Two big races, two big wins
by North Sails on 8 Jan 2013
Wedgtail off the start in the 2013 Pittwater to Coff's Yacht Race Howard Wright /IMAGE Professional Photography
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This year’s Hobart and Coffs races have featured great performances across the board by North Sails powered yachts.
The Hobart favourite, Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats, and the Coffs favourite Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin, both streaked to convincing wins using our latest 3DI and 3DL working and reaching sails. Wild Oats went on to take the triple of line hours, first IRC and a new race record, while Ragamuffin secured a double by also taking out first on IRC and ORCi.
Throughout the various divisions where we find the dedicated sailors who represent the backbone of our sport, North Sails powered yachts continued to dominate with outstanding results.
Due to favourable forecasts both races were tests of boat speed where superior cutting edge sail design and construction technology combined with skilled crews were put to the test.
In the Hobart we saw in Division 1 Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki RP 63 and Jason Vanderslot’s Calm TP 52 take first and second place respectively. North Sail’s staff member Billy Sykes, sailing on Loki commented:
'24 hours of hard running with our Cuban fibre A4 allowed us to maintain average speeds in the high 20 kts range thereby allowing us to stay in the more favoured pressure system as we headed south.'
Other outstanding performances in the Hobart included that of the wonderfully determined Warwick Sherman in his new GTS 43, Occasional Course Language taking first place in Division 2 and in ORCi with Black Jack RP 66 taking out first place.
The North Sail’s tradition of staff participation and quality customer service to every customer regardless of yacht size was also a feature in both races. Billy Sykes, Noel Drennan, Aaron Cole, Peter Antill, Mark Bradford, Vaughan Prentice and David O’Connor all notched up successful passages. We take this active hands-on approach throughout the whole of the season out of a passion for the sport and our desire to ensure that all our clients’ yachts performance with our products is maximised.
Turning to the other divisions in the Coff’s race, outstanding performances by North Sails powered boats were recorded by Wedgetail taking out line honours and a close second to Ragamuffin overall on IRC. David Forbes Merlin Kaiko 52 taking third overall with each of these yachts sporting North 3Di sail technology, and Phil Dash’s Benateau First 40 Just a dash winning Division 2 with his new North Sails Code Zero making a significant difference to a class of yacht that would otherwise struggle in lighter tight reaching conditions.
Further solid performances were recorded by Bruce Hogan and Tina Clifton’s Perpetual Mocean placing fifth overall along with Bob Cox’s Nine Dragons taking sixth place. An impressive six out of 10 North Sails powered yachts featured in the top 10 places in IRC.
Looking forward, the next major event is Geelong Race Week and the team from North Sails will be there sailing a range of boats across the divisions. To find out more on how we can help you maximise the performance of your yacht make sure you contact your local North Sails representative today.
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