Peter Millard and John Honan signaled their former New Zealand maxi Lahana was on the pace when they claimed an impressive line honours win in the 63rd QantasLink Brisbane to Gladstone race over the Easter Weekend.
The Lahana crew overcame a slow start in fickle and shifting winds to express her exciting speed potential to answer the challenge from their major rival Black Jack and complete the tactically demanding 308n/ml race in 27 hours 13 minutes 14 seconds.
Lahana sealed the victory during the first night at sea building a surprising 17 n/ml lead over the Mark Bradford skippered defending champion Black Jack while overall IRC handicap race favourite the Marcus Blackmore helmed TP 52 Hooligan held third continuing to firm a grip on another major trophy.
All three high performance ocean sailing crews agreed the race particularly the fist 42 n/mls to exit Moreton Bay had tested both their patience and ultra light wind racing strategy. However that experience was replaced with an enjoyable night of warm sailing on the open ocean.
Lahana exercised the advantage of her 30 m waterline length and sail power to record the impressive 11.3 knot average in her 1 hour 20 minute 19 second line honours win over the 20m Black Jack while the 16m TP 52 Hooligan finished another 4 hours 18 minutes 59 seconds off the pace.
There competitive performance sailing at the head of the fleet also allowed them to dominate the top places on corrected IRC handicap with Hooligan being confirmed as Australia’s leading offshore racer with a 27 minute 43 second and .089 seconds per mile win from Lahana with Black Jack another 23 minutes 4 seconds of the pace.
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