Race.
 
“We do a lot of sailing in Sydney Harbour which gets a little tedious, the allure of sailing around such beautiful islands and the warmer weather keeps bringing us back,” said Threlfall, who co-owns the boat with wife Mary. For this regatta he raced with a group of seven friends, with an average age of 60, rather than his regular Sydney crew.
 
Hoping “all this winning business might pay off”, Threlfall, who brings the boat up to Audi Hamilton Island Race Week on a threadbare budget, wanted to mention his sponsors Pengana Capital and Quantum Sails with a view to possibly garnering their support again.

August 27, 2010

For some grown men, today's Prix D ‘Elegance was the perfect opportunity to dress in tulle skirts and feather boas, for others it was a chance to make a political statement and for most it once again proved a highlight of the week when results are forgotten and crews can create an on-water spectacle minus the more serious side of racing at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.
 
Highlights of this year’s parade included the ACDC crew aboard the Cavalier 395 Epsilon with four Brian Johnson lookalikes and four crew dressed as guitarist Angus Young in schoolboy outfits, strumming guitars in synch and even doing the rock star cockroach on the cabin top.
 
The crew of superyacht Perseus opted for white togas while Chancellor’s crew went for the political angle, reversing backwards at pace with a crew of faceless men, paper bags on their heads, and a red headed woman on the bow simulating knifing a kneeling crewman in the back. 
 
There was plenty of bunting to colour Dent Passage, perfectly timed crew salutes for Condor and You’re Hired, pirates, Egyptians with their pyramids, men wearing plastic breasts, sailors dressed in full sized seahorse and cow costumes, bagpipe players, mermen and cavemen feeling the chill of wearing very little in the breeze that was a tad cool.
 
A good size crowd gathered along the yacht club terrace for the parade, cheering their favourites and showing their appreciation for the crews who went to the effort of coordinating and carrying costumes from interstate in order to participate in the annual spectacle.
 
The Prix D ‘Elegance took place as the fleet left the harbour for racing, yachts parading in front of the Hamilton Island Yacht Club where the judging panel was situated.

 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week saved the best for last with the sun lighting up the turquoise waters and the breezy trade winds bringing the fleet home from the Lindeman Island Race in super quick time to close the curtain on the 27th edition that attracted a strong fleet of 200 boats.

Sailing superstar Jessica Watson was yesterday racing a 6.1m SB3 sports boat, today she was in another realm, joining the crew of four-time Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours winner Wild Oats XI for the superyacht race, and taking a couple of turns at the helm of the 30.48m supermaxi in the consistent 14 knot SE breeze.

“It’s the biggest boat I’ve ever helmed,” said Watson. “We were doing 17 knots down the passage, steering it was effortless. They are a great bunch of guys and it was good to meet the navigator Adrienne Cahalan whose career I have followed.”

Balmy temperatures and lightish breezes at the beginning the week-long regatta which began last Saturday allowed the 2,000 or so competitors an easy-going series start before Thursday’s fresher SE change injected plenty of adrenalin into the business end of proceedings.

With the IRC Grand Prix division already in the bag, the troops were at ease aboard Stephen’s Ainsworth’s Reichel Pugh 63 Loki for today’s 23.5 nautical mile Lindeman Island Race – and they still managed to finish second. The form crew have spent the week scrambling from side to side and hiking out with heads down, backs flat and fingers almost touching toes. In contrast, today they stayed out of trouble at the start, had their eyes up enjoying the scenery and were carrying the extra weight of fenders and crew bags.

Anthony ‘Youngster’ Merrington, tactician aboard Loki and younger brother of America’s Cup sailor Peter Merrington, has been sailing on the 63 footer for the past 12 months. He says crew harmony and a number of minor modifications to make the boat more powerful upwind have worked wonders.

“The crew is more confident because the boat is performing well. There’s a good vibe, everyone’s happy and the boat’s a pleasure to sail.”

While the two RP66s, Black Jack and Wild Oats X, match raced each other around the racetrack and the 50 footers did the same, Loki wasn’t bothered by anything in its size range.

“We could sail our own race in free air and put ourselves in between the 50 footers and the 66s. When we are getting dirt off the 66s, we know we are doing well,” Merrington added.

Loki finished the series on 13 points, including an extraordinary five wins from nine races, with the nearest boat, Jim Farmer’s modified New Zealand TP52 Georgia second with 28 points and Wild Oats X third with 31 points.

