Was out whale spotting off Penguin Head at Culburra this afternoon and spotted a yacht powering up the coast well out to sea and even with the winds we were having on the south coast it looked like she was making 7 or 8 knots to windward, huge big stick and mainsail, obvious even from the distance I was at. Had a look at marinetraffic.com and it was Concubine. a carbon fibre Mills 45 from Premier composites in Dubai on her way from South Aus to Qld for Hamilton race week.
Heading up their for the race week this year, thanks to Club Marine.
Hoping to get an opportunity to get to sail on one of the 60"s they have said but no solid details yet, but very excited.. 
I will post pictures though..
Heading for Sydney and the start of the Sydney to Southport race, then on to the northern winter circuit
We're leaving Brisbane around about the 14-15th August. The plan at the mo is a point to point run out near the shipping lane, with time up our sleeve for any incident management or crew breaks. In case anyone is heading up that way we might see you out there :)
Photo of the Wide Bay Bar taken yesterday a bit before low tide that might be of interest to those planning an inshore run up the coast.
Select to expand quoteshaggybaxter said..
We're leaving Brisbane around about the 14-15th August. The plan at the mo is a point to point run out near the shipping lane, with time up our sleeve for any incident management or crew breaks. In case anyone is heading up that way we might see you out there :)
If you want to follow Shaggy's boat Fusion at HIRW here's the link to the results page.
www.topyacht.net.au/results/2016/ahirw/series/racecruz/series.htm
Looks like Mr Shaggy Baxter has been made to walk the plank and Fusion has taken by a pirate named Greg Outridge. Not surprised, I hear he had a pretty scurvy crew on board for the trip north!
Looks like ShaggyBaxter has not broken the boat yet having entered all three races to date.
Results of today's race not yet posted.
I wonder if he has had a dive to look at the keel with which we gave a whale a severe bruising last Thursday night.
Hi crew,
Happy to report we stuck a GoPro under the boat, we couldn't see any damage at all which is a good start.
Race results to date are not great, handicapped harshly ; day 1 we flogged benetaeu first 40's on the windward leg, only to throw it all away on the downwind , bad angles in the tide, my fault there.
Day 2 was a driftathon, we went backwards about 1.2 nm rounding a point, but our gybing improved astronomically.
Day 3 was cancelled due to lack of wind.the forecast am hoping it fills in for the rest of the week!!
I guess the whale is at the whale pub telling his mates "Don't play with those Pogos. The worst you can do to them is give them a bit of a scratch." 
Handicapped harshly!!! That is a bit tough. Fusion is the only Pogo in the country and you have done a few races in Moreton Bay so handicap could hardly be based on race records. How did they figure it out?? It attracted more attention than any other yacht in the marina so therefore it gets a big handicap??
Has the old committee from the New York Yacht Club migrated to the Hamilton Island Yacht Club??
There is nothing posted on today's racing yet and the weather map shows no indication of good sailing weather till Friday. I was told the golf course on Dent Island is quite challenging. Something to do if you are not sailing.
How many of the island wenches has Yuri conquered so far?? 
Word is the handicapper really struggled with how to rate us, so I am not surprised at the handicap.
We had a lay day yesterday where a few of us went to Whitehaven and rafted up, lovely day with good food and great people.
One of the boats decided to stay, so they asked us to take a few extra on the trip home.
We set off and she was feeling heavy, so with the wind behind us at 17-19 knots, we thought we'd get the kite up, and managed to lay the angles through Solway passage with a couple of gybes, in the gusts she's just planing along.
What was surprising about that is we had 23 POB :)
Awesome!! Whithaven is such a magic place. With 23 POB the gybeing would have been tricky. No missing fingers or broken bones I hope.
A little disappointed. Yesterday we were to have a evening sail on Wildoats 11 but wind and events changed as the day missed sailing on Tuesday meant they raced again last night.
This morning heading out for a spin on a Extreme 40 and have been told we will get wet. 
It was rather exciting meeting some
Of our Olympic team yesterday. They look so young, or is it look old
Good luck today Shaggy. Will keep an eye out for Fusion.
Good luck JB,
Winds are predicted to fill in a bit more today, hopefully!
