The OTC Australian Multihull Offshore Championships (AMOC) is a bi-annual event for Australian offshore racing multihulls, and is usually held near Brisbane, the multihull capital of Australia. The series consists of two divisions, the premier Category 1 being run under the IOMR rule, and Category 2 under an Arbitrary handicap system. There are six races, the final race being the Brisbane to Gladstone ocean racing classic.

In 1990 OSTAC won this series with the Farrier designed F-27. Now in 1992 it's two in a row for OSTAC with the latest Farrier design - the F-31 (production version of the F-9A).

There were 18 entries including the F-31 OSTAC TRIUMPH, the Grainger designed MAD DOG'S TIP TRUCK (MTB920), VOODOO (Spoon Bay 10.6) and HARD YAKKA (a highly modified 075); two Crowther Shockwave 37s, WAHOO and XL2, several Crowther Windspeeds, three Arber cats, a Tennant Turissmo 10 ELECTRIC DREAMS (winner of the last Darwin to Ambon Race) and Lock Crowther's own 48' cat DEGUELLO.

Race 1 was a 25 mile Olympic triangle race off Mooloolabah (60 miles north of Brisbane) with 20 to 25 knot winds and a 6 to 9' swell. The racing was spectacular with the faster boats being frequently airborne. The lead was closely fought out between Doug Trott's HARD YAKKA and Fred Gans' OSTAC TRIUMPH, with the F-31 victorious by just 4 seconds. XL2 was third, two minutes further back, followed by Sam Allen's WIND CHEETAH (Arber 39' cat).

The F-31's performance was a surprise to many, being a smaller cruising orientated trailerable boat, amongst mostly larger and many specialized racing machines. There was a lot of broken gear on many boats, including a dismasting.

Race 2, a 160 mile ocean race confirmed the F-31's first win was no fluke with OSTAC TRIUMPH easily taking line honors by 47 minutes from WIND CHEETAH, with Bob Hutchings' VOODOO third. Conditions were again very rough with rain squalls gusting to over 30 knots, and these conditions suited the ruggedly built F-31. The first leg was a long windward beat down to a buoy off the Gold Coast, with a fast reach and run back home. OSTAC TRIUMPH also took both the IOMR and Arbitrary divisions on corrected time making it a triple.

Race 3 was a 65 miler into the top of Moreton Bay, and return. Conditions were considerably easier with 10 to 15 knot winds, and XL2 came home first for her first line honors win, with HARD YAKKA second, and WAHOO and OSTAC TRIUMPH following closely 3rd and 4th.

Race 4 was in light airs, which suited the speedy HARD YAKKA which took line honors by 21 minutes (and also the triple) from VOODOO, with WIND CHEETAH third, and OSTAC TRIUMPH again 4th.

Race 5 saw another excellent effort by HARD YAKKA, leading XL2 home by 5 minutes, with Geoff Cruise's Windspeed 32 LIGHT BLUE TOUCH PAPER AND STAND CLEAR third.

The final Race 6 was the Brisbane to Gladstone Ocean Racing Classic and several more multihulls joined the fleet, swelling starters to 24. These included PACIFIC CRANES (formerly the 40' Crowther famous racing tri VERBATUM/BULLFROG), the Crowther Buccaneer 40 WINGS, the Nicol 50' racing tri FIRETRUCK, and the 60' Crowther racing cat SHOTOVER.

Race day dawned as forecast, and the large monohull fleet got away first, being led by the 67' downwind flier BOBSLED. The multihulls started 15 minutes later, with HARD YAKKA, PACIFIC CRANES and FIRETRUCK leading the way. OSTAC TRIUMPH got off to a bad start, and after dropping the spinnaker in the water was only 10th as the multihull fleet cleared Moreton Bay. From there things improved, and by midnight OSTAC TRIUMPH had caught SHOTOVER, having passed BOBSLED, VOODOO, HARD YAKKA, and FIRETRUCK. Only PACIFIC CRANES and XL2 remained in front, while SHOTOVER and OSTAC TRIUMPH had their own private duel throughout the race, much to the massive 60 foot racing cat crew's disbelief!

