12 yachts finish Sydney Gold Coast race

by Lisa Ratcliff on 3 Apr 2006 Overnight the Sydney Gold Coast fleet enjoyed a decent westerly land breeze which has blown 12 yachts across the finish line at Southport with the next group, including the second Queensland boat to finish, Quest of Queensland, due in after lunchtime today.

The last yacht to finish this morning was Ray Roberts’ DK 46 Quantum Racing which has performed strongly on handicap in this race and is currently sitting in second place in the IRC overall results behind Steven David’s Wild Joe, the second boat to finish late last night behind the line honours winner Skandia.

In the PHS standings, Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Commodore Geoff Lavis is best placed with his Inglis 50 UBS Wild Thing. He and his crew are anxiously watching the progress of Queensland boat Prime Example (David Benson), which is due in later this afternoon and is still a real threat for the PHS silverware.

Those skippers and crews that have finished the 384 nautical mile race and are provisionally leading their handicap divisions are now praying the breeze will drop away thereby firming up their win, but this is unlikely with a 10-15 knot nor’easter forecast in southern Queensland waters.

For husband and wife team of Colin and Gladys Woods on Pretty Fly II, they are holding out for the nor’easter to 'claw back some of the boats in our division which have got the jump on us,' said Colin this morning as the Beneteau 47.7 was approaching Evans Head, south of Ballina.

'Our boat loves it on the nose,' he added.

Pretty Fly II is currently leading the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Tasman Performance Series and Colin believes based on their performance so far in this race, the final event of the seven race series that began in July last year, they have wrapped up the series.

After taking a losing tack out to sea yesterday morning, the crew of the Mumm 30 Tow Truck, once again surviving off packets of salt and vinegar chips, has made a mighty comeback to now be provisionally leading their division.

'We tend to do our best work when we are fighting back,' said owner Anthony Paterson this morning. Unlike Pretty Fly II, they are not looking forward to this afternoon’s forecast head winds as these conditions don’t suit this downwind flier.

The last boat in the fleet, Kevin O’Shea’s Stormy Petrel has past the Solitary Islands north of Coffs Harbour and is coasting along nicely doing close to 6 knots of boat speed. Their ETA is midday tomorrow.