Which Division are you in? We'll be at the Eastern start line this morning, how about you?
Edit: sorry , just read the extreme 40 bit, you should get wet!
Select to expand quoteshaggybaxter said...
Good luck JB,
Winds are predicted to fill in a bit more today, hopefully!
Which Division are you in? We'll be at the Eastern start line this morning, how about you?
Edit: sorry , just read the extreme 40 bit, you should get wet!
Not racing. Just a quick social sail and then back for more luncheon. We are here as guests of Club Marine so doing more the corparaite sponsor thing. A bit bummed about the Wild Oats miss sail though
Good luck to you. The Extreme 40 looks mightily impressive, I'm jealous. We're off the dock at 9.30, we'll give you a wave if we see you!
Hi Jb,
How did you go? Finally we had some decent breeze, it would have been the perfect conditions !!
Now you are talking Shaggy. Congratulations on the podium finishes in race 4 and 5.
Cheers Cisco,
We finally had a leg at about 130twa, wind speed 26 knots, boat speed 19.3. Playing with 50 and 60', great fun. Windward leg was hard work, but we got there in the end.
Not too shabby for a cruiser!
Select to expand quoteshaggybaxter said..
Hi Jb,
How did you go? Finally we had some decent breeze, it would have been the perfect conditions !!
Yeah it was amazing. Luckily i quickly learnt and I managed to stay rather dry. Yeah wind was up so with that thing up well on one hull, you know your charging . It weights only 1.5 tone and when you consider all that sail area they do very well not to keep it upright. A bit embarrassing for me after after tuning the driver of the tender how does someone afford to race a team like that. I was not aware at that point the guy i was tuning was in fact Tony Longhurst 
Wow you'd need to be fit, its a real workout..LOved it, but an entire day racing would be punishing..
Ill show photos when we get some, we had a photo hog on toe so i left my phone at home..
This is a shot of the Extreme 40 for those that don't know it.
I looked long and hard but simply couldn't see Fusion, TBH their were yachts that all looked the same everywhere.
Hamilton Island always seemed a little weird for me, but visiting during Race week just made it shine. It really is a big rich boys club that is perfect for sailing.
We were incredibility lucky. We had the Pasparley White lunch at Qualia, Helicopter rides over the Island, but a real highlight was the dinner with the Olympic team.
Having drinks bought for us by Sandy Oatley who very upset that we didn't get out on WO2 and has promised to organise a day on Sydney harbour instead
Id love to see any pictures you have, to have participated as a team at the AHIRW would be an absolute bucket list for any salty sailor..
I love this shot, i stole it from the FB page..
Sounds like you had a great day JB, she looks spectacular on the water.
I'll try and get some video up when I get home, but here is a couple of short ones for now.
The hum is the rudders, comes in about 12 knots and disappears again about 16 knots.
Running at 140 TWA, the boat to starboard is a Melges 32
You can hear the hum fade out, so the boat speed would be around 15-16 knots. Wind strength about 22-24 knots.
And just to re-enforce there is always another level...
I'm so zoned in I am not looking over my shoulder at all. We're running deep, and I don't want to risk an accidental gybe, when I hear the crew call " wind shadow coming."
??? I'm not near any islands, what do they mean wind shadow??
Select to expand quoteshaggybaxter said..
And just to re-enforce there is always another level...
I'm so zoned in I am not looking over my shoulder at all. We're running deep, and I don't want to risk an accidental gybe, when I hear the crew call " wind shadow coming."
??? I'm not near any islands, what do they mean wind shadow??
Ohhh. Scallywags, 100 foot of beauty.
That thing is amazing... Were those videos from Yesterday. (Sat) it seemed the strongest breeze.
Shaggy, I hear there is a big fat arsed 100 footer with twin rudders for sale at present.
Owned by that Clark guy.
Step up son !
Select to expand quoteshaggybaxter said..
Running at 140 TWA, the boat to starboard is a Melges 32
You can hear the hum fade out, so the boat speed would be around 15-16 knots. Wind strength about 22-24 knots.
I think you are having more fun up there than a koala can respectably bear. 