It’s likely that Loki is the only boat to have ever won the feeder Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race and Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in the same year.

The next big trophy on Ainsworth’s radar is an overall win this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. “This result is a big confidence booster, we are certainly on the right track,” admitted the owner/skipper as he looks forward to the blue water classic at the end of the year.

After a poor start Georgia opted for the wild card, the western side of Pentecost, and stayed out wide for the run home. They rallied to place fourth in today’s Lindeman Island Race and seal second on the overall IRC Grand Prix series pointscore, a satisfying result for Farmer’s first outing with this boat at Race Week.

The Iain Murray skippered and Bob Oatley owned Wild Oats X finished third on the pointscore after nine races.

In the biennial South Pacific Cup, the two-boat New Zealand team of Georgia and Rob Bassett and Brett Russell’s Bakewell White 52 took the trophy off the Australia team of Rob Hanna’s Victorian TP52 Shogun and Bruce Absolon’s V60 Nikon Spirit of the Maid, making the score apiece for the Aussies and the Kiwis. The final score was New Zealand 20 points, Australia 28 points.

Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson is a happy man this afternoon, delighted with the variety of conditions and the on-water behaviour. “There was a great energy this year, a real buzz amongst the fleet, particularly when the wind came in.

“My team of 28 race management officials did a fantastic job, they worked hard to make sure the competitors had a great time on the water,” said Thompson.

Tonight crews will gather at the Island’s convention centre for the sold-out end of series trophy presentation and announcement of the 2010 Audi IRC Australian Champion and the winner of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week before a mass exodus of boats and long wait until they can do it all again next year.

 Stephen Ainsworth’s Reichel Pugh 63, Loki, has strengthened its grip on the IRC Grand Prix division with a handicap win and a third in today’s two windward/leeward races on the eastern course area on the penultimate day of racing at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

The Sydney boat has hit its strides this year, winning the Audi Middle Harbour Regatta and Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, and is now in pole position for tomorrow’s Lindeman Island which is due to start from the eastern starting line with the cruising fleets first away from 9am.

Ainsworth has finished bridesmaid at Race Week with his previous Loki, the 60 footer which broke its keel and was abandoned during the 2007 Rolex Middle Sea Race, and is now poised to take out the Grand Prix series, currently on 11 points with Michael Hiatt’s Victorian Farr 55 Living Doll trailing a distant 12 points behind.

Jim Farmer’s modified New Zealand TP52, Georgia, helmed by Farmer and Chris Meads with Chris Dickson calling tactics, has been steadily moving up the results sheet and today collected first place in race 8, beating Peter Harburg’s RP66 Black Jack on handicap with Loki third.

Farmer, who competes all over the world, believes Race Week in its entirety – including the race management, organisation, the social program and the opportunity to race around the Whitsunday Island - is the best regatta on the circuit. Once Race Week is done and dusted Farmer plans to leave the NZ IRC Champion in Australia for the next 12 months with the Rolex Trophy and Audi Victoria Week already pencilled on the calendar.

Line honours in today’s two windward/leeward races went to Lahana and Peter Harburg’s Black Jack.

There was less spray over the decks in the lighter conditions, which averaged 12 knots out of the south east, but crews still donned wet weather gear to ward against the cooler temperatures.

The Passage Division 2 overall win is at Ray Roberts’ fingertips, the seasoned yachtsman’s three wins, two seconds and a third putting the chartered Farr 42 Evolution Racing in pole position going into tomorrow.

On the eve of the closing race, the New Zealand South Pacific Cup team of Georgia and Wired hold a two point advantage over the Australian team of Shogun and Nikon Spirit of the Maid.

The four-part Audi IRC Australian Championship, which began with Audi Victoria Week back in January, will be decided and the 2010 IRC champion announced once the results of tomorrow’s final race are determined and the pointscore tallied.

Including today’s race, Harvey Milne’s Archambault 31 Aroona has extended its lead over Loki, currently leading with 9.57 points against Loki’s 13.38 points.

Results in tomorrow’s 23 nautical mile Lindeman Island race will be crucial for the divisions where the leading contenders are separated by the smallest of margins.

 Larrikin Greg Fietz, a spray painter and panel beater from Mt Isa, his older brother and a couple of close mates who all grew up together in the Queensland mining town and had never sailed before have become minor celebrities at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

In the sailing world Fietz has risen from obscurity to the point where he’s high fiving Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards in the street. He’s offered himself to ‘Ricko’ as crew on the 100 footer for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart and last night had his photo taken with Dannii Minogue, partner Kris Smith and baby Ethan at the Henri Lloyd fashion parade, immediately sending the image to his disbelieving wife.

