Former Australian Sabot champion Sean O’Rourke has good reason to be excited about his future career in One Design fleet racing and the highly competitive IRC class ocean racing.
The exceptionally talented Mooloolaba Yacht Club sailor who added the Audi Australian IRC championship to his impressive career as a member of the Rod Jones skippered OceanBuro crew has been selected to skipper an exciting new Dart SB3.
One of the four Dart SB3’s which are due to arrive in a shipping container next month has been sponsored by Tasqua Management Services a Sunshine Coast Development and Investment Company to further promote youth sailing at the Mooloolaba Yacht Club.
Sean O’Rourke who valued leaning ‘the ropes’ with Sabot class racing on the open ocean courses off Pt Cartwright showed his class when he won the National Gold Medal in a similar open water racing environment on Port Denison (Bowen).
He has since matured into a clever tactician and his selection to steer the new Dart SB3 under Tasqua Management Services ‘Battle flag’ is a fitting reward.
Mooloolaba Yacht Club has a proud history of producing Australian junior class sailing champions but unfortunately they have either drifted away from the sport or continued their senior class racing with Brisbane clubs.
Fortunately this exciting new One Design sailing program to be managed by Rod Jones and Kai Timm the principles of the successful OceanBuro racing team promises to stem the flow of talent by offering young Sunshine Coast and Queensland sailors an opportunity to compete in National and World championships.
The program will be officially launched with Sean O’Rourke and Matt Jones nominated to represent Queensland in the inaugural Dart SB3 Australian championship which will be sailed in conjunction with Audi Geelong Race Week series in late January.
Meanwhile the OceanBuro Performance Sailing squad members O’Rourke and Jones will enter into an extensive sail training program off Mooloolaba where they will develop their understanding of racing the Dart SB3 to her potential.
Skipper Sean O’Rourke and Matt Jones will have almost three months to become familiar with the new class which promises to provide champion youth sailors and older sailors with the opportunity to experience the challenge of one-design class racing in club, Queensland, Australian and World championship regattas.
The Dart SB3 has experienced tremendous growth in Europe with big fleets competing in fleet racing on the major international sport boat regatta circuit.
They have the design pedigree to make an exciting debut in Australia but more importantly the class will encourage both young and old Sunshine Coast sailors with a personal challenge to compete in an affordable strict one design class with the Mooloolaba Yacht Club based OceanBuro sail development program.
The combined support of Tasqua Management Services and the sailing skills of Rod Jones, Kai Timm and Sean O’Rourke have provided a solid foundation to inject a high standard sail development program back into the proud history of the Mooloolaba Yacht Club which has played a major role in producing a number of Australian champions including the 2007 Audi Australian IRC trophy winner Alegria.
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