IRC split into two divisions at Airlie Beach

[By: Peter Campbell]

In the interests of fairer racing, race officials have split the IRC fleet for the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week, which starts on Pioneer Bay tomorrow with the Double Cone - Armit Island Race.

In broad terms, IRC Division 1 will be the larger and faster IRC boats, including the Bakewell-White 52 Wired from New Zealand, the Cookson 50s Quantum Racing from Sydney, Living Doll from Melbourne and Pussy Galore from New Zealand, along with the Corby 49 Flirt, now racing as Audi Centre Melbourne, and the Farr 40s Cracklin Rosie and Night Nurse.

Division 2 includes the Archambault 35 Arajilla, the Sydney 38 Zen and the Murray 42 Secret Mens Business 1 and the RP35 Sea Quest.

'Splitting IRC into two divisions will make for better and fairer racing and give us the ability to set courses more suitable to the various sizes of boats,' Principal Race Officer Tony Denham said this evening at the Abel Point race centre.

Race officials also announced that the Cruising with Spinnaker Division, the largest in the regatta, had been split into two divisions - Division 1 comprising 17 boats and Division 2 of 21 boats.

The Double Cone - Armit Island Race is a traditional opener to the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week, with the larger boats likely to sail a course of about 19 nautical miles.

The forecast is for south-easterly tradewinds of 15-20 knots, giving expectations of some fast and spectacular racing, particularly among the 19-boat fleet of Sports Boats.

Race Week this year has drawn entries from all Australian States and Territories and New Zealand, competing under IRC, Performance Racing, Performance Cruising, Cruising with Spinnakers, Cruising Non-Spinnakers, and Sports Boats and One Design categories.