Brisbane to Gladstone Race - Classic sloop races to Gladstone

11:33 PM Mon 1 Mar 2010 GMT

'Spirit of Koomooloo' Andrea Francolini / Audi &copy

Manly yacht broker Mike Freebairn has entered the 42 year old sloop Ray White Spirit of Koomooloo to contest the 62nd Brisbane to Gladstone Race starting on Good Friday April 2nd.

This classic timber yacht which has the distinction of winning the 1971 Fastnett Race in England and representing Australia at three Admirals Cup regattas as spent little time at her Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron mooring in recent months.

Her proud skipper who has a passion for sailing classic wooden yachts represented Queensland in the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race in December where the 'Golden Oldie' provisionally held the overall lead before the wind turned against her.

However skipper Mike Freebairn and crew showed that the 'old girl' still had the competitive boat speed to race against the modern generation yachts to eventually finish 23 overall.

She added approximately 2040 nautical miles to her impressive log book to complete the delivery trip to Sydney, race to Hobart an then complete the long haul home to Brisbane to take a short rest before lining up to compete in Queensland's premier blue water classic.

Skipper Mike Freebairn has dedicated the race to his father Don who sadly passed away in 2009 after a long illness.
The spirit of Don Freebairn will be on board as his talented offshore sailing son makes his personal claim to win the 62 year old The Courier Mail Cup awarded to the crew who complete the 308 nautical mile race with the fastest corrected handicap.

However the grand old lady of the Australian ocean racing circuit which registered her 24th Hobart Race in December will need a favourable weather forecast to celebrate her 42 nd year of ocean racing with a victory against the highly competitive fleet of modern yachts including the defending line honours champion, the Peter Harburg owned and Mark Bradford skippered Black Jack.

But if the breeze bends to the north and presents the fleet with a high degree of tacking against the wind it will favour Ray White Spirit of Koomooloo to achieve another major result.

by Ian Grant