Four Days until the 3rd Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009.jpg)
The countdown is on for the 3rd Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race and the final preparations are being made by the competitors and the race committee.
With only four days until the start of the race additional features have been to the Google Maps yacht tracker with land based spectators now able to view a yachts latitude and longitude during the race.
“We have to work with the technology that’s available to us as we don’t have trackers for the yachts yet,” said Brisbane to Keppel IT Manager Tom Johns.
“By combining the technology of Twitter, Google Maps and SMSing I think we have a fantastic product that will keep web followers up-to-date with their favourite yachts. ” said Johns.
Peter Harburg’s Reichel Pugh 66 Black Jack and the Ray Roberts owned and skippered Cookson 50 Evolution Sails will be the two yachts at the front of the fleet this year. Harburg and his crew recently competed in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race along with Mondo (Ray Sweeney), Ray White Castle Hil – Tartan (Ian Sanford & Barrie King), Carbon Credits (Trevor Bailey), Local Hero (Peter Mosely) and Chancellor (Edward Tooher).
“We have more yachts joining us this year that are racing in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast race which is a positive sign,” said Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Commodore and Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel entrant Russell McCart.
“We hope that as the years go by more and more yachts will choose to continue travelling north and join the Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race,” said McCart.
McCart will hit the start line in his Farr 40 Night Nurse alongside three other Farr 40’s for this year’s race. Bribie Star (Peter Sherwood), Cracklin Rosie (Bob Robertson) and e11even (David Elliott) will all fight to be fastest Farr 40 in the fleet and gain honour amongst mates.
For more information on the 3rd Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race visit www.brisbanetokeppel.com. Register for FREE SMS Updates and receive progress reports during the race – www.brisbanetokeppel.com/sms
Photo: “Night Nurse just prior to crossing the finish line in the 2008 Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race”
Brisbane to Keppel Live Updates
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
When the 2nd Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race started, Twitter was virtually an unknown resource, but the organizers of the race knew all about it and decided to ustilise the service to keep land based spectators up-to-date.
This year Twitter is a household name, and the 3rd Brisbane to Keppel Race will again utilise the free technology.
A live Twitter feed is already active on the official race website and soon there will be updates from the yachts that will SMS updates to the site via the Race Committee.
“It can often be hard for spectators to get a true idea of the events happening during the race, but by utilising Twitter we can ensure that friends and family at home aren’t left in the dark,” said Race Director Suellen Hurling.
Land based spectators can also subscribe to a free SMS service and receive updates and information about the race as it unfolds.
RQYS Commodore Russell McCart said that keeping people informed of what’s happening on the water was important.
“Not everyone can sit at their computers all day and monitor the fleet, so these SMS updates are great for those who are out and about but still want to stay in touch,” said McCart.
The Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race starts at 1100 hours on Saturday 1 August 2009.
Subscribe to SMS Updates – http://www.brisbanetokeppel.com/sms
Live Updates on the B2K site – http://www.brisbanetokeppel.com/live-updates/
Twitter – www.twitter.com
Divisions Split
Saturday, July 18th, 2009In 2007 Bill Wild’s Hugh Welbourn 42 Wedgetail took a clean sweep of the Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race (B2K). In 2008 it was Peter Harburg and his Reichel Pugh 66 Black Jack that dominated the results. In 2009, the divisions will be split ensuring a fair separation of divisions and results to encourage the more laid back racers to enjoy some of the Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race glory.
Regular Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron racer Rob Pennell is excited about the division concept for the 3rd B2K race.
“In club racing I race my boat Dancing Lady which is a Farr 11.6 in Division 1; however for offshore races such as the Brisbane to Gladstone and Brisbane to Keppel we slip back into Division 2,” said Pennell.
“The split of division enables us to compete against other boats that are similar in rating to Dancing Lady and means that we have an opportunity to get an outright result and a division result.”
In the two previous years of racing from Brisbane to Keppel there was a fine line on whether to split the divisions.
“In 2008 we could have split the fleet into divisions however we decided to hold off just one more year,” said Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson.
At present there are 24 confirmed entries for the 2009 B2K race however race organizers are confident that number will reach 30 plus.
“The race is attracting a lot of attention from the southern sailors,” said Thompson.
Whilst getting the high performance boats entered into a race is good for PR having a solid 35-40’ fleet is what makes the numbers.
“My boat is nearly 30 years old and she still races well. We are looking forward to joining the fleet and racing to Keppel Bay this year,” said Rob Pennell.