The elegant Swan may soon be a Hog

by Rob Kothe/Di Pearson on 13 Aug 2003 Steven David’s beautiful Swan 45 Joe sailed elegantly to the lead of the 2003 Hogs Breath Race Week IRC division this afternoon.

In the soft conditions, Joe, from Sydney, finished only seven minutes behind the Volvo 60 Andrew Short Marine and five minutes behind the Farr 52 Ichi Ban owned by Matt Allen, in the shortened Molle-Double Cone race.

In the series battle, this was an important race for point’s leader Joe and second placed Ticket of Leave (Kevin Wood), and should Joe win that battle, she will be crowned Boss Hog of the regatta.

The former Sandringham Yacht Club Commodore, Kevin Wood had been well placed with his 40.7 Beachball Ticket of Leave, leading the larger Joe past Pioneer Rock into the Molle Channel.

However, the Joe crew sailed through the fleet to victory, and Ticket of Leave could only manage a 4th placing - and that result may be the series decider. Already leading the series by a point, Joe is almost certain to wear the IRC Boss Hog crown tomorrow afternoon. David said he was ready for the jokes of ‘swan to hog in a day.’

He went on to say, ‘I have a great boat and a great crew – we all know each other well and each person was picked for their particular skill. Will Oxley’s local knowledge obviously helps us too, and it’s pleasing to know that Joe sails well in all conditions.’

Chris Links, principle helmsman added, ‘we sailed under High Anxiety for a while, but then they tacked back to shore and we got them, then we picked up Ticket of Leave the same way – they tacked back to the shore.

When Andrew Short Marine went aground near White Rock, we went round just behind Leroy Brown who was the new leader, then we sailed low going around South Molle. We had to stay out of the current. Then we hit a hole, and Leroy overtook us, and then they hit it too.

We were the first to see the sea breeze coming and weighed up our options, we knew it was crucial, it was the sort of day when anyone can win and you can’t afford a single mistake. We went to the left of the course, so we were set up beautifully for the sea breeze and sailed away from everyone behind us, then we just kept working hard at staying low, making gains on the boats ahead. It paid off.’

‘Darren Jones later said ‘good things come to those who wait,’ but we had to wait six hours!’ David interjected.

‘This regatta has been good for us going into Hamilton Island, Ticket of Leave has been our benchmark, it is always very well sailed, so it is pleasing to finish well against them. It will be interesting between the two of us and Quest at Hamilton Island,’ Links went on to say.

Warren Weickman’s Sydney-based Farr 40, Leroy Brown, finished 2nd on handicap - his best result for this regatta. He won the start going right into pressure and then slid back towards Funnel Bay. The ugly dog then rode a series of 1-2 knot bullets to the mark to sail well throughout the race.

Weickman said after the race, ‘this is a great regatta, I first came here in 2000. Today was a real drifter, very frustrating, the breeze oscillated so much, boats were doing 720’s that they didn’t have, or want, to do. There was a bit of tide and current too, it was tricky. The high of the day was the 6-8 knots we briefly got.

I had four hours on the helm – it was awful, there was no pressure at all while I steered – four hours of it. We are not doing as well as I would have hoped, but having said that, we are sailing with a lot of crew who haven’t sailed together before, including Robbo Robertson and four of his fellow Queenslanders, one Tasmanian and three of my crew from RPAYC in Sydney.

After this we will do the Farr 40 program – no more offshore races for me, it’s just not the right boat for long offshore’s. Anyway, we already hold the record for boats of 40ft for the Sydney-Hobart race (1999), which we broke by 18 hours, the Sydney-Southport which we broke by 11 hours and we finished a close 2nd on line to Magnavox in the Mooloolaba-Airlie Beach race, so that’s enough for me,’ he said.

Chris Dare’s Stratcorp 97 surprised in the second half of the race. The 1993 Sydney to Hobart winner had been well back in the fleet at Pioneer Rock but finished only five minutes behind the Volvo 60 Magnavox 2UE, for a well deserved third place.

Dare was due his day, after purchasing the yacht early this year, he was dismasted in his first major regatta, the Australian Offshore Keelboat Championships in his hometown, Melbourne.


Division 1 IRC results Molle islands/Cones Race Provisional only

Joe 1 SYD8 05:45:14 1.202 06:54:58 1.0 14:45:14 Steven David PBYC 3 (on line)

Leroy Brown 2 933 05:57:47 1.174 07:00:02 2.0 14:57:47 Warren Wieckmann RPAYC 6

Stratcorp Ninety Sev 3 SM9797 05:53:22 1.211 07:07:56 3.0 14:53:22 Chris Dare Sandringham YC 5

Ticket of Leave 4 SM47 06:45:39 1.078 07:17:17 4.0 15:45:39 Kevin Wood Sandringham YC 8

Ichi Ban 5 8880 05:40:41 1.323 07:30:43 5.0 14:40:41 Matt Allen CYCA 2

Andrew Short Marine 6 NOR2 05:38:31 1.495 08:26:05 6.0 14:38:31 Andrew Short CYCA 1

Magnavox 2UE 7 MH888 05:48:25 1.477 08:34:37 7.0 14:48:25 Sorensen / Hod Gray MHYC 4

Indec 8 8679 06:10:20 1.483 09:09:12 8.0 15:10:20 David Gotze RBYC 7