Latitude 28 by Ian Grant / Scott Ramsden’s Camera Cat.

Test of the best at Mooloolaba

  There is a very strong indication that a relatively unstable weather system will test the high standard fleet during the 2009 Musto Etchells Winter National championship off Mooloolaba over the June Holiday weekend.
  The pre-dawn 11 degree temperature and the soft and lazy five knot westerly wind during the early days of May presented an early warning sign that the cold blast from the winter wind was only a few weeks away.
  Wind blowing off the land is never stable in velocity or direction and a forecast of this nature will force the crews to keep their options open on sail selection while the skippers and tacticians prepare to face a test against their one-design racing strategy.
  Every Etchells sailor understands that it is impossible to control nature’s elements which add to the complexity of the fleet racing contest to prove who is the smartest and fastest.
  Champion New South Wales helmsman Julian Plante, winner in 2000 and Bronze Medallist in 2005 has the collective experience to be ranked among the top contenders to win the 2009 Musto trophy.
  He has the respect of his rivals and is always difficult to beat, but Julian Plante has raced in far too many Etchells championships including the World championship at Mooloolaba in 2004 to make any prediction on who will become the 2009 champion.
  However, the modest helmsman will be a front line contender and will surely have some tactical clout with the talented match racing skipper Michael Dunstan in his crew.
  Dunstan excels in close racing and his experience combined with Nick Garland is expected to give Julian Plante more time to concentrate on steering fast while they look after planning the strategy and maintaining boat speed.
  Similar interest will focus around the performance of Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron’s David Healey who has made a positive decision to improve on his mid-fleet placing in 2008.
  Healey should add some real meaning behind the name of his Etchells Hustler by including the experienced Ashley Deeks and heavyweight Gary Van Luteren in his crew.
  Hustler which finished 37th last year promises to improve her ranking with the combined ocean element sailing skills of Deeks and Van Luteren who are highly respected members of the successful Black Jack crew.
  They have raced at Mooloolaba before and will certainly provide the dedicated David Healey with all of the performance enhancing options when Hustler tests her speed against a fleet which has predictably attracted another high standard of crews representing clubs from Hong Kong, West Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Northern Territory, New South Wales and Queensland.

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Scottie’s Cat ready to make a splash

  World champion 18ft skiff skipper Scott Ramsden has hung up his trapeze belt but has maintained a passion to helm fast boats.   The dedicated aquatic athlete and a veteran with 15 years experience and over 10,500 hours of driving his high-powered fleet of CameraCats is on the verge of revolutionising the design of catamarans worldwide.
  He has bumped and bashed through corrugated sea surfaces to allow television and press photographers to capture award winning images while taking a list of mental notes which have been transformed into a safe and buoyant hull shape.
  In fact the fine bows of the twin 11.5m hulls which are sloped out in the lower wave-piercing section to counter broaching in a following sea is a world first and this, combined with a full spray deflecting chine, adds stability and buoyancy to the impressive new generation twin Yamaha powered catamaran.
  Technically Scott Ramsden understood what was required and presented his ideas to the gifted designer Stuart Freizer who completed a complex request into a realistic hull shape which has been meticulously fabricated by Sea Prowler Boats to qualify for a Lloyds of London survey certificate.
  “I purposely selected a semidisplacement design which promises a 20 percent improvement in economy and sea handling performance compared with my last CameraCat,” Ramsden said.
  “This catamaran will be very smooth through the water at high speed while being easier to steer with providing incredible stability.”
  All the computer-produced figures are yet to be proved in the sea trials but there is no doubt that her pedigree will have all the important boxes ticked off after the traditional ‘bottle of bubbles’ is smashed over her bow this month.
  Her sleek raw state aluminium hull has been transformed into a spectacular colour with a base of Jotuns premium marine grade anti-corrosive primer followed by two coats of Jotuns Imperite 300 full gloss.
  “I’m personally stoked and have no doubt that all the work over the past 10 months will have a significant element of excitement when the twin 250hp 4-stroke Yammie’s (Yamaha) engines enter their working life,” he said.
  “We are expecting a top speed of 50 knots (93kmh) which will be a real buzz.”

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Oceanburo in box seat

  Mooloolaba’s high performance OceanBuro yacht racing crew have continued to make a big impression on the Australian offshore sailing circuit.
  The crew headed by principal helmsman Rod Jones expressed their combined experience to become the pacesetter when they won the Audi Australian IRC championship with the European built Archambault A35 Alegria at Hamilton Island in August 2007.
  They toughed it out winning their class at the Skandia Race Week in Geelong followed by an outstanding performance in the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta and firmed a vice-grip on the prestigious Audi Australian championship trophy with another equally impressive class win in the physically demanding Sydney to Gold Coast race.
  Now two years later the basic crew of good sailing mates have shown their class again with the larger Archambault A40 Alegria to record an almost identical score to currently lead the 2009 series over a strong fleet including the 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart winner Quest.
  However, the sole Queensland challengers are yet to face the blast from the cold ‘Southerly Busters’ when they line up for the character testing Sydney to Gold Coast Race in late July.
  Skipper Rod Jones will have a wealth of talent on deck including sailing master Sean O’Rourke, navigator James Walker and Audi World Etchells champion Bucky Smith.
  However, Rod Jones may have to find a replacement tactician for Adrian Finglas who helped to plan the successful tactical strategy at the Geelong and Sydney Harbour regattas.
Adrian Finglas coaching the next generation.  Adrian Finglas will pack his sea bag in early July and head for Rio de Janeiro as the coach of the Australian Volvo World Youth championship team.
  He has a busy schedule on the international coaching circuit and is unlikely to be onboard Alegria. However skipper Rod Jones is keeping the position open.
  The skill of Adrian Finglas as a competitive skipper, tactician and coach has played a big role behind Queensland crews achieving outstanding results in recent months.
  Over the past four months the super sailor has played a role in guiding Yachting Queensland Youth Squad to five individual National championships; then combined with Sam Heritage to win the Australian 505 class Silver Medal in Sydney besides his important tactical role with Alegria in the in the opening two regattas of the 2009Audi Australian IRC championship.
  Coach Finglas was also the backroom mastermind when Jason Muir, Matt Chew, Paul Wyatt combined with the Sunshine Coast’s Bucky Smith to win the 2009 Audi World Etchells championship in Melbourne.
  Jason Muir and the Racer XY crew considered the modest coach as part of their team and showed their appreciation by making sure he was in Melbourne when they received their Gold Medals as the 2009 World Champions.