Disaster averted

As overdue Formula 18 container reaches Yeppoon for World championship

A flurry of activity in the Rydges Capricorn F18 boat park at Yeppoon Queensland, as a 40ft container was unloaded to cheers and claps after a marathon 4300 kilometre road dash across Australia. A happy ending to a nightmare shipping saga for Seawind F18 Worlds event organisers and seven racing crews.

The container with seven F18s from France, Britain, Italy and Belgium was packed in Rotterdam but Dutch Customs delays meant it missed the freighter ship direct to Brisbane. The freight company instead shipped it to Singapore, from where it was going to be sent on.

However in Singapore, with the stroke of a pen, the shipping authorities left the crucial container dockside. The first the Australian freight agent and Seawind F18 Race Organisers knew of the problem was when the scheduled transport to Brisbane did not have the container on the manifest.

After a series of urgent phone calls, emails and faxes, the container was dispatched on the next available ship to Australia. Where to...? Perth, (Western Australia) on the Indian Ocean, just on 4,300 km from Yeppoon (Queensland).

The container was placed on top of the deck, for fast unloading, and the F18 box arrived in Perth on 13 February, a week before the first race. It was craned off the ship and customs cleared, then put onto a container truck bound for Adelaide where it was scheduled to be direct railed to Brisbane. But it missed the train.

The situation was now desperate; it looked very probable that seven crews might be beachside when racing started. Their boats were 2,270km from the race course, that's the approximate distance between London and Naples.

Some rapid decision making from the Seawind F18 Worlds organisers, who sucked in their breath and wrote a cheque for AUD$8,500, commissioning a Rockhampton-based trucking company to solve the problem. Hobiecat Australia contributed $3,000 to ease the burden.

A container truck with two drivers (who slept and drove in rotation) left Rockhampton, 50km from Yeppoon on Thursday. They picked up the F18 container on Friday night and drove non-stop to Rockhampton, arriving at 8am on Sunday morning.

The container was eagerly unloaded and already the first boats are being assembled and heading for weigh in. Numbers of the crews will be on the water this afternoon.