Queensland team heads to 2009 Audi World Etchells championship

12:18 AM Wed 4 Mar 2009 GMT

'Mark Bradford (AUS1317), Craig Healy (USA 946) and Jud Smith (USA1061)- Audi Etchells Worlds 2006' Sail-World.com /AUS &copy

World champion Etchells Silver Medallist Mike O'Brien has temporarily passed up the chance to test his tactical one-design sailing skill with club racing in the warm water environment off Mooloolaba.

He has packed his wet-suit and fleecy and headed to Melbourne where the pre-dawn temperature struggled to peak 12 degrees on Wednesday morning while a rather lazy five knot west-nor-west wind added to the chill factor.

The talented helmsman/tactician has experienced the discomfort of being drenched with cold sea water before and he is well prepared to face that test of personal endurance during the initial races of the 2009 Audi World Etchells championship over the Royal Brighton Yacht Club courses this weekend.

Meanwhile his own Etchells which has been nominated to contest the Musto Australian winter championship off Pt Cartwright in June will rest on her road trailer at the Mooloolaba Dinghy Club when he and World Silver Medal winning skipper Mark Bradford enter a promising challenge to reclaim the respect as one of the World's best Etchells racing combinations.

A lot has changed since the 2002 series on New Zealand's Gulf Harbour when Mark Bradford and Mike O'Brien expressed their skill to race consistently against a fleet of 97 rivals to eventually finish with a career best Silver Medal behind English helmsman Stuart Childerley.

Both are now a lot wiser and more experienced with Mark Bradford maturing from the knowledge of racing in the 2008 Americas Cup and steering the super fast Peter Harburg owned Black Jack to an impressive line honours trophy win at the 2008 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

Mike O'Brien has followed a far less hectic career but his super casual nature will change to reveal why he is rated as one of Australia's best tacticians when the 'Battle of Brighton' officially begins in Melbourne later today.

Predictably Mark Bradford and Mike O'Brien have too much respect for the standard of the fleet to nominate where they will finish but they are aiming to be in the top 10 when the final is decided on Saturday March 14.

The intense nature of the nip-n-tuck duel for the prestigious 2009 Audi World title trophy has as expected attracted the best sailors in the World including Australia's sole Americas Cup winning skipper John Bertrand English Olympic Gold Medallist Ben Ainslie and former World champion Cameron Miles.

John Bertrand will be very familiar with the racing conditions off Melbourne's Brighton Beach and he has left nothing to chance with the challenge of winning his first World crown after out sailing a strong fleet to win the recent Australian championship.

He will have Ben Ainslie in charge of his race strategy while 2008 Star Class Olympian Andrew Palfrey will provide the required weight and grunt to be a front line contender.

But John Bertrand who finished with a personal best Bronze medal at the Tag Heuer World series on Brisbane's Waterloo Bay in 1993 completely understands that while all crews are good mates on shore the friendships are left back in the bar when the sails are tensioned to win the war on the water.

by Ian Grant

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