“It’s a week never to forget, where we come from you don’t see anything like this,” said Fietz, the self appointed Commodore of the newly founded Mt Isa Cruising Yacht Club, the landlocked club with no clubhouse, Constitution, water or boats, which currently boasts a membership of three.

Mt Isa is more than six hundred kilometres from the nearest ocean but yet Fietz had heard so much about Race Week that last November he decided it was time for a change from the bush so rang Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson who encouraged the group to make the trek to the coast, sure that rides could be found.

David Molloy, owner of the Queensland 83 foot charter boat Condor, a two-time Sydney Hobart line honours winner, spoke to his guests who kindly agreed to take the four extras.

Four turned to three when Rifet Turcinovic, who grew up in Mt Isa, dislocated his wrist in a shore side incident following Sunday’s second in Cruising division 1 result and was taken to Mackay Hospital for medical treatment.

With an important morning game of golf booked at the Dent Island Golf Course on Tuesday’s layday, Fietz acted quickly once he received the call from Turcinovic on his hospital release. A helicopter was chartered and landed on Dent Island where an Audi was dispatched to take the one-armed player in a cast to his starting tee.

“I had a couple of shots and drove the buggy, I was really there for support,” Turcinovic said.

The biggest issue for the boys in the lead up to Audi Hamilton Island Race Week was what to wear. There were many phone calls to Thompson and promotions manager Rob Mundle who talked them through a typical yachties list of what to pack.

“We didn’t know what to pack other than socks and jocks; we were like a bunch of kids ringing each other all the time, then I’d have to ring Rob to check what he thought,” said Fietz.

The Mt Isa boys - as they have become known - of Fietz, his older brother Graham, Turcinovic and Dave Rutherford, have been interviewed on Race Week Radio, spoken about in the media, had a jingle written about them, and of course Fietz has holiday snaps of himself and Dannii Minogue plus the rest of the Henri Lloyd models.

Not really a shy bloke, Fietz explains why, “In Mt Isa the ratio of men to women is seven to one so to land a good one you have to stand out”.

 If you were mixing the perfect sailing cocktail it would be made up of one part 15 knot trade winds, one part sunny skies and a temperature of 24 degrees and one part frolicking humpback whales with the main ingredient 200 boats racing on turquoise waters with the stunning Whitsunday Islands their backdrop.

Following a postponement ashore this morning while the breeze settled, that exact recipe was what was served up at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week for day four of racing, the best sailing conditions so far. With the promise of a 20-25 knot south east change tomorrow the grins are this afternoon even wider on the sun-tinged faces of the two thousand odd sailors contesting the 27th edition of Australia’s premier keelboat regatta.

The huge fleet was split up today with the race committee, under the leadership of Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson, running a number of different start areas and courses.

For the first time at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week the SB3 class took to the waters, their designated course area to the north of Plum Pudding Island, and with a couple of sailing celebrities in their midst. Round the world sailor Jessica Watson was on the bow of Lumix and the CEO of Hamilton Island, Glenn Bourke, a multiple world champion, Olympic and America’s Cup sailor stepped off the 30 metre Wild Oats XI to skipper Rod Jones’ 6.1m SB3, Club Marine Blue.

The Superyachts took a day off racing today, creating an opportunity for the SB3 class to benefit from Bourke’s considerable expertise in one design racing, and with three wins from three races he hasn’t lost his touch. Being the gentleman he is, Bourke subsequently retired from all three races putting Phillip Gray’s Dulon Polish into first place on the SB3’s progressive pointscore.

Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki sailed another impeccable race, the 24 nautical mile course taking the Grand Prix fleet around Baynham and Pentecost islands, to maintain their leading edge in the series pointscore seven points clear of the nearest threat, the Iain Murray skippered RP66 Wild Oats X owned by Bob Oatley.

With round the world sailor Anthony ‘Youngster’ Merrington calling tactics, respected Irish born Gordon Maguire on the helm, and a crew that has a champion’s aura, Loki is making a big imprint on the Race Week scoresheet, clocking up four overall wins and a fourth, their worst result.

Peter Millard’s 98-footer Lahana from Sydney is leading the IRC Grand Prix ‘gun boat’ for the most number of line honours scalps from five races.

