Laurie Ford will compete again in the Melbourne Osaka Cup 2018 with his son Tim on his Cameron de Lange 12m yacht. This will be Laurie’s third race to Osaka, the first one was back in 1999 with Peter DeLange as co – skipper and the second was 2013 with Tim.
Laurie recalls that the first one took 36 days mainly due to hitting a Sunfish off Sydney Heads when surfing with 50 – 60 knots up their stern. On becoming becalmed in the Coral Sea , they found all the fibreglass fairings around the steel sub structure had been destroyed as a result. Despite this they still managed to win their Racing Division C for yachts of 10 to 12 metres, which included a day stop at Lihir Island to try and fix the alternator which had died due to overheating. With this well settled father son combination and Laurie’s experience, they’ll be hard to beat in 2018.
