Slow start tipped in Qld Easter yacht race

The target of Black Jack to set a Brisbane to Gladstone record in the race would not be served by a slow beginning to Queensland’s premier yacht race on the eve of Good Friday. Smooth winds are forecast in the Moreton Bay in Brisbane as the yearly 308 NM race gets started for the 68th time.

A pack of thirty yachts would set sail at 11 am from just off the Shorncliffe Pier that is being reopened officially after a 4 year US$ 20 million reconstruction program. The organizers anticipate starting winds of around 8 knots would double in strength by Friday night, with peak northeasterly winds anticipated for late Saturday.

But that might be very late for fending for line honors and handicap champ Black Jack, whose captain Mark Bradford looks fifteen knot winds. The crew of the multiple winner Black Jack have been close to defeating the race record of twenty hours twenty-four minutes and fifty seconds, fixed by Skandia Wild Thing in the year 2004, before and would still give it a fracture.

Jodi Visser, the race official, stated to the Plain Sailing Yacht Charter website that light winds did not necessarily suggest that the record would not be broken by the seventy foot yacht. She told that Black Jack are travelling light this year, they only have a twelve man crew. They are definitely vying for it.

This race was first held in the year 1949.