Front Cover: Matthew Short’s Shortwave heads south during the 2009 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Photo by Howard Wright/IMAGE Professional Photography.
Not many people with the exception of those Bulimba residents who lived close to the Norman R. Wright and Sons’ Quay Street boat shed in the early 1960s knew the gifted nautical genius Bob Miller.
Most knew him as the ‘rug head’ who disturbed their early morning sleep when he drove his battered and noisy VW Beatle to work while the local Bulimba sailing champions like the 1956 World 18ft skiff title winner Norman Wright Jnr placed him on a higher pedestal.
At that time Norman Wright Jnr gave the former NSW Railways pattern maker the opportunity to express his talent for making sails in a humble and hot galvanised clad shed.
The relatively modest Bob Miller used his spare time in sketching various radical designs on scraps of paper and plywood, besides chalking his now famous one-liner – “One day I will turn a dream into a modern miracle” – on the shed wall.
He personally created that miracle under the name of Ben Lexcen when Australia II defeated the Dennis Conner skippered Liberty in the 1983 America’s Cup challenge.
In reality Bob Miller was well on his way to international recognition in the sport of sailing and designing before changing his name by deed poll.
His initial success came at the tiller of the lightweight and relatively inexpensive 18-footer Venom which he designed and then skippered to win the 1961 JJ Giltinan World championship trophy on the Brisbane River.
Sure the success of the America’s Cup was the pinnacle of a brilliant career cut short with his untimely death on May 1, 1988 at the age of 52, however, he managed to leave a legacy with another radical design which he initially named Miller’s Missile.
Now some 40 years later the International Contender created from Miller’s Missile has returned to the spiritual homeland with a fleet of 60 representing nine countries competing for the 2010 World Championship on Brisbane’s Waterloo Bay.
Naturally this exciting super fast dinghy, crewed by a single sailor seated in a trapeze belt, has come a long way from the time when the original skippers dressed generally in footy shorts and a black flannel shirt battled against the windy elements.
However, like Bob Miller, the modern day Contender sailors have never forgotten the important Miller trait of combining fun and fast sailing with a unique friendly fellowship.
Class veteran Jan Mulder (63) the only sailor to have raced in all three Brisbane hosted World championships in 1974, 1988 and 2010 has never won a major title.
Sure it would’ve been nice for him to win but in this class everyone is a grinner with the encouragement and support that is received within the close-knit Contender family.
Nevertheless, proud Dad Jan Mulder had the opportunity to share a pot of frosted XXXX when his talented son Matt won his third Australian title over Brisbane’s Waterloo Bay course last Month.
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Struggler wins Radial gold
Queensland Academy of Sport team sailor Ben Franklin (17) completed a meteoric rise in Australian Laser Radial class racing with a stunning win in the 2010 National Championship on the Adelaide sailing Club course last month.
His performance was described by Queensland Academy of Sport High Performance coach Adrian Finglas as one of the best results he has witnessed as a reward for the teenage sailor’s personal dedication.
“Ben is totally committed, spending 80 hours a month with training and perfecting his boat handling technique and tactical skills,” Finglas said.
Last year the young mono sailor from the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron was just another number in the fleet of talented youth skippers finishing 26th overall at the Australian series in Perth.
However, he was prepared to continue his struggle in racing with his race-weary dinghy, making sure that his personal technique and fitness was up to the challenge when he had the opportunity to afford to replace his wind-fatigued sail and spars.
His personal tenacity became the key factor behind his success in Adelaide when the teenager overcame a Black Flag disqualification in the fifth heat of the qualifying series to claim a deserved Gold Medal ahead of the equally skilled Tasmanian Chris Jones.
Ben Franklin had little time to celebrate as he continued with his intense training in preparation to represent Yachting Queensland at the 2010 Australian OAMPS Insurance Brokers Youth Championships over the Largs Bay Sailing Club courses.
The exceptionally talented Ben Franklin has done the ‘hard yards’ and is progressively maturing into a clever monotype skipper, as proved with his silver medal and best Australian result behind Malaysian Khairulnizam Alfedy Mohd.
His performances in racing over unfamiliar courses suggest he is now ready to race on the overseas circuit; and that only seems to be a formality when the Australian team is announced to contest the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World championship in Turkey from July 8-17.
Should Ben Franklin be selected it will complete a deserved reward for the teenage Radial Laser sailor who has successfully cast off his ‘struggler’ image of 2009 to become the Australian champion in 2010.
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Ford Prefect – Two True all the same
Sailing master Brett Young proved he was on an important mission when he escaped from the cold climate of the South Australian winter to compete in the 2009 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week last August.
The experienced bluewater sailor had the principal task to fine tune a new Bruce Farr designed Beneteau First 40 in the pleasant tropical winter environment with yacht racing in the Whitsunday Islands.
It was very much a fact finding mission for Brett Young when the sails were tensioned for the first time and the expectations remained positive when he skippered Ford Prefect to a 4-7-5 result against serious opposition including the 2008 champion Evolution Sails (Ray Roberts) and the eventual 2009 IRC champion Living Doll (Michael Hiatt).
However, the Ford Prefect crew had ‘kick started’ a promising campaign gaining a progressive improvement in boat speed on Pioneer Bay before heading across the Whitsunday Passage to continue with the tuning process in the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.
Her sail number YC400 progressively came under surveillance attracting the tactical attention of the eventual 2009 Audi Australian IRC class champion Rod Jones and his master tactician Adrian Finglas when the new South Australian sloop defeated Queensland’s Alegria by five seconds to record her first win.
They also fought a nip-n-tuck duel to win race seven by 10 seconds when the ‘luck of the Irish’ failed to smile on the Tony Donnellan skippered Victorian sloop Shamrock.
A second to Alegria in the final race added a bonus to the regatta campaign when owner Andrew Saies and Brett Young prepared Two True for the toughest race of all over the 628nm Rolex Sydney Hobart course.
This course is well noted for leaving the best intentions and preparations wallowing in the wind, however, her crew, racing under the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia burgee, remained keen to add value to their yacht tuning program in the Whitsunday Islands.
Her 1,000nm delivery trip from Adelaide to Sydney remained as ‘work in progress’ but after a gruelling 3 days 23 hours 49 minutes and 3 seconds of sailing against a mixed bag of weather, including drifting in a calm, the Two True crew outsailed the international standard fleet to become the 64th winner of the prestigious Tattersall’s Cup regarded as the World’s best ocean yacht racing trophy.
Owner skipper Andrew Saies proudly accepted the trophy and acknowledged the performance and dedication of his crew.
“This was a team effort. We had some moments of luck and others drifting astern with the current,” Saies said.
But their real moment of celebration came when fellow rival Matt Allen Commodore of the CYCA officially declared Two True as the outright 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart champion with her corrected handicap win over the Mark Welsh helmed Wicked and the Ian Mason skippered Next.
Andrew Saies is yet to confirm, however, Two True now has the proven form guide to be a strong contender for the 2010 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week next August to cap off a successful campaign which began on the Whitsunday Sailing Club courses a little over five months ago.
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