Buffalo Boys win Sydney 38’s

by Rob Kothe on 4 Jan 2006 Grant Halliday’s The Business surprised themselves and the rest of the very competitive Sydney 38 fleet, when The Business came from five miles behind the leaders to slingshot to a surprise victory in the final stages of the 226 mile Pittwater to Coffs Race today.

The Broken Bay start raised more than eyebrows when Daryl Hodgkinson’s Uplift, normally a mid-pack contender was fast away and led the field past Cape Three Points, with Gavin Ward’s Eye Candy, Stephen Merrington’s chartered Easy Tiger and Lisa and Martin Hill’s Estate Master, the closest of the following group.

The Plastic Surgeon maintained the lead well into the night, only to be the first to park at the Seal Rocks in the wee hours of the morning.

One by one, the following fleet joined the raft up and soon after dawn, as the breeze stirred, the race to Coffs Harbour started again.

At the Tuesday morning sked, the eight boats in the One Design division were still within one square mile of each other.

Gavin Ward from Eye Candy commented; “We were just behind Seal Rocks after the first parking lot when we got a great kite run and headed out a little and straight past all the boats.

‘Near Cape Horn it all started again with another parking lot and the fleet all caught up to us, again. And then we had another one yesterday afternoon just near Korogoro Point, ten miles south of Smokey Cape.

‘We climbed through the fleet, we went wide, and when we came back to the beach there was only Easy Tiger ahead of us. We just focused on them.

‘Denis Thompson, tactician on Easy Tiger; “Eye Candy got around us with sheer boat speed. And we just stayed with them waiting for a mistake.’

The two beach going teams saw The Business going wide, with no great pace and they lost sight of them.

As Ward explained; ‘ We noticed The Business going out but then didn’t worry about them again until we radioed in our time and we realised that they had taken us all out.’

A winning move born out of desperation; but the most surprised sailors were on The Business.

‘We were not going to get a result by following the fleet, we were too far back,’ explained Halliday dockside. ‘So we took a flier. We had great pressure out wide, but in the darkness we did not have a clue how we were going.

‘When we gybed in towards Korfs, we figured we were about fourth. Then when we came into the outer harbour, we could not see any other 38’s. It was only then we realised we’d won.’

Behind them The Eye Candy and Easy Tiger crews were stunned.

Steven Merrington, Easy Tiger; ‘It was brilliant, we had a wonderful time. We were together all the way which made it great fun. The Business sailed over us. They did a great job!’

Thompson, with beer in hand, smiled. ‘Sometimes the best thing about ocean racing is when you stop.’