British Defender, record slow win in Hogs Breath Yacht race

by Ian Grant on 8 Aug 2001 Terry Hudson's ocean racing maxi sloop British Defender set the wrong type of race record when she finally clinched line honours in the 510 nautical mile Hog's Breath Mooloolaba to Airlie Beach race before dawn this morning.

The 90ft sloop, which has raced around the globe, faced adverse wind systems plus the combination of fickle zephyrs and the notorious Whitsunday Passage south flowing flood tide over the last 10 miles to finally 'Ghost' over the finish line on Pioneer Bay at 4-18 this morning.

Despite being the largest and potentially the fastest yacht to nominate for Queenslands longest ocean classic her elapsed time of 88 hours 18 minutes was almost 36 hours outside the record to claim the slowest line honours winning time in the 11 year history of the event.

But her win was a reward for the determination demonstrated by the crew of 19 sailors who had to dig deep on a steep learning curve after meeting on the deck for the first time as they sailed out to the start off Mooloolaba last Saturday.

Sailing a yacht of this size to her potential is an enormous task however they managed to produce the deserved result in a wind velocity that never produced the power to splash spray on the deck.

The on watch lost count of the number of sail changes as they struggled against out of season light headwinds finally finishing the race with a 5.8knot average speed and a 1 hour 5 minute victory over the smaller New Zealand designed sloop Coyote to claim the prestigious 'Boss Hog' trophy.

These two well-sailed yachts that featured in a tactical match race over all of the physically demanding 510 nautical miles only resolved the line honours in the final 10 miles where British Defender firmed her grip on the first to finish honour.

At the 6-30 am fleet report Bob Robertson's sloop Eureka still 45 miles to sail and was in a strong position to claim third place over Aspect/NRMA Insurance, while Interum, Odyssey, Bimblegumbie and Invincible remained to race in light winds to decide the overall placing's on corrected time.