Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht race - Victoire clubhouse leader

by Tony Evans on 7 Apr 2014 In the Mount Gay 40th Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht race 2013 Sydney to Hobart winner Victoire is the clubhouse leader.

Victoire finished a little with an elapsed time of 37.40.04s around two hours behind Line Honours winner Southern Excellence II.

The Canting keel Cookson 50 shared the lead for the first half of the race with last year’s G2LHI Winner Frantic, but in the latter stages has drawn away to lead overall by more than two hours.

Frantic should finish around 4am local time.

Earlier, Southern Excellence II recorded an elapsed time of 35 hours, 41 mins and 33 seconds which is a little over two hours outside the race record.

Victoire looks like recording a remarkable double of Cat One ocean races and emulating AFR Midnight Rambler’s effort of 1998-1999 back to back Sydney to Hobart and Gosford to Lord Howe Island Races.

This is also skipper Dr Darryl Hodgkinson’s first attempt at the G2LHI Race who enlisted the talents of Townsville based world class navigator Will Oxley.

It would appear that none of the boats left out on the course can better Victoire’s corrected time, but officials are not likely to declare until late morning.