Our sailors seas the day
Crew enjoy the sail of the century
IT MAY be landlocked but that doesn’t mean Toowoomba can’t produce some world class sailors.
A crew of Toowoomba and Brisbane sailors won a fourday ocean race off New Caledonia on the 50ft (15m) sailing catamaran Rushour, which was captained, designed and built by Highfields resident Drew Carruthers.
Mr Carruthers, with crew members Ben James of Hodgson Vale and Justin Clarke of Cabarlah, and Brisbane crew members Becky Moloney, Trevor Brown and Andrew Barney were first line honours and first handicap.
The three Toowoomba sailors met and started sailing at the Darling Downs Sailing Club at Cooby Dam some 20 years ago.
“Back then, we would never have thought we’d be competing in a four-day ocean race, let alone winning an ocean race,” Mr Carruthers said.
The race is anticlockwise around New Caledonia, starting and finishing at Noumea and covering a distance of 650 nautical miles.
“The atmosphere in Noumea in the lead-up to the race was wonderful and all the boat crews were looked after like celebrities,” Mr Carruthers said.
“The start of the race was a loop around the bay with hundreds of spectator boats cheering the fleet on. We had a very good run around the southern end of the island where we passed a lot of other boats.
“Coming up the western side of New Caledonia we chose to follow some local race boats up the inside of the reef. As night was falling, most of the fleet went out to sea in looking for a strong breeze, and as it turned out our decision was the wrong one.
“During the first night we crossed the reef and headed out to sea in a very light breeze but by sunrise the ocean was flat.
“During the second day we stood near motionless in the
‘‘ IT WAS A HARD COLD NIGHT IN ROUGH SEAS AND BOAT SPEED UP TO 24 KNOTS, THE BOAT AND CREW WORKED VERY WELL. DREW CARRUTHERS
middle of the ocean off the west coast, while most of the fleet headed north with the breeze. It was so still we were swimming around the boat in the 2km deep ocean.
“That evening the wind and our spirits began to rise. By 9pm we were sailing at 12 knots in a 12 knot breeze and by early the next morning we were flying along catching boat after boat on the race up the west coast. We spent one day out of sight of land around the top of the reef at the northern tip of the island. This is where we passed our last multihull competitor, the trimaran Ave Gitana.”
“It was a hard cold night in rough seas and boat speed up to 24 knots, the boat and crew worked very well,” he said.
By the morning of day four the winds had changed direction which enabled the crew to remain on one tack down the whole east coat of New Caledonia, seas were still around 3m and winds 20 knot.
Fatigue was really starting to set in, the original plan of six hours on then three hours sleep for the crew had gone out with the stronger winds and rough seas..
“On the afternoon of day four, we crossed back inside the reef with a good lead and 20 nautical miles to go was a great feeling, we had a long spinnaker run with media helicopters overhead.
“The reception at the dock from the people of Noumea and the other boating crews was fabulous.”