The Performance Racing fleet had their first windward/leeward races today on the eastern course area to the south of Fitzalan Passage in the 12-15 knot south east breeze and bumpy seas. Points are tight at the top of the division two results with just two points separating the first four places, led by Ian Ford’s Beneteau 40.7 Whalewatchingsydney, and a similar situation in division one.

Racing in Performance Racing is immediate past CYCA Commodore Matt Allen and Warwick Rooklyn’s Melges 24 Bandit, and the three Sydney black 32s – Hamilton Mentor, Lincoln Mentor and Ocean Mentor - donated by local resident Peter Teakle to Port Lincoln Yacht Club, Southport Yacht Club and Hamilton Island Yacht Club to foster youth sailing at those clubs.

With today’s results factored in, Harvey Milne’s Archambault 31 Aroona has reclaimed the In the Audi IRC Australian Championship lead from Loki, out in front on 9.99 points, Loki on 13.21 points and Peter Horn’s King 40 Canute on 21.75 points including one drop for each.

Crews only have one more day to prepare their boats and outfits for the Prix D ‘Elegance which will take place this Friday between 9am and 10am as the fleet leaves the harbour for racing. Prizes will be awarded in two categories:

The Best Presented Yacht and Crew (yacht in first-class trim, and matching crew uniforms)
The Best Fun-Themed Yacht and Crew (let your imagination run wild)

 Living on a boat does come with advantages for midwife and emergency nurse Annie McComb. It means she can take three months to cruise her ‘home’ leisurely north from Hobart to contest Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, and when she’s asked to join an overseas medical program she can simply dry dock her Cavalier 395 Epsilon.

McComb sold her house and bought Epsilon from Richard Buxton after joining the Perth to Melbourne legs of Buxton’s Australian circumnavigation aboard the Cavalier design in 2000 which took the route Matthew Flinders took 200 years earlier on his discovery of the Australian coastline.

Named after the smallest star in the Southern Cross constellation, Epsilon is a beautifully appointed boat that is registered to the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in Hobart, where McComb headed to live and cruise the stunning Tasmanian waterways.

To contest her sixth Race Week, McComb left Hobart in May with just one other crewmember and crossed Bass Straight with her leg in a cast boot having broken it three days before setting off. For the leg from Sydney to Coffs Harbour she sailed solo

Epsilon is being helmed this week by Hobart 420 sailor William Reynolds and is making its mark in the cruising division 2 results at Race Week, currently fourth on the pointscore after four races. The majority Tasmanian crew were leading their division until today and will now have to come from behind to regain the lead and put them in the running for the Audi A5 Sportback, the major prize at the end of Race Week for the divisional winner who scored the best results at the Audi Drive Challenge on the Tuesday layday.

McComb is currently working on the customs ship Triton as a paramedic looking after the health of the crew and those refugees who are intercepted and taken to Christmas Island. Last year she spent six months in Afghanistan assisting with medical emergencies as part of the United Nations Development Program. She’s also worked in a Saudi Arabian military hospital and in Abu Dhabi as a midwife.

McComb’s father taught her to sail an NS14 on Blowering Dam near the Snowy Mountains in NSW when she was 12. It wasn’t until she was 30 that McComb returned to sailing, buying her first boat, a Van der Stat 30. After three years she was ready to upgrade to a bigger cruising boat with Epsilon her boat of choice having clocked up many miles on the boat during Buxton’s circumnavigation.

In 2000, Richard Buxton circumnavigated and photographed Tasmania by sea, resulting in the accumulation of many short stories. Wanting to make a difference in the area of mental health research, it occurred to Richard when editing the 2500 photos he took that his stories could be compiled into a fundraising book. Needing an angle to the story, in 2002-2003 Richard circumnavigated Australia by air to photograph the coastline on the "Flight for Understanding" and begun production of an historical and photographic book titled, "If Matthew Flinders had Wings".

After experiencing the devastating impact of Alzheimer’s through his work in aged care as well as his own mother’s dementia, Buxton was deeply moved and decided to do something positive. He established the Epsilon Research Fund and uses sales of his book to raise money and awareness. Next project on the cards for the Fund is the Rolex Sydney Hobart this coming December then a decade-long world cruise starting in 2012.

There are four Tasmanian boats amongst the fleet of 200 contesting the 27th edition of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week including Mike Wearne’s Lorna Rose Too, Stephen Keal’s Cyclone, Epsilon and Robbie Vaughan’s Muir 64 Van Diemen III.

Further information on the Epsilon Research Fund at www.epsilonresearch.com.au/