Skandia takes line honours

by Lisa Ratcliff on 2 Apr 2006 In a one boat race for line honours, Grant Wharington’s 98 foot Skandia crossed the finish line in the Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race at 7.36pm this evening against the backdrop of the sparkling lights of the Queensland Gold Coast. Their elapsed time is 1 day 7 hours 36 minutes and 5 seconds

This is Wharington’s third line honours victory in this event, having claimed the same trophy in 2000 and 2002 with his previous boat Wild Thing.

‘It all shut down on us,’ he laughed, having predicted there was a good chance the breeze would fade at the end, despite the forecast record breaking conditions.

‘What can you do? You just have to keep turning up,’ he added, referring to his race record attempt.

Skandia did suffer a series of complications yesterday afternoon which cost them a couple of hours but in the end, this lost time wasn’t the difference between Brindabella’s seven year record staying or going.

After contesting the Brisbane to Gladstone Race over the Easter weekend, Skandia will be taken out of the water for a couple of months while Wharington, who used this race to trial some new Volvo Ocean Race crew, completes the final legs of the round-the-world race with his Volvo 70 Brunel.

Prior to contesting the inaugural Sydney Mackay Yacht Race in late July, Wharington plans to modify Skandia’s stern to maximise their waterline length, amongst some other smaller changes.

He is also considering fixing his canting keel for the Sydney Mackay Race and for Hamilton Island Race Week, due to the heavier IRC penalties for canting keels which come into force in Australia in July.

Skandia, flying its huge Code 0 spinnaker, finished the Sydney Gold Coast tonight in smooth waters and a light sou’east breeze which was in stark contrast to the start yesterday afternoon in Sydney Harbour where the fleet faced confused seas and 30+ knot breezes at Sydney Heads and offshore.

With its 4.9 metre draft, Skandia won’t attempt to enter the Gold Coast seaway tonight, instead the crew will continue on to Brisbane.

Steven David’s Reichel/Pugh 60 Wild Joe is less than 30 miles from the finish and the next boat expected cross the finish line, due around 11.00pm tonight.

In the early hours of tomorrow morning, Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki, also a 60 foot Reichel Pugh design but without a canting keel, John Woodruff’s Seriously TEN and Leslie Green’s Ginger are expected to complete the 384 nautical mile race off Southport’s Main Beach.

Mainsheet trimmer on the new Swan 601 Ginger, Peter Bourke, tonight reported that they are having a fantastic first race on the boat which arrived in Australia just two weeks out from the race start.

‘Leslie is very pleased with his decision to buy this boat. Yesterday we hit 25 knots of boat speed, actually it could have been more but the impeller [which measures the boat’s speed] was out of the water!’ said Bourke tonight.

At 1900 hrs, Geoff Ross’ Judel Vrolijk 52 Yendys had edged out Wedgetail and Quantum Racing in the IRC handicap stakes while Queensland boat Prime Example, skippered by David Benson, was still hanging onto the PHS lead.

Bill Wild’s Wedgetail is expected to be the first of the five Queensland boat to finish, due at daybreak tomorrow while Mike Freebairn’s MDBS Koomooloo, another Queensland entry, is currently leading on line honours at the other end of the fleet and based on her current speed, is due in on the 4th of April.