Skip to main content
Time to race start
00 days
:
00 hours
:
00 mins
:
00 secs

ACT sailors travel many miles to the start line

Home 2004 ACT sailors travel many miles to the start line

“My boat is the donkey that will give them the grounding and George Snow’s Brindabella is the sort of thoroughbred I would like my students to aspire to sail on," says David Kent.

news
—

Ocean racing is a sport far removed from most Canberra residents but for three of the 75 entries in this year’s Ingles Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, the six hour round trip to Sydney each weekend to prepare their boats for the 384 nautical mile race to Queensland which starts this weekend is worth every effort.

David Kent from Page in Canberra has been driving to Pittwater on Sydney’s northern beaches every weekend for the past six months to work on upgrading the 1980-built 32-footer called Gillawa he purchased last year.

Kent, an assets manager with the Department of Immigration by day, has a grand plan to use his boat as a training vessel and to give ACT sailors the opportunity to extend their sailing beyond the confines of Lake Burley Griffin.

As part of his plan, this qualified Inshore Skipper is incorporating a youth program for 16-18 year olds from the ACT and the first of his young charges, 18-year-old Finn Lattimore from Yarralumla, will join four other Canberra sailors and one Darwin crewmember for her first offshore race this weekend aboard Gillawa.

“My boat is the donkey that will give them the grounding and George Snow’s Brindabella is the sort of thoroughbred I would like my students to aspire to sail on for ocean races such as the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race,” says Kent.

Brindabella, the race record holder for the Ingles Sydney Gold Coast Race since 1999, also has a strong Canberra connection with Snow, a former resident, naming his 79-footer after  mountain range - The Brindabellas - and sailing with two Canberra based crew for this race.

Andrew Stoeckel runs 90 head of cattle on 440 acres north east of Canberra and works as an economics consultant with the Centre for International Economics.

He also runs a 43-footer called Integrity, which has enjoyed recent success in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s BMW Sydney Winter Series, a 15-week series that meant a six hour round trip every Sunday for Stoeckel and his two Canberra crewmembers.

It’s also a road well traveled for brothers Gunnar, 59, and Ulli Tuisk, 58 who keep their Farr 50 Cadenza in Sydney at the CYCA and travel from Reid and Braidwood respectively to pursue their passion of sailing.

All three ACT skippers are using the Ingles Sydney Gold Coast Race as a precursor to contesting this year’s 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race which starts on December 26 from Sydney Harbour.

A fleet of 75 yachts is expected on the starting line in Sydney Harbour this Saturday at 1.00pm when the 19th Century replica cannons will signal the start of this annual mid-winter race, which finishes off Main Beach at Southport.