Winners are grinners
by Lisa Ratcliff on 3 Aug 2004
Winners are grinners and tonight New Zealand businessman Stewart Thwaites, who had his boat Konica Minolta delivered 1,200 nautical miles from Auckland to contest his first Ingles Sydney Gold Coast Race, is a happy man.
‘We came over to win and that's what we've done,’ he said tonight at Southport Yacht Club as the crew celebrated their victory with beer and pies thanks to race sponsor Ingles.
Thwaites was unconcerned that Grant Wharington's Skandia is likely to have beaten him over the finish line had they not retired early this morning.
‘To win a race you have to finish a race,’ he said. However given the opportunity, he admitted they had hoped to catch up to and eventually pass the equally sized Skandia.
At 6.12pm this evening, Konica Minolta crossed the finish line off Southport's Main Beach, the Gold Coast lights signalling the finish to what has been a frustrating race for them and the 69 yachts still continuing northwards.
The next boat due is the race record holder, George Snow's Brindabella, which is expected across the finish line around 11.00pm this evening followed by Sean Langman's AAPT, a two-time line honours winner in this race, at 1.30am.
This afternoon and evening has seen three more race retirements, Maurice Cameron's Witchdoctor and Greg Newton's Antipodes due to time constraints and Michael Cranitch's Broomstick with sail damage. This brings the total retirements to five.
For the first 40 hours of this 384 nautical mile race that began in Sydney Harbour on Saturday at 1.00pm, the fleet had to contend with light and fluky winds and although a fresh north nor’ east breeze has filled in today, there is still plenty of work ahead for the weary crews as they tack back and forth towards Southport.
‘The crew have packed up the spinnaker sheets for the rest of the race, which says it all,’ commented Tony Kirby, the skipper of the Bavaria 38 Game Set, tonight as the crew prepared for a lasagne dinner and a third night at sea.
He also reported lumpy seas with short sharp chop, which has made the going tough.
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