Marcus Blackmore, owner of TP52 Hooligan on winning Audi Victoria Week
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Photo: Lulu Roseman |
“The boat is obviously going well. We have a good boat and I don’t think there is any doubt about that. But you only had to be out on the track to see the crew work which was very good during this regatta like the mark rounds and there the sort of places you win and lose races and pick up valuable seconds, probably more so than on the beat or the run unless you’re going the wrong way. I’m indebted to my crew to what I think was an outstanding performance.
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Photo: Lulu Roseman |
Blackmore is a patron of the Australian Sailing Team and is keen for Olympians like Slingsby to sail with his crew when they can get them. "Their primary commitment of course is to get to the Olympics. Tom will be on board again but not all the time."
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Photo: Lulu Roseman |
“They include Doug Pratt, Tim Sheridan, Billy Merrington and Richie Alleson from North Sails. The guys are the core crew and we bring in some outside help that we did last year for the Rolex Trophy. The boat is not new and yes it has been a great performing boat and we had ETNZ’s Tony Rae for that regatta who was regular onboard at MedCup. Tyson, from South Australia who was involved in the build and is now our forward hand so we had a nucleus of people who know the boat. It’s two year’s old so it wasn’t like putting a brand new boat in the water.
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Photo: Lulu Roseman |
“Tom really did quite well. On the last day the others went for the boat end on the start line and we went to the pin end and as it turned out that was the place to be. In short racing like that the start is terribly important and the conditions were very shifty."
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Photo: Lulu Roseman |
“That is part of our team plan and we meet there every night for dinner. One of our guys, Tim Sheridan, aka Rubsy, is a bit of a character and he had the movie Wind with him. It’s about the 1987 America’s Cup in Freemantle. Anyway, Rubsy has a speaking part in that movie and while it was a long time ago, it was one of the funniest things to watch. I think if there was any defining thing that happened during the week it was the laughter and the psychology of that that gave us a lift.”
Lulu Roseman