Shelly focuses on different classroom 

  Yeppoon schoolgirl Shelly White will place her end of year exam studies on hold as she prepares to represent Australia in the World Optimist sailing championship in Turkey this month. Shelly demonstrated her determination and tactical dinghy sailing skill to win the Australian title against a male dominated fleet in January. 
  Her outstanding potential has also been recognised with selection in the Audi Centre Sunshine Coast SB3 team who contested the Queensland Match Racing championship off Mooloolaba last month. 
  A top performance in this series could lead to Shelly packing her sail bag and representing Australia at the SB3 World championship in Portugal before she prepares to contest the Australian Sabot championship over the Whitsunday Sailing Club courses on Pioneer Bay during Christmas-New Year. 

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Volvo Globe challenger 

  Sunshine Coast Ocean racing sailor Casey Smith will have fond memories of the warm waters of home when he sails nonstop around the world in the 2008-9 Volvo Globe challenge. 
  Smith, 29, has been selected as a key crew member with the Puma syndicate which also includes multiple World 505 and 18ft skiff champion Chris Nicholson from Lake Macquarie. Both are exceptionally experienced sailors and are noted for their versatility to confidently handle all roles from sail changing to helming. 
  Nicholson has previous experience in the 37,000 nautical mile Volvo race, while Casey Smith will face the personal torment of being physically and mentally prepared for his first serious deep sea battle against gale force winds and growling white crested waves. 
  However, Smith has served his apprenticeship having competed in several Sydney-Hobart classics on Brindabella and Skandia Wild Thing before heading overseas to gain further experience with the Pegasus racing team funded by American billionaire Philippe Kahn. 
  His new career challenge will be both exciting and dangerous, particularly sailing along the latitudes of the freezing Southern Ocean ice flow in winds which Globe sailing marathoners call the screeching sixties. 

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The Cock of Pioneer Bay 

  Craig Piccinelli’s 9m Jim Young designed sloop Wobbly Boot added further claim to winning ‘The Cock of Pioneer Bay’ club championship when she claimed another major trophy over the Whitsunday Sailing Club course in June. 
  Wobbly Boot defied the erratic meaning of her name when her skipper and crew again proved their consistency in a mixed range of wind and sea conditions to win the Abel Point Yacht Sales trophy on a countback over the improving Kevin Fogarty helmed Idle Time. 
  Skipper Craig Piccinelli and the Wobbly Boot crew were continually forced to play catch-up when the Damien Suckling skippered 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Performance handicap champion Another Fiasco held the upper hand to break away from the fleet, leaving Wobbly Boot and Idle Time to continually revise their tactical strategy to keep their trophy-winning chances alive. 
  As expected skipper Damien Suckling who had clearly shown with their win in Heat 3 that it was possible for Another Fiasco to outpace her .899 handicap rating and this again became a possibility when they produced unmatched speed in the ideal moderate trade winds to clearly dominate the race for line honours. 
  Another Fiasco appeared to be in good shape at the half way mark leading the Harold Menelaus skippered Treasure VIII and John Galloway’s Queensland Marine Services. 
  But the race for the more important trophy-deciding points on handicap was being controlled by the lower handicapped Turtle Time (Jason Randell), Alan Sneddon’s Pacific Phoenix, Idle Time and Wobbly Boot. 
  Both Turtle Time and Pacific Phoenix could not win the series but their race results played the major role which ultimately allowed Wobbly Boot to become the champion in the 2008 Abel Point Yacht Sales series when Turtle Time and Pacific Phoenix recorded their best results to finish with the major places forcing third-placed Idle Time to miss an outright win over Wobbly Boot by the narrow margin of 36 seconds. 

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Match Race for Meridien Marinas Trophy 

  Another chapter will be written into the exciting history of Trans-Tasman sporting rivalry when the Whitsunday Sailing Club hosts the 2008 Meridien Marinas Race Week regatta from August 14-21. 
  Champion New Zealand yachtsman Anotole Masfen is returning to contest the popular International regatta with the Mick Cookson designed Pussy Galore for a boat-on-boat match race against former Airlie Beach Race Week IRC champion Ray Roberts helming the 2008 Brisbane to Gladstone champion Quantum Racing. 
  Both yachts are identically designed sister-sloops to the Irish yacht Chieftain which convincingly outclassed a strong fleet to win the physically demanding Fastnet Race in the storm tormented North Sea. 
  The Quantum Racing crew had the edge over the Pussy Galore combination when they won the 2006 title off Airlie Beach, however, recent news from across the Tasman suggests skipper Ray Roberts and his World 11 metre championship winning tactician Steve McConaghy will need to bring their best tactical racing strategy to Airlie Beach later this year. 
  Sure, the Kiwi crew are confident but that is their nature when they enter into a sporting contest under the proud history of their national flag. 
  They will again prove to be a formidable representative when the battle lines are drawn for the 2008 title series on the warm tropical water of the Whitsunday Passage. 
  The winter racing environment will understandably be warm and pleasant but the Pussy Galore crew can expect the usual cool reception when they line up against a very competitive fleet of Australian ocean racing crews headed by their match racing rival Quantum Racing. 
  This New Zealand versus Australia clash promises to be a highlight in the duel to win the prestigious IRC championship trophy but the Pussy Galore and Quantum Racing crews will have to produce a high level of consistent all angle boat speed for the canting-keel Cookson 50s to dominate against a very competitive fleet. 
  Talented Victorian skipper Chris Dare has entered his recently launched Corby 49 Flirt while Sydney helmsman Bernie Vanthof compliments what promises to be a very interesting series with the entry of his classic Swan 45 Tulip. 
  The standard of the early entries representing New Zealand, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland suggest the popular Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week will create another multi-million dollar cash flow when an expected fleet of 80 yachts along with their crews and supporters duel for the honour of winning the 2008 class championship trophies. 

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Cavill’s Jenny rules the river 

  Peter Cavill’s immaculately prepared Jenny IV claimed an exciting nip-n-tuck win over her New South Wales rivals to claim the 18ft Historical skiffs Australian championship and the prestigious Aberdare trophy on the Brisbane River over the Anzac Day weekend. 
  Jenny IV a replica of the Norman Wright Jnr skippered 1951-2 Australian champion scraped home in the series of races described by Queensland ‘Old Salts’ to be among the most exciting ever staged in the history of skiff racing on the Brisbane River. 
  Racing was exceptionally close with veteran starter Jack Grant almost needing to use a photo-finish camera to determine the results. 
  “All of the races were just too close for comfort … the separations being decided in the measure of centimetres rather than seconds, resulting in a good win for Cav,” Jenny’s builder Bill Wright said. 
  Peter Cavill was rewarded in his faith to race Jenny with a ‘nursery’ of relatively young sailors including his son the former Australian Sabot champion Sandy. 
  Unfortunately, Bill Stanley who steered his huge sail carrying skiff Australia to a memorable Australian championship win on Sydney Harbour in 1946 after returning from active duty with the Australian Navy in World War II, sadly passed away earlier in April. 
  However, he was traditionally honoured by a few of his old mates with a toddy of rum when the regatta was officially opened with the raising of the Battle Flags at the Brisbane 18ft Sailing Club on Anzac Day.