Mooloolaba’s newest sailing event, the Mooloolaba 200, is attracting a great deal of interest from northern and southern sailors.   

Event manager for the Mooloolaba Yacht Club event, Rod Jones, reports there are a number of high profile entrants expected for the 5th and 6th October event being sponsored by AUDI Centre Sunshine Coast and Oceanburo. 

“The boats that have confirmed that they will be competing are Tim McCall from Yeppon with the Archambault 40 Arcadia and David Rose’s Farr 30. Tam Faragher is aware of the event and very keen to enter his Ker 50 Kerumba. Dave Wallis definitely plans to do it with his Beneteau 50 The Matrix and will have with him a number of the Beneteaus and Jeanneaus attending. Others have said they will look at the event, but it was too far away at this time,“ Jones said. 

Backing up his commitment to the event, Jones will be racing his Welbourne 50, Alegria V Sunshine Coast Audi Centre. 

Other local boats that have already applied to compete are the monohulls John Davis’s 26-footer State of the Ark, Gary McCarthy’s Beneteau 34.7 Brilliant Pearl, Trevor Parkes’s Jeanneau 49 D’accord and Chris Warne’s Swarbrick 11 Tanu. In the multihulls Trent Anstee’s Predator and Rob Stevenson’s Roger Ramjet are early entries. 

Mooloolaba 200 incorporates both offshore and inshore events. 

Offshore will be for the performance monohulls and multihulls racing in the 200 nautical mile Classic set to test different points of sailing and present tactical opportunities. Inshore cruising monohulls and multihulls, sports boats, trailables and SB20s will be racing on passage and windward/leeward courses. 

This long offshore race fleet will head out on Saturday 5th October to head north from Mooloolaba into Noosa’s Laguna Bay. It then heads further north to Wolf Rock, just off Double Island Point, before turning south-east for Flinders Reef. From the reef the fleet take a zig-zag course heading west to the outer Gneerings, just off Mooloolaba Bay, then back into the coast to Caloundra before heading east again for the penultimate leg out to Flinders Reef. The final leg is a westerly track home to the finish off Mooloolaba and the big prize-giving party.

The cruising boats and sports boats races are much-less demanding distances. On Saturday 5th October the sports boats, SB20s and Cruising divisions will coastal race 40 nautical miles north to Noosa and back to Mooloolaba in the Laguna Bay Challenge. Then on Sunday the Cruising Division will have a short passage race in Mooloolaba Bay while the Sports Boats will complete nearby in several races on a windward/leeward course.