Barking Mad heads down under

Strong Farr 40 line up for Rolex Trophy Series reports Sam Crichton

Jim Richardson's Barking Mad from the USA and Neville Crichton's Shockwave will be part of the Farr 40 fleet racing in the Rolex Trophy Series, being hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney, on December 13-15.

Jim Richardson, who won last year's event, will bring a number of his US crew to sail in the three-day regatta. His crew will be made up of Volvo Ocean Race Winner, Stu Bannatyne. Stu also sailed with Richardson when Barking Mad won last year. Also sailing with Barking Mad will be main trimmer Skip Baxter and jib trimmer will be Morgan Trubovich. Skip was a member of the Prada 2003 America's Cup campaign and Morgan sailed on the most recent Stars and Stripes challenge. Before joining Barking Mad, Morgan was a trimmer on John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti's 1999 Farr 40 World Championship team.

Dave Scott of Annapolis is a program designer from North Sails and also has past America's Cup and Whitbread Race experience. Skip, Morgan and Dave have each sailed with Barking Mad for the past three years. Bowman Steve Inman, of Portland, Oregon has sailed with Barking Mad for the last year. The rest of the Barking Mad crew will be from Australia, Glenn Ferguson of Melbourne as pit and Matt Drake and Campbell James.

Neville Crichton, who was recently awarded the Sir Bernard Fergusson Trophy as the Yachting New Zealand Sailor of the Year, after his many wins both in Australia and overseas over the last 12 months, returns to Farr 40 racing after an 18-month absence. His maxi Alfa Romeo has won a number of Rolex sponsored sailing events in the last year with the most recent being the Rolex Middle Sea Race.

Current leader in the Australian Farr 40 circuit point score Marcus Blackmore will be racing with his successful crew on Emotional Hooligan. Also racing in the Rolex Trophy series will be Lang Walker on Kokomo, Rob Skinner on Weapon and Dick Voorderhake on Rapscallion.

The circuit point score has two remaining regattas for the Farr 40 season, the Joico regatta and the Rosemount Farr 40 National Championship both being raced in March of 2004. Prior to the Joico regatta will be the Alfa Romeo Twilight series being raced over four evenings in late February and used for training for the final two regattas of the year.
Current positions in the Farr 40 Australian circuit point score:

1 M.Blackmore 10
2 R.Perini 12
3 R.Skinner 13
4 L.Walker 13
5 S.Ellis 15
6 D.Voorderhake 25
7 D.McDonald 29
8 S.O'Rourke 37
9 K.Miller 39
10 M.Allen 48
11 P.Hyland 49
12 W.Weickmann 51
13 T.DeMulder 52