Heaven Can Wait - Moth flies as Champion smashes Lake Macquarie record

by Heaven Can Wait Media on 2 Oct 2010 Lake Macquarie sailor Nathan Outteridge, became the King of the Lake smashing the Heaven Can Wait race One Lap Dash record for the 29 nautical mile race around the lake this afternoon.

He flew across the finishing line off the Royal Motor Yacht Club Toronto, recording two hours seven minute and 31 seconds, leading the Moth fleet and well ahead of the first 18 footer, Andrew Chapman’s Fisher & Paykel and the leading multihull, Clive Kennedy’s Egan 9.5 metre catamaran Two Tribes.

As he began derigging his Moth Outteridge commented 'It was a great race. I had a poor start compared to Tom (Slingsby) and Scott (Babbage) but managed to get through Tom early as he did not have good speed.

'I have lived on Lake Macquarie all my life and I just did not realise how big it is. I capsized eleven times in all, a few times at over 20 knots, but nothing broke and I managed to sail really fast.

'My top speed was 26.5 knots, I got a good puff out of Belmont Bay and broke away.'

Second across the line was Scott Babbage, four minutes back behind Outteridge, with daylight to third place.

In spite of his wetsuit, Babbage was very cold and shivering after his very fast circumnavigation. ‘It was cold running downwind, with lots of capsizes and I hit 25 knots downwind.'

A rare race retirement for Tom Slingsby, who explained 'Three quarters of the way down to Wangi my first capsize broke the vang, then on my second prang I broke the flap control rod, so then I could not foil so I quit, otherwise I'd be still out there tomorrow.'

Steve Brajkovich’s Boatspeed 23 Crash Test Dummies also retired early with a broken rudder. Greg Paterson’s 18 footer Ella Bache was heavily overpowered with full rig and struggled to keep upright. He retired shortly after the start. Ray Waldron’s Phuket 8 Vino suffered a broken mast.

More later.