Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race - Wild Oats XI in early lead

by Jennifer Crooks on 26 Jul 2014 Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI led the 55-boat fleet off the start in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race this afternoon, but conditions defied the Bureau of Meteorology’s prediction of an overcast showery start in 15 to 20 knots of north-westerly breeze.

Instead, the clouds parted shortly before the 1.00pm start on Sydney Harbour - the sun came out in all its glory - and the breeze petered out to almost nothing and then dropped out completely around 15 minutes into the start. At least spinnakers bloomed, making for a mass of colourful on Sydney Harbour.

It was a sunbather’s paradise, but a yachties worst nightmare come true; flukey and patchy at best. The only crew who appeared to have a direct line to whoever is in charge of weather up there, was Mark Richards and team on Wild Oats XI. Incongruously, the only yacht within cooee of the 100 footer was Steven Proud’s 44ft Swish.

The Nielsen Park start line was congested at the boat end, as the fleet eyed some breeze on the eastern shore. Richards got clear and stuck to Plan A, while both Perpetual Loyal (Anthony Bell) and the V70 Black Jack (Peter Harburg) got caught in light air, their skippers opting to duck the fleet and move towards the middle of the line. In retrospect, it was a costly mistake.

On board Bell’s 100 footer, Aussie cricket captain, Michael Clarke, looked relaxed, returning the smiles and waves from the spectator fleet. By the time Wild Oats XI had tacked out of Watsons Bay, there would have not been too many smiles aboard Perpetual Loyal, as there were at least eight boats varying in size from The Goat (The Goat Syndicate) at 38 feet up to Darryl Hodgkinson’s Cookson 50, Victoire between them and the leader.

As the patchy light breeze of five knots and less oscillated either side of west, the bulk of the fleet ended up out of puff off Watsons Bay, then at Lady Bay and again at the Heads, going around in circles or backwards. It was like watching a synchronized water ballet. Bell’s boat and the 70ft Black Jack, which share the same designer, were caught out too, their mains and Code Zeros as flat as pancakes and resembling messy unmade beds.

Other escapees included Anger Management, Phil Arnall’s Corby 43, Paul Clitheroe’s TP52 Balance and Frantic, the TP52 owned by ex-rugby player Mick Martin, all of which found a little pressure on the western side of the Harbour, and got through before the wind shut down again.

Among the last boats to exit the Harbour were Wild Rose, Roger Hickman’s 29 year-old Farr 43, Sally Warneford/Larry Jamieson’s Sydney 38 Thirlmere, Mortgage Choice Rumba, the Northshore 370 owned by partners Robert Carr, Stephanie Cook and Kerry Burke along with David Forbes’ Merlin and Noel Cornish’s St Jude.

Just before 3.00pm, Bear Necessity’s navigator, David Stenhouse, reported: 'A seal is sunning itself at the entrance to the Harbour,' ending: 'Looks like rain approaching from the west.'

From aboard Wild Oats XI, Rob Mundle reported at 3.15pm: 'We’re around four nautical miles ahead of Loyal; we can see them off Manly. We can also see Black Jack in the distance. We’re sailing along on a really nice flat sea doing eight to nine knots.

'The boat’s romping and not throwing up any spray,' he said in relation to the recent streamlining of the yacht’s bow, which is being tested for the first time in this race. 'The boat’s looking good – everyone on board is very happy with it,' he signed off, before mentioning a rain squall to the west.

Meanwhile, Paul Clitheroe called in from his recent purchase, the 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart overall winner, Quest (renamed Balance). 'Must buy a new boat more often. After much drifting between the Heads and enjoying watching sunbaking seals and penguins, Balance is arguably the first boat to Manly.

'A fair point is that Wild Oats is halfway to the horizon and made more distance, but if it was Sydney Harbour to Manly we've got that covered. Problem is, we’ve got no idea what will happen next, but lovely afternoon....so far!'

The CYCA’s proven yacht tacker system will allow family, friends and yachting enthusiasts to follow the race and their favourite yachts for its duration. Each yacht is fitted with a Yellowbrick tracker that will obtain a position using the GPS satellite network, and then transmit the position back to Yellowbrick HQ using the Iridium satellite network.

Each yacht’s position is then visualised on the race yacht tracker map, or overlaid on Google Earth. In addition, the yacht tracker system also shows distance to finish line and progressive corrected time positions under the IRC, ORCi and PHS handicap divisions.

For more information visit the event website