PACIFIC CRANES went on to take line honors in 22 hours 19 minutes, only a short time outside SHOTOVER's existing record which she would have probably broken had it not been for damaged sails. XL2 came home second, but first in IOMR, 46 minutes later, followed by SHOTOVER 60 minutes later, whose big rig finally got the best of OSTAC TRIUMPH in the final 30 miles as the wind dropped and tide turned, slowing both considerably. FIRETRUCK came in fourth 54 minutes after the F-31, followed by WAHOO, WIND CHEETAH, and HARD YAKKA.

The second place sewed up the IOMR AMOC series win for the F-31, with GOLD RUSH second, and WIND CHEETAH third. OSTAC TRIUMPH also won the Arbitrary division, with XL2 second, and WIND CHEETAH again third.

It was a great effort by OSTAC TRIUMPH and her crew of owner Fred Gans, Geoff Bierg, Paul Koch (managing director of OSTAC), Michael Pepper and Dave Blake.

BOBSLED, a 67 foot, million dollar, outright racing machine was able to break the monohull record by an impressive hour and a half. OSTAC TRIUMPH (a standard F-31, fully fitted out for cruising, with Dacron sails) was one hour and fifteen minutes ahead of BOBSLED.

Mast Raising System

The original mast raising system for the F-9A didn't work as easy as it should, due to the much lower overall beam height of the F-9A beams. However, the new system developed to replace it is excellent. A number of F-27 owners have already decided to use this, because of its simplicity and the greater ease of raising the mast on the water (no need to fold the boat up).

No matter which system you use to raise the mast there are some points to know. Be aware that the mast can still swing to some degree sideways while almost down. The reason is that the pivot points (chainplates) for the lower shrouds cannot be in the exact same line as the mast pivot, because if so, you will not be able to connect the mast to the pivot pins when rolling it back to the raising position - the shrouds will be too tight, and the mast will not go back far enough. The lower shrouds are tight while the mast is up, but are designed to slacken slightly as the mast is lowered and this can allow the mast to swing out, to some degree.

However, this will not usually occur providing one parks into the wind, or on level ground. The mast will normally then stay relatively straight those first few feet where it could swing out.

The F-9A mast step is of more advanced design, and it just plugs into place, with no removable pins to lose. It is designed to allow swinging out to some degree without damage. However, the F-27 step could be damaged if the mast goes too far. If a strong crosswind or a sideways slope can't be avoided, then get someone to steady the mast the initial few feet, or rig up a temporary line off to the side.

The mast raising pole tends to stay on center, but will lean over if the mast swings out, but this does no harm even though it looks scary. On a test model it could lean over way past 45° and still pull the mast up. Again a person can steady this, or a light line taken to each side if wished.

BRISBANE - MOOLOOLABA VIA AN F-31

Dave Mason, the proud owner of FLEETWING, the first F-31 built, wanted crew to help him bring FLEETWING home from Brisbane after she had some work performed on her by OSTAC.

Of course when Dave asked me, I had to think real hard if I would like to sail 60 miles in beautiful Moreton Bay, on one of the hottest multihulls in the land (What time are we leaving?). It didn't quite work out like that as we were delayed for one reason or another so it was a few weeks down the track before we set off.

Sally, my better half, dropped me off at OSTAC, which is located on the Brisbane River at Hemmant (5 miles east of Brisbane), with enough food for about 5 days. The weather forecast for Moreton Bay was great (strong wind warning 25/30 knts, seas 4 to 6'). Having experienced the Bay in these conditions before, to say I was a little apprehensive is an understatement. Anyway, we set off at 10.00 hrs., the 10 HP Yamaha moving us swiftly into the channel and once safely away hoisted up the full(?) main and working jib. In the shelter of the Brisbane River we settled on a comfortable 10 knots. I was impressed how quickly the F-31 accelerated, there seemed to be no distinct transition between displacement and planing, the boat just smoothly accelerated. Once out of the river we turned north to follow the coast up to Mooloolaba, with just a few navigation checks on the way to avoid some shoals.

As we moved out of the sheltered waters and turned north we were heading on a broad reach, the boat immediately accelerated to 20 plus knots (the log actually showing 30 knots, but Dave felt it was a bit optimistic). I felt we were doing 50 knots at least! The boat sat dead flat, no wake, and as we were running, very little spray came on board. We were virtually skimming the tops of the waves. It would have to be one of the most exhilarating rides I have ever had.

