Mount Gay 40th Gosford to Lord Howe Island Race overall

by G2LHI on 9 Apr 2014 Mount Gay 40th Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht race - 'Fast, wet and the most exciting finish to a race I’ve ever experienced' is how Dr Darryl Hodginson has the described the historic race.

Hodgkinson’s yacht Victoire is now revered as the most competitive IRC ocean racer in Australia after completing the Sydney to Hobart/Gosford to Lord Howe Island category one double and the skipper vows to come back next year to defend the title.

'The race had everything'.

'Lead changes, heavy rain, holes in the breeze and some of the fastest sailing we’ve done with this boat'. Dr Darryl said.

Upon their approach to the island, the crew began to strategise about how they were going to deal with the finish.

With 20 miles to the finish and Victoire surfing before the fresh sou’wester at up to 23 knots, it became apparent that some really slick crew work was going to be needed to hit the finish line at speed.

The finish line for the Lord Howe is just a few hundred metres from the reef outside the lagoon and the crew knew that they would have to hit the line and then gybe to head back out to the safety of deeper water.

In the end every crew member had a job to do as Victoire blasted through the finish and the skipper was proud of the way the gybe was managed.

Victoire has achieved another double in that they also took out the ORCi handicap category for the race.

Second on handicap was the Ker 40 Midnight Rambler, which is remarkable effort considering the crew lost 20 minutes or more whilst implementing a retrieval of a man overboard. MOB’s in ocean racing are not common, but retrievals are an important part of the training that Cat One ocean racing crews are required to undertake prior to entering. The Gosford Sailing Club commended the Midnight Rambler crew for the way they managed the situation and the event has acted as reminder that all ocean racing crews should practice their safety drills regularly.

Third overall is this year’s race was the ever consistent DK46 Exile skippered by Lord Howe Race veteran Rob Reynolds.

Reynolds has competed in at least 10 Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht Races and this year picked up his second PHS category win with Exile, the first being back in 2000 with J44 Phoenix.

Line honours winner VO70 Southern Excellence II went tantilisingly close to breaking the 12 year old race record. SEx II started and finished fast, but found a big hole in the breeze mid race that spoiled any chance of cracking the 33 ½ hour record. SEx II finished around two hours outside the record with an elapsed time of 35 hours, 41 minutes and 34 seconds.

At the presentation last night, Lord Howe Maritime’s Clive Wilson provided some anecdotes about his involvement in the race, which goes back to its inception in 1974.

One significant point that was raised by Wilson, is that the Australian Marine Safety Authority (AMSA) has never been called on to provide any rescue resources in race’s 40 year history.

An AMSA spokesperson told Wilson during a conversation yesterday, that this is a credit to the organisation and in particular the competitors who train and prepare fastidiously for the 414 nm race across the Tasman.

Another interesting fact about this year’s race is that the slowest boat King Billy, recorded and elapsed time of 61 hours 52 minutes which is nearly seven hours faster than last year’s line honours winner Southern Excellence II for the course in 2013.