Margaret Rintoul II’s submarine ride to Southport

by Lisa Ratcliff on 26 Mar 2007 Queensland boat Margaret Rintoul II, the latest to cross the finish line in the Audi Sydney Southport Yacht Race, is comfortable, even when it’s blowing 40 knots, but very wet summed up skipper Mike Freebairn at the finish of his first race with the new boat.

'The boat lived underwater. At one stage in the race we had a 20 foot wall of water up each side of the boat,' said Freebairn this afternoon.

Margaret Rintoul II really showed her mettle during the tough 36 hour window from the time the front slammed the fleet to the finish, suffering only a broken sail batten and a slight tear in the main in the final hour.

'The boat was extremely well prepared thanks to the previous owner, structurally there were no problems whatsoever,' Freebairn added.

With a 'few good old heads' and some of his crew from the stricken Ray White Koomooloo, Freebairn’s previous boat which sank just three months ago in the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart, the 1968 built Sparkman & Stephens 49 is provisionally leading IRC Division 4 however there are still four boats to finish in this division.

'Given the forecast conditions, we didn’t think we’d be that competitive so we are a little surprised. This boat was built to sail upwind at 40 knots rather than downwind at 40 knots,' Freebairn added.

James Connell’s Zephyr is currently second in division and needs to finish by 3.34pm this afternoon to knock Margaret Rintoul II out of the top divisional place. Their ETA is 3.05pm.

Nine boats are still to finish with the last boat in the fleet, Ian Thomson’s Queensland based Catalina Identity Crisis now due around 1am tomorrow morning.

'On board Identity Crisis, even the dolphins have abandoned us,' commented Thomson a short time ago.

'We had a real aim to catch and pass Too Impetuous but with their withdrawal our only battle is to see if we can get third in PHS.

'Meanwhile the crew has chosen to make a round of gourmet sandwiches including roast beef, tomato, lettuce, spinach, cheese and pickles. Gotta love the life on the high seas on a luxury cruising vessel. Maybe this is why it took us six hours to unwrap a kite in Newcastle.'