Of course this was all too good to be true, about an hour after getting under way, with yours truly on the tiller, the boat violently swung to starboard scaring the life out of me. I sort of worked out there was something wrong due to the fact that the tiller was wobbling around in my hand doing nothing. At this stage Dave, after picking himself off the deck, asked me nicely (unprintable) what was I doing, and naturally I said very nicely "nothing".

What had occurred was "the old rudder lifting out trick", which anyone with a TRAILERTRI or TRAMP has experienced some time or another and is no problem. The helm gets heavy but you still have control of the boat. With the F-31, the rudder is located in a rudder box and the whole assembly kicks back for beaching etc. If the pull down line slips, and the rudder box lifts out, the boat does its own thing (no rudder control). Dave had not fitted the safety lock/shear pin, which locks the rudder down, before we left because of new anti-fouling paint which was not allowing the rudder box to seat fully down.

At this stage we were abeam South Pt. Bribie Island. The sea was bigger than forecast (est. 6 to 10') and 30 knots showing on the wind indicator, so in the interest of safety we continued on under jib alone. The rest of the trip was no less exciting with the F-31 surfing down waves, dolphins bow wave riding and the waves getting bigger. (official reports were 10 to 12')

The occasional wave did break over the stern but generally the ride was quite dry. The entry into Mooloolaba Harbor was uneventful with just some care needed to avoid the breaking waves closer to shore. We tied up to FLEETWING's jetty at 1555 hrs. an elapsed time of 5 hrs. and 55 mins. for the 60 N.M. trip. Not bad considering that half the trip was done under jib alone.

After this it is going to be awfully hard to sail my poor little TRAMP at 5 knots again! I'd better keep buying those lottery tickets.

Kind regards,

Stan Simankowicz, Cleveland, QLD.

The F-9A/F-31 rudder can kick back as described, and in heavy weather the lock/shear pin should be inserted to make sure it won't cause elevated laundry bills. An alternative is to cleat the pull down line to a horn cleat, (as possible on the F-27) which will prevent kick-up, but be sure you will not be venturing into shallow water.

The F-9A rudder will steer the boat while kicked back, and in shallow water, provided the rudder is not allowed to kick back too far. The advantage of this system is that there is no heavy helm as occurs with earlier designs while kicked back.

F-27 SOUTHEAST REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

by Wendy Freedman

The Miami Yacht Club and the Multihull Association of South Florida (MASF) hosted the First Annual F-27 Regional Championships on Biscayne Bay the weekend of March 21st and 22nd. A record setting 16 boats registered for the event, putting the rest of the F-27 fleets around the country on notice that Florida is where it's happening. The competitors were nearly evenly divided between the "Stock Spinnaker" class and the somewhat more radical "Sport Spinnaker" class whIch has become so popular in Florida.

Sport Spinnaker boats are essentially identical to the stock, rather strict, one design F-27's except that bowsprits and asymmetrical spinnakers are legal. Owners sailing in Sport Spinnaker rave about the multiple advantages of their more avant guarde headsail configurations, Easier to handle, super fast and safer than the traditional symmetrical chutes. And the results of the regatta seemed to confirm their claims, at least as far as speed was concerned as the Sport Spinnaker boats invariably dominated the Stock class.

The first day of the event saw the F-27's running 3 heats, on a Modified Olympic triangle course in breezes starting at around 6 to 8 knots at noon, and up to about 12 knots later in the afternoon. Anyone who thinks the F-27 is just a cruiser's class should have seen the tightly packed starts and the very close competition around the buoys. Sunday the winds picked up a bit to around 16 to 18 knots, and the race committee obliged the fleet with an 8 mile reach down the Bay to the Blackledge marker and back. The fleet put on a show of speed that other sailors on the bay that day are not likely to forget for some time to come. Eric Arens, from Jensen Beach, Florida took the honors in the Sport Spinnaker class with Jim and Dee Dee Buffum from Sarasota, Florida, hot on their heels in each heat. Pat Hogan, from Key Largo won a hard earned 3rd. Local favorite Pablo Aguilera, just managed to edge out Kim Cole of Homestead, Florida for first in Stock Spinnaker. Dr. Phillip Styne of Orlando, Florida, a veteran sailor, but quite new to the F-27 placed a very respectable 3rd place. All received beautiful custom redwood trophies, donated by Corsair Marine and the FINISH LINE, Inc.