The Sublime to the ??

by Al Constable on 9 Apr 2004 Last week, Sydney sailor Martin ‘Tacka’ Thompson was sailing aboard the luxury performance cruiser, Don Algie's 20 metre Storm II in the 2004 Sydney to Mooloolaba race.

A world of icemakers, plasma screen TV’s, pyjamas at bedtime ... now Tacka has donned a wetsuit for a wet wild ride aboard Keith Glover’s ten metre trimaran Trilogy in the 2004 Brisbane to Gladstone race.

While most sailors have seen Thompson in the middle of the Sydney 38 One Design fleets over the last five years, the 30-year-old sailor is looking forward to going back to the sailing he did as a ‘Tacka’.

He has a strong background in multihull racing, which started when Sydney Yachts, then Bashford International, were the Australian Hobie Cat builders.

In 1998 he sailed what is considered to be by many the most extreme multihull event in the world, the offshore Hobie classic - The Worrell 1000 - the 1,000 nautical mile epic up the US east coast.

And so for Thompson the Grainger designed trimaran Trilogy will provide a fast and furious ride, with a 20-knot south easter expected for much of the next 24 hours.

‘Raw Nerve and Flat Chat are going to be out in front, dueling with Skandia and AAPT but we are going for a podium place on handicap’ explained Thompson this morning.

‘Some monohull sailors reckon the multihull guys are crazy, but this race is really the top race on the Australian multihull scene and it is a lot of fun.’

Sail-World will be uploading race skeds from the multi-hull division of the 308 nautical mile Brisbane to Gladstone race at www.sail-world.com/gladstone2004