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Morris assisted by his equally talented crew mates Roger Overell, Michael Kelly and the father and son team of John and Shane Dickson piloted Flat Chat to an impressive but close win in the annual 308 nml Easter classic.

Their moment of triumph came shortly after 9-15 am when the smaller Flat Chat beat two of Australia's fastest yachts the Melbourne catamaran Raw Nerve (Martyn Riley) and Sean Langman's Sydney Pocket-Maxi Grundig for the prestigious first to finish honour.

The race win was built from a complete dedication by her crew who went without sleep and warm food to ensure their skipper could realize his personal ambition to claim another major race trophy.

Flat Chat overcame a slow start in light winds to reach speeds to 23.9knots on her way to claiming her special victory.

As expected Jamie Morris was elated when he moored the catamaran in the calm waters of Gladstone City Marina.

"We had a great race with stacks of thrills and plenty of spray on the deck it was just full on all the way". Morris said.

Flat Chat averaged 13.7knots for the course logging her fastest time to beat Raw Nerve by 15 minutes 53 seconds while Grundig the first monohull sloop claimed third place another 34 minutes 46 seconds astern.

The impressive performance of Flat Chat placed her in a strong position to also win the multihull class race outright on handicap while Grundig was named as the provisional handicap winner of the 55year old THE COURIER-MAIL Cup in the monohull class race.

However these placings are likely to change with strong spinnaker sailing winds assisting the smaller and lower handicapped yachts as they track a fast course towards the finish.