Sword of Orion triumphs in five hour match race.

by Ian Grant on 14 Aug 2000 Rob Kothe's high performance Sydney 40 Sword of Orion revelled in a moderating 12-15 knot South East wind to win the IMS class match race over Wayne Millar's Townsville sloop Zoe in the Joico Big Boat series off Hayman Island today.

As expected the racing for the fastest corrected handicap time under the wind velocity based rule has been generally dominated by the larger South Australian sloop Ausmaid skippered by Kevin Pearce.

But Ausmaid had little answer to the match racing 40's Sword of Orion and Zoe who raced almost side by side for just over five hours.

They were neck and neck on the two sail reach north to the Double Cone Islands and the boat on boat match race was still not resolved after the 8 n/ml tacking duel to weather the southern rounding at South Molle Island.

In fact the tactical duel played a big role in keeping both yachts logging the required speed to outsail their ratings.

But which crew was going to win remained in doubt when Sword Of Orion and Zoe became overlapped as the foredeck teams matched each other with a fast and faultless spinnaker set.

Sword of Orion gradually edged clear to win the Sail-world.Com trophy, improving her overall score to (4-2-1) but they still remain in the private match race with Zoe which has a 3-2-2.