Sail-World.com : Wild Joe wins double - Pittwater to Pittwater
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Wild Joe wins double - Pittwater to Pittwater |
Steven David's Wild Joe has been declared the overall IRC handicap winner of the altered 2008 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race, the re-routed 210nm Pittwater return Race.
Steven David said a short time ago that, 'winning the IRC handicap is what we set out to achieve for this race and we're happy for the line honours/handicap double, it makes it all the more sweeter. We've had two second placings in the past two years in the Coffs race on handicap with Wild Oats XI last year and Balance the year before, so were determined to do it this year, to achieve it albeit on the altered Pittwater to Pittwater course, is absolutely awesome.'
Commenting on the altered course and the decision made by The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club to run with the altered course due to the severe and dangerous conditions currently being experienced on the mid North Coast, Steven said, 'We were happy to go with whatever the club decided, it was a smart decision and the right move for everybody. Naturally we're disappointed not to do the Coffs Race, as we really enjoy it and were looking forward to the challenge.
'But, we were ready to race regardless and in the end it was a great result and an enjoyable race. But we look forward to going back to Coffs next year.'
Wild Joe's crack crew of 12 crew on board for the race was an array of talent & experience, amongst them including; many offshore races, over 50 Hobarts, America's Cup campaigners, a couple of Vovlo around the world racers and an Olympian and World Champion.
 | Wild Joe - |
Steve spoke highly of his crew and said 'yeah, not a bad mix of talent I guess, but they're a great bunch of guys, most of them local and members of the RPAYC and really enjoy racing with them. I guess when you have blokes like 'Beasho' (Adam Beashel), Ed Smythe and Brett Ellis who were part of the '07 America's Cup campaign, Nathan Wilmot who is going for Gold this year (Wilmot is part of the 2008 Olympic sailing team and current 470 World Champion), Mitch White(8 Hobarts and Volvo round the world ocean race) and Kiwi Geoff Scott, who you learn something new every time you race with him (Geoff's a triple Volvo ocean round the world ocean racer) and all the other guys on board who have done plenty of ocean miles and plenty of racing, they sure know how to get the job done. We had a bit of fun.'
A bit of excitement for the crew aboard 'Wild Joe' just prior to sunset on the first night, when sitting on the rail and sailing in 8m of water off Stockton when 'two large 10 foot waves just appeared out of nowhere breaking within half a boat length right in front of us. We called tack and got out of there as fast as we could,' said Olympian and current 470 World Champion Nathan Wilmot.
With an elapsed time of 20hrs 11mins 12 secs for this 210 nm alternate course from Pittwater to Port Stephens to Botany Bay and then back to Pittwater, creates yet another record for Wild Joe, being the first and no doubt will last for a very long time as the event returns to Coffs Harbour same time, next year. 'Wild Joe' is the current race record holder of the 226nm Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Race set in 2003 (then as Wild Oats IX) in a time of 18hrs 29mins 14secs.
Results were provisional last night as the breeze picked up to 16 knots from the SE, bringing some of the smaller boats home from the last mark in Botany Bay in a hurry under spinnaker. However, in the end it wasn't good enough to affect the final three placings.
So declared the winner overall on IRC, Wild Joe finished on corrected time of 29hrs 58mins 38 secs, ahead of Bill Ebsary's Beneteau 44.7 Le Billet by an hour and 45 minutes with another, smaller Beneteau, a First 40.7, was Chris Lancaster's First Priority who sailed an extremely good race to finish in third a further 18 minutes behind Le Billet on corrected time. All three boats are from the host club, The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Newport.
In PHS Division, it was Steven Hobbs Harmony 42 Kick Back in first on a corrected time of 30hrs 29mins 16secs, followed by the 15m Radford Sea Quest owned by Graham Friend , with one of the smallest boats in the fleet Lyric,a Carter 33 from the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club in third place.
The result in PHS was only just finalised following a protest at the start.
Fortunately for Sea Quest she survived the protest when the Protest Committee found that the protesting boat Illusion, did not conspicuously display a red flag at the first reasonable opportunity. The protest was therefore found invalid and the handicap result remains unchanged.
by Damian Devine
6:30 AM Fri 4 Jan 2008 GMT
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2008 Pittwater to Coffs Race
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