Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race 2024

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2023
Full of beans - Rob Date to take on Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in Scarlet Runner

Full of beans - Rob Date to take on Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in Scarlet Runner

NEWS
02 Jun, 2023 01:57:00 PM

Full of beans - Rob Date to take on Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in Scarlet Runner

Rob Date is this year representing Sandringham Yacht Club in the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in his Carkeek 43 Scarlet Runner. Kicking off on 29 July in Sydney Harbour, Rob is excited to have a crew of nine sailing up the coast to enjoy some beautiful weather. He loves the idea of a great winter escape from Melbourne, but having undertaken a re-build ...he'll be cutting it fine to have her race ready.

Describing his crew an amateur or more affectionately ‘weekend warriors’ - Rob says they have recently taken the boat over from Melbourne to participate in Adelaide to Port Lincoln Race and raced on the ocean for the Geelong Festival of Sails. Now embarking on the 384 nautical mile Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race he says this leg is really just the start of the fun. The boat is going on to Airlie Beach Race Week and Hamilton Island Race Week. So we caught up with Rob to find out what his plan are.

What's the plan Rob? We will sort of spend winter up there, that’s the sort of plan and then we will sail it back to the bay.

Where do you keep the boat? At the Sandringham Yacht Club. I am the club captain at Sandringham I have been a member here for nearly 20 years. That’s where I have kept all my boats.

Why are you doing the race? Well we are going to seek the warmer weather, we are leaving Melbourne and we just like to go out, have a crack, and have fun.

You sound excited about racing the boat – what can you tell me about her? I have a brand new Carkeek 43 that I built in Melbourne and I launched in January of 2022. Yep it’s a beautiful boat. It was designed by Carkeek over in Mallorca. We built it here over a period of the about a year.

Is she race ready? We are doing bit of work on the boat at the moment and it’s a bit of a struggle to actually be there on time. It’s not on schedule, but it will be okay.

What happened to the J111 Scarlet Runner? I have passed over they J111. That boat's dead to me now. I sold it and its now kept on a mooring in Elizabeth Bay in Sydney.

Will you do any other races in the Audi Centre Blue Water Pointscore? At this stage the Sydney Hobart is not on the program, that is not to say that I won’t change my mind after Noakes. It would be easy if I just left the boat in Sydney on the way back from Hamo… Sydney people don’t really understand how much effort and time is involved in getting the boat over from Victoria just to do this race is a huge effort!

We’re glad you are coming to join the Fleet Rob, we can’t wait to see you up in the all black boat? Yep it’s the best looking boat in Australia!

The CYCA is wishing Rob Date and his crew of nine the very best fun in the Noakes kicking off on 29 July. Interested in following Rob's journey? Follow Scarlet Runner here.