Walk on the Wild Side claims Bali Line Honours
by Bernie Kaaks on 12 May 2017
Walk on the Wild Side won the start at Fremantle and was never headed. - Fremantle to Bali Ocean Classic Natusha zaremba
Garth Curran’s veteran 58 footer Walk on the Wild Side, sporting a brand new set of green sails, started strongly in Fremantle last Saturday and was never headed, drawing away from the fleet to finish at 1am today, more than 30 hours ahead of the next boat and favoured to win both IRC and YAH handicap divisions as well.
Co-helm Rod Keenan was impressed with the boat’s performance, saying that for much of the race they were able to maintain speeds only two knots below wind speed.
The elapsed time of six days and fifteen hours puts Wild Side in elite company. It beats the inaugural race record time set by Rolly Tasker’s giant Siska IV, a record that stood for 30 years, and stacks up well in comparison with Alan Brierty’s Limit, which set a new record of six days and five hours in 2011 and also the current race record holder, Tony Mitchell’s super maxi Super Sled which carved out the 1440 nautical mile course in 5 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 24 seconds.
Wild Side was launched in 1988 and is rapidly becoming one of the “oldies” in the fleet but she has entered the record books with the third fastest time in the history of the race – being headed only by a well sailed and campaigned RP62 and a super maxi.
Expected on Sunday is Mike Giles’ Sydney47 Endorfin, with the leaders of the Rally fleet following close behind.
One of the surprise packets in the race has been the double handed Jeanneau Sunfast 3600 sailed by Todd Giraudo and David “Dubbo” White. Their boat Kraken has been prepared for next year’s Melbourne-Osaka race and the crew is using the Bali race as practice. They headed the IRC table in the early stages of the race, but as Wild Side took advantage of fresher breeze, slipped back.
Max Palleschi’s Farr40IOR Prime Factor took a gamble in selecting a fine corridor of breeze off Exmouth, but then had to chase breeze which cancelled out most of the advantage they gained. Still the boat is making very good progress.
There were two retirements from the fleet. The Edge returned to Fremantle with charging problems for its brand new lithium batteries, and the Rally yacht Thelma blew out a heat exchanger and retired, making port at Exmouth.
The last of the Rally yachts are expected to arrive in Benoa by Friday.
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