Audi Sydney Gold Coast fleet home

by Lisa Ratcliff on 31 Jul 2007
The arrival of the Rum Consortium’s Phillip’s Foote Witchdoctor at 2.22am this morning heralded the finish of the 22nd Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.

The 384 nautical race, which began at 1pm on Saturday from Sydney Harbour, had everything; 38 knot winds on the first night down to almost zero breeze at times, fluctuating inshore westerlies and offshore sou’westers which forced make or break decisions by the tactician; and lastly, a fresh sou’wester which picked up the second half of the fleet and hurtled them to Southport before lightening off in the dying stages.

Whales, dolphins and flying fish provided momentary distractions from racing but so tactical and changeable was this race that skippers reported being caught out enjoying the sea life rather than keeping their eye on the ball.

The original fleet of 72 representing Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, the ACT and New South Wales set off with spinnakers hoisted in a blaze of colour on Saturday afternoon and close to 62 hours later, 67 boats had finished. Five boats retired due to damage sustained on the first night when the wind strength nudged above what was forecast, catching some off guard.

Four of the Audi Sydney Gold Coast fleet farewelled their travelling companions yesterday afternoon and evening to sail another 514 nautical miles to Mackay in the Audi Sydney Mackay Yacht Race. Alan Brierty’s Limit is currently leading the small fleet north and is due in on 2 August.

This morning Rick Scott-Murphy’s Namadgi from the ACT was declared the overall PHS winner.

What makes this win extra special is that Scott-Murphy and his crew don’t have the luxury of ready access to their boat. Once a fortnight for the past three months they have driven from Canberra to Pittwater on Sydney’s northern beaches, where the boat is moored, to prepare the boat and train for this race.

'It’s a really good feeling,' said Scott-Murphy this morning.

'We had a fabulous race, the crew was superb and the boat held together well. We decided to take the inside run which paid off for us. Our two on board balloonists gave us some great weather info!

'It was touch and go last night when the breeze lightened off around 10pm and flicked to the west. We were hoping it wouldn’t glass out because we are a heavy boat and don’t do so well in light weather.'

Namadgi sealed a win over Corinne Feldmann’s Stampede, which only briefly dropped out of the top three the entire race, and immediate past CYCA Commodore Geoff Lavis’s UBS Wild Thing from Sydney, which felt right at home in the downhill slide.

In the seven-boat Sydney 38 division, identical twins Marc and Louis Ryckmans scored a win with Star Dean-Willcocks Yeah Baby, beating Gordon Ketelbey’s Zen and The Bigger Picture owned by Ian Douglas, Anthony Hooper and Mike Roberts. Under a previous owner, Star Dean-Willcocks Yeah Baby also won its division in the 2004 Sydney Gold Coast.

'We are thrilled with the result,' said Louis this morning.

Like the rest of the fleet, they had a wild ride on Saturday night, hitting a top speed of 26.2 knots and averaging 17-22 knots over a six hour period. All up their kite only came down for two hours between Sydney and Southport. 'I can’t believe you can do a race that is all downhill….but who wants to go uphill anyway?' said Louis.

The IRC results were sewn up yesterday afternoon with Steven David’s Wild Joe out sailing Rob Hanna’s brand new Shogun, still a very impressive result for the boat’s debut outing, and the line honours winner Wild Oats X owned by Bob Oatley and skippered by Mark Richards.

The trophy presentation for the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race will be held today at Southport Yacht Club at 11am.

Results

IRC Division 0
1st and 1st IRC overall: Wild Joe (Reichel/Pugh 60, NSW) – Steven David
2nd: Wild Oats X (Reichel/Pugh 66, NSW) – Bob Oatley
3rd: Quantum Racing (Cookson 50, NSW) – Ray Roberts

IRC Division 1
1st: Quest (Transpac 52, NSW) – Bob Steel
2nd: Yendys (Reichel/Pugh 55, NSW) – Geoff Ross
3rd: Wot Yot (Nelson/Marek 52, NSW) – Graeme Wood

IRC Division 2
1st: Shogun (Rogers 46, VIC) – Rob Hanna
2nd: XLR8 (Reichel/Pugh 46, VIC) – Graeme Troon
3rd: Hardys Secret Mens Business (Reichel/Pugh 46, SA) – Geoff Boettcher

IRC Division 3
1st: Splash Gordon (Farr 40 MOD, NSW) – Stephen Ellis
2nd: Star Dean Willcocks–Yeah Baby (Sydney 38, NSW) – Louis & Marc Ryckmans
3rd: Mr Beaks Ribs (Beneteau 44.7, NSW) – David Beak

IRC Division 4
1st: Alegria (Archambault 35, QLD) – Oxygen Queensland P/L
2nd: Dark & Stormy Witch (Murray 47, NSW) – Bruce Staples
3rd: A Crewed Interest (Cavalier 350SL, VIC) – Martin Vaughan

PHS Division
1st: Namadgi (Bavaria 44, ACT) – Canberra Ocean Racing Club
2nd: Stampede (Inglis 37 MOD, NSW) – Corinne Feldmann & Warren Buchan
3rd: UBS Wild Thing (Inglis/Murray 50, NSW) – Geoff Lavis

Sydney 38 Division
1st: Star Dean Willcocks–Yeah Baby (NSW) – Louis & Marc Ryckmans
2nd: Zen (NSW) – Gordon Ketelbey
3rd: The Bigger Picture (NSW) – The Bigger Partnership

Full results for each division are available under Standings at http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au

Audi Australia www.audi.com.au