Glenn Bourke heads to Sail Paradise on the Gold Coast

by Bronwen Ince on 22 Feb 2012 Olympian and multi-world championship winning sailor, Glenn Bourke, has his sights set on the SB3 Queensland Championship at XXXX Sail Paradise, on the Gold Coast next month.

Fresh from a victory in the SB3 class Australian Championship in Hobart last weekend, Bourke will have to beat a highly competitive fleet, including another Queenslander, Phillip Gray, who sailed Dulon Polish to a very close second behind Bourke’s Club Marine Hamilton Island in the Nationals.

Bourke’s remarkable sailing career has had many highlights, including being the Sailing Venue and Competition Manager for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It was recognised as the best ever Olympic yachting regatta. As a competitive sailor he has won seven world sailing championships and he also represented Australia in the 1992 Olympics. He has sailed in the America’s Cup and Admiral’s Cup and was twice named Australian Yachtsman of the Year.

XXXX Sail Paradise will be staged by Southport Yacht Club from March 21 to 25 along the shoreline of the Gold Coast’s magnificent surf beaches. The course area is considered to be among the best sailing waters in Australia.
After experiencing cold conditions in Hobart the SB3 sailors are keen to head north. One of Bourke’s crew, Rod Jones, who is the man propelling the SB3 class in Australia said, ‘I can’t wait to be sailing on warm water. It was pretty cold in Hobart.’

Jones said a number of interstate SB3 sailors, like Victorian Mark Wolfenden out of Sandringham Yacht Club, would be competing at Sail Paradise. Wolfenden will be keen to improve on his fifth placing in Hobart.

‘We are really looking forward to Sail Paradise,’ said Jones, ‘because the sailing there is so good. The beaches absorb the motion of the waves, so the swells are generally smooth, and the winds are almost always steady in direction.’

XXXX Sail Paradise is open to a wide range of classes: IRC, PHS racing and cruising monohulls, sportboats, trailables and multihulls.

Sail Paradise has many special attributes: it is a regatta where sailors experience outstanding racing along the Gold Coast’s impressive shoreline while their families and friends can enjoy all the exceptional holiday features the Coast has to offer – like the famous beaches, the Broadwater and hinterland, plus the numerous world-class theme parks.

XXXX Sail Paradise has as associate sponsors Gold Coast Tourism, Gold Coast City Council and Club Marine.

XXXX Sail Paradise website