Audi Sydney to Gold Coast Race - on the wild side

by Lisa Ratcliff on 30 Jul 2007 Now line honours has been settled, all eyes have turned to the Audi Sydney Gold Coast handicap results which provisionally have the defending champion leading the IRC fleet.

Steven David’s Wild Joe won this race last year on handicap and it was always David’s ambition to achieve back to back wins. After sailing a smart tactical race, yesterday afternoon Wild Joe was also leading the fleet but in the end was overpowered by Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats X which took line honours at 11.02pm last night.

David and his crew are currently holed up at Southport Yacht Club continuously checking the progress of those still at sea who remain a threat.

'We are sweating on when the smaller boats finish but we are quietly confident something will come off,' said David.

'Hopefully the crew sailed a fast enough race to put enough space between first and second.'

Rob Hanna’s Victorian Rogers 46 Shogun, is provisionally second overall ahead of Wild Oats X and Shogun’s navigator Bryan Northcote said the new owner is delighted with the boat’s performance in its debut race.

'We set up Sunday morning to close the coast north of Coffs Harbour then we parked up for an hour at a time between Cape Byron and Point Danger, which cost us the race,' said Northcote this morning.

As well as launching the brand new Shogun onto the Australian ocean scene, the crew of Geelong sailors, with a few Sydneysiders thrown in the mix, used his race as a shakedown for the Rolex Fastnet Race in August where they will race a chartered UK Rogers 46.

On PHS provisional results, Corinne Feldmann’s Inglis 37 Stampede has slipped into first place ahead of ACT entry Namadgi. Immediate past CYCA Commodore Geoff Lavis is provisionally third with UBS Wild Thing, another Inglis design.

In the Sydney 38 division, Marc and Louis Ryckman’s Star Dean-Willcocks Yeah Baby leads Gordon Ketelbey’s Zen and The Bigger Picture (Bigger Picture Partnership).

Ten yachts from the fleet of 67 have now finished with the remainder making good time in a 12-14 knot southerly. The last boat, currently the Rum Consortium’s Phillip’s Foot Witchdoctor is due tomorrow morning, Tuesday 31 July, at around 8.30am.

Alan Brierty’s Corby 49 Limit will be the first Audi Sydney Mackay entrant to pass through the finish line of the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race and rather than dropping the sails to the deck and heading in for well earned refreshment, the second and longer stage of their 898 nautical mile race from Sydney to Mackay will begin. Five yachts in total will continue on in the Audi Sydney Mackay Yacht Race.

The first Queensland boat due across the finish line is Bill Wild’s Wedgetail, due at lunchtime today.

Overnight the 50 footers were racing boat for boat in the stop start conditions, very different to the 'white knuckle ride' on Saturday night said Quest skipper Jamie MacPhail this morning. 'The 24 hour run to Yamba was the fastest we’ve ever had but last night the breeze was flicking around. From Evans Head to the finish were sailing in a 5-8 knot nor’ wester which meant the crew could catch up on some sleep from the night before.'

Denis Doyle’s X412 Sextant from Sydney worked its way inshore overnight but is now heading back out to sea looking for gains.

'It was hard work getting up the coast last night with fluky wind and lots of sail changes,' Doyle said this morning.

He also reported a spectacular whale show yesterday off Yamba. 'There was a pod of four or five whales and the largest jumped completely clear of the water, tail and all! It was awesome.'

Today’s forecast for south east Queensland waters is for SW/S winds 10-15 knots shifting S/SE during the afternoon and evening. Inshore the forecast is for local afternoon E/NE sea breezes at 5/10 knots.