Catamaran capsizes on gusty first day of Sunshine Coast Ocean Regatta
by Del Morrison on 6 Aug 2014
Gusty wind and waves caused 'Lightwave Raider' to capsize. Del Morrison
The first day of the Sunshine Coast Ocean Regatta (SCOR) series got off to a tough start on Monday the fourth with strong winds gusting up to 30 kts and waves up to 2.5 m.
The fleet started well and were heading to the first mark when the wind claimed its first casuality. 'Lightwave Raider' a 9.2m catamaran got off to a great start and was flying when the combination of gusty wind and waves caused the boat to capsize. Fortunately none of the crew was hurt.
It was good to see other yachts in the fleet leave the race to assist the crew of 'Lightwave Raider' and standby until the Race Committee vessel and the Coastguard arrived.
'Lightwave Raider' was not the only yacht to experience difficulty and a number of boats unfortunately were forced to retire. The remainder of the yachts enjoyed an exciting 15 mile bay race with Michael Fortune’s Beneteau First 44.7, Still Sweet Revenge, taking the double with line honours and first on corrected time.
Day two again saw similar challenging conditions with a 30 mile passage race testing yachts and crews. John Stark’s Corsair trimaran, New Tricks, revelled in the fresh conditions and 'flew' around the course to take line honours and a very clear win on corrected time.
It is expected that conditions will further improve over the week so entrants are looking forward to the upcoming races.
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