Peter Sorensen takes on Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week

3:02 PM Sun 7 Aug 2011 GMT

'Conquistador - Peter Sorensen - on day 2 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week' Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week Click Here to view large photo

World championship winning skipper Peter Sorensen has entered his 2008 Audi Australian IRC champion The Philosophers Club in a bid to win the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week grand prix class trophy.

Sorensen is no stranger to racing on the tactically demanding Whitsunday Sailing Club courses having previously raced in the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week Sports Boat class. However this will be his first serious assault on the major class championship where The Philosophers Club a Sydney 36 cruiser racer is nominated as the pre-regatta favourite.

Skipper Peter Sorensen winner of a number of major championships over a wide range of classes accepts that he and crew will be the front line contenders but they can expect to be challenged when the sails are tensioned for the opening race over the tactically demanding Double Cone-Armit Island race track on Friday.

There are a number of lower handicapped rivals who have both the performance and crew skills which support the potential to compete on equal terms with the champion Middle Harbour Yacht Club crew manning the deck on The Philosophers Club.

Mooloolaba Yacht Club's Gary McCarthy winner of the Ensign Racing Beneteau regatta in Brisbane with Brilliant Pearl, Whitsunday Sailing Club's Jeffrey Brown in the modified Northshore 38 Double O Seven and Cairns Yacht Club skipper Belinda Cooper at the helm of her Sydney 32 class sloop Groove have shown the recent form to command respect.

The Philosophers Club crew will be hoping for some 'grunt' in the trade winds after their disappointing 18th overall in the recent Audi Sydney to Gold Coast race.

They like several other smaller yacht crews spent some time 'glued to the water' in what ultimately proved to be a race which favoured the larger yachts to dominate eventually paving the way for the 2010 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week champion the Michael Hiatt skippered Living Doll to score a commanding victory.

Hopefully the normally reliable South East trade winds will ruffle the waters of Pioneer Bay and The Whitsunday Passage to provide the fresh wind sailors with no excuses.

A 15-20knot trade wind would be ideal giving The Philosophers Club a strong chance to win the IRC championship.
While providing the highly competitive Sports Boat class with spectacular spinnaker sailing winds to separate the present class pace setters Stealthy (Bob Cowan) from Lake Macquarie Yacht Club and the high performance Blokes World cleverly skippered by former Pioneer Bay sailor Brett Whitbread.

A late entry from the Keith Glover skippered high performance trimaran Trilogy promises to set up a match race when local skipper Bob Thompson defends his 2010 Multihull class championship with his flighty Tony Grainger designed trimaran Sirocco.

by Ian Grant