ROOM WITH A VIEW COMPLETES IN MPRESSIVE CORAL SEA SERIES TRIAL.

by Ian Grant on 3 May 2001 Matt Jensen's power sailing catamaran Room With A View left the Air Niugini Coral Sea Classic fleet following her white water wake when she won the 180 n/ml Townsville to Cairns line honours trophy by over three hours earlier today.

Room With A View the defending race record holder for the 455 n/ml Cairns to Port Moresby race was in scintillating form despite sailing through a relatively calm night a sea.

Skipper Jensen said 'We were basically drifting along around midnight with next to no pace on however the speed assisted with local coastal rain squalls picked up north of the Barnard Islands to turn the race into a pleasant sail'.

Jensen was relatively pleased with the result completing the course in 17 hours 48minutes 10 seconds to clearly outpace the smaller Cairns catamaran Italina (John Bohl) and the Gold Coast catamaran Saloon Bar (John Davies).

The strength of the performance was reflected in the winning margin of 3 hours 16 minutes 56 seconds and the average speed of 10.11 knots with the Room With A View crew reaching the best peak speed as they approached Fitzroy Island 25 nautical miles from the finish.

These stronger predawn winds spiced with squally tropical showers also provided Italina with a peak speed of 19.8 knots as she surfed towards the finish.

Naturally the wind velocity an the sailing angle was perfect for the speed sailing Multihulls with Italina salvaging her lower handicap to score an impressive win on corrected time from Saloon Bar and Room With A View.

Racing was much closer in the monohull class where the Daryl Hartshorne Adams 13 Risky Business claimed a close line honours win ahead of the Royal Papua Yacht Club sloop API Midnight (Laurie Needham) and Andrew Thompson's well sailed Farr 1104 Racketeer.

Both Risky Business and API Midnight raced within sight of each other for the entire 180 n/mls before Hartshorne exercised his local knowledge over the final stages to score a 6 minute 32 second class line honours win with Racketeer firming a grip on the corrected handicap with her impressive third placing.

Skipper Andrew Thompson a previous winner of the International Coral Sea Series proved he is back on the pace with Racketeer scoring a comfortable handicap win over Brian White's Farr Better and the Clive Scott skippered Harrier.

This sets the stage for an interesting battle in the second race of the series a 25 nautical mile passage race to Fitzroy Island on Saturday before the fleet prepares for the 455 n/ml Air Niugini trophy event raced over the demanding course between Cairns and Port Moresby on Monday.