Audi Sunshine Coast

Rod Jones, a two-time Australian IRC champion, will bring his Welbourn 50, Audi Sunshine Coast, to the start line for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart. Built in Gosford, Jones revamped a 2000 designed Welbourn 50, combining it with the keel, rudder and deck from Warren Johns’ 1989 IOR 50 footer, Heaven Can Wait and optimised and tweaked it. In this year’s protracted Gosford Lord Howe Island Yacht Race, the Queenslander finished third overall and won PHS.  

In its second offshore outing, the yacht showed early promise, winning Division 1 of the CYCA’s 2013 Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in July after featuring at the top of the overall rankings early on. This will be Jones’ second and probably last Hobart, having sworn off it after his first some years ago. A solid crew who have mostly raced with Jones for a few seasons on his various yachts and in the SB3 keelboat, accompanied by a quick boat, make them worth having a bet on. 

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