Grundig Leads Sydney-Gold Coast Race

by Di Pearson on 26 Jul 2003 Following a gusty start on Sydney Harbour in west-south-westerly winds this afternoon, the 68 yachts sailing in the 386 nautical mile Sydney-Gold Coast Race have settled down and are now sailing comfortably, most under spinnaker towards their Gold Coast destination.

At 7.00pm Sean Langman’s Grundig had a good five mile lead from Ludde Ingvall’s Luna Park Sydney (formerly Nicorette), Broomstick (Ray Wallace and Michael Cranitch), and the Volvo 60’s Andrew Short Marine djuice, David Gotze’s Indec and the Gray/Zemanek/Sorensen/Hodder owned Magnavox 2UE.

Grundig had already sailed 116 nautical miles of her journey, heading to Sugarloaf Point on the NSW coast, and while it is still early to be talking race records, the current conditions are certainly making it a possibility.

Speaking from Magnavox, Julie Hodder said, ‘we had 32 knots of wind, we’re trying to pull down the masthead and throw up the fractional kite, it’s happening a bit slowly. The breeze has gone left a bit, it’s about 30 knots now, and we’re out offshore, the other big boats are inside us, closer to shore. The seaway is not unpleasant; we are having a comfortable ride.

Meanwhile, David Pescud reported from KAZ, ‘we are pretty much abeam of Newcastle, but offshore a bit. We’ve got 30 knots of west; a fair bit more than we anticipated. We’ve pulled the kite down, and are two-sail reaching doing around 10 to 12 knots. We had a slow start; we had a bit of a mainsheet problem. We are having a comfortable sail and have just had dinner.’

Aboard KAZ with Pescud are three of his crew from their record-breaking Around Australia circumnavigation, Phil ‘Bear’ Thompson, Kim Jaggar and Brett Pearce.

Early in the race, John Cameron’s Dibley 46, More Witchcraft, returned to the CYCA after tearing a panel in its mainsail. A disappointed Cameron said, ‘we were sailing conservatively, we didn’t even have a spinnaker up, and a whole panel just tore out of the main as we were leaving the Heads.’ Cameron has since rejoined the race, but will have a hard time playing catch up.

Conducted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in conjunction with the Southport Yacht Club, the race finishes off Main Beach in Southport, Queensland.

To see the complete handicap information go to
http://www.sail-world.com/southport/index.cfm?SRSID=60