Wild rides -wins for Wild Joe and UBS Wild Thing

by Lisa Ratcliff on 4 Apr 2006 Leaving the rest of the fleet inshore and heading out to sea in search of the strongest winds paid dividends for both the IRC and PHS winners of this year’s Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.

‘It was a major punt and at times we were worried about out tactics, but after studying the forecast, it was always our pre race strategy,’ said a delighted Steven David this morning, the confirmed IRC overall winner of the Sydney Gold Coast with his Reichel/Pugh 60 Wild Joe.

‘We’d tried following everyone else before so we thought we’d try something different for this race but when the breeze we were expecting way offshore didn’t arrive, we did wonder whether we’d tack back in and find ourselves amongst the 50 footers.

‘Luckily it was one long gybe back in on a big shift that brought us up past Cape Byron’.

This is the boat’s first major IRC win in an offshore race, although it had great wins as Wild Oats, the Admirals Cup included, and a ‘fantastic result,’ said David. ‘It’s also a good booster for our preparation for the inaugural Sydney Mackay Race in July’, he added.

Second overall on IRC was Ray Roberts’ DK 46 Quantum Racing, which also sailed a brilliant race, and third overall was Bill Wild’s Queensland boat Wedgetail, a Welbourn 42.

The ‘flying toothpick’ as one crewmember calls it, is the other success story of this race. A 13 year old timber boat, Geoff Lavis’ UBS Wild Thing has notched up its second PHS overall win in the Sydney Gold Coast, the other back in 2000.

‘There’s still life in the black timber boat,’ said Lavis, the Commodore of the organising club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, today.

‘Given the forecast, it was always potentially our race to win, we were just lucky to finish before the weather closed down.

‘We worked hard and sailed smart, and we had pace on all the time.

‘We got into some pretty steep and dangerous seas offshore on the first night and ‘buried’ the boat a number of times. We actually had to back off and gybe back inshore, luckily we timed it with a good lift’, Lavis added.

Second overall in the PHS results was Immediate Past CYCA Commodore Martin James’ Farr 65 Infinity III and third was John Woodruff’s Volvo 60 Seriously TEN.

The Sydney Gold Coast fleet started the 384 nautical mile race from Sydney Harbour on Saturday afternoon in a wild 25-30 knot sou'wester and a nasty swell which knocked two yachts out of the race within the first couple of hours, one failing to make it out of the harbour.

Following the retirement of Kevin O’Shea’s Stormy Petrel, which is currently motoring to Southport, the last boat due to finish is 83 year old John Walker's Impeccable, which is 30 miles from the finish.