Hempel Gosford Lord Howe race Provisional winners

by Peter Campbell on 30 Oct 2007 Provisional handicap winners of the Hempel 34th Gosford to Lord Howe Island Race are AFR Midnight Rambler (IRC) from Sydney and Dream Lover (PHS) from Brisbane, today joining line honours victor Getaway-Sailing.com as major trophy winners.

A predicted late bid to win the IRC division by the Manly Yacht Club entrant, Morna, did not eventuate when she did not finish until mid-afternoon after giving a position at this morning’s ‘sked’ that placed her only 10 nm from the finish of the 414nm ocean race across the Tasman Sea.

Race Director Mark Greenwood said from Lord Howe Island today that crews of yachts finishing the race had described it as 'rugged', with regular competitor Warwick Sherman calling the race 'really tough'.

'They had it on the nose almost throughout the race, with Jim Holley, skipper of Aurora reporting northerly headwinds of up to 35 knots and rough seas on Monday afternoon.

'It seems the heaviest winds came when most of the fleet were crossing the sea mounts about halfway across the Tasman. With the depth of water changing dramatically, it really gets rough in that area,' he added.

Greenwood said some competitors had suffered sail damage, with one boat crossing the line under storm jib.

The Race Director said results were still provisional until all boats had finished but he confirmed AFR Midnight Rambler was unchallenged for first place on IRC corrected time.

Greenwood said that by 1600 hours race time today all but four boats still had complete the course, with two boats, Silver Lady and Time Out, retiring yesterday.

In the IRC division, AFR Midnight Rambler, Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas’ modified Farr 40 One Design from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, had won by just under 53 minutes on corrected time from Warwick Sherman’s Cookson 12 Occasional Coarse Language, also from the CYCA.

Psaltis and Thomas and Sherman are previous winners of the Lord Howe Island Race and have been regular supporters of this category 1 ocean race for many years.

Provisionally third in IRC is Jim Holley’s Aurora, a Farr 40 one-off design, from the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club.

Provisional winner of the PHS division is race newcomer Rick Morgan from Brisbane with his Murray Burns Dovell 40-footer Dream Lover which has taken first place on corrected time by 54 minutes 30 seconds from Inner Circle, Darren Cooney and Ken Robinson’s Farr design, representing both the Lake Macquarie Yacht and the Royal Motor Yacht Club on the lake.

In third place is regular Lord Howe Island Race competitor Azzuro, owned by a syndicate of members of the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club.

Line honours winner, Getaway-Sailing.com, which won the PHS division last year, is currently placed 5th in the progressive results for this year’s race.

On Lord Howe Island today, Race Director Mark Greenwood presented the Line Honours Trophy to Peter Goldsworthy, skipper of Getaway-Sailing.com but the main prize giving will be at the traditional ‘fish fry’ at the Milky Way resort on Thursday evening.

		START: Saturday	27	13	00	####
IRC PROVISIONAL RESULTS
			FINISH				ELAPSED			IRC	CORRECTED
			DATE/TIME				TIME			TCF	TIME			PLACE
	YACHT	OWNER/SKIPPER	date	h	m	s	h	m	s		h	m	s
8338	AFR Midnight Rambler	Ed Psaltis	29	20	07	40	55	07	40	1.165	64	13	26	1
4057	Occasional Coarse Language	Warwick Sherman	29	23	20	16	58	20	16	1.116	65	06	18	2
2090	Aurora	Jim Holley	30	06	55	45	65	55	45	1.049	69	09	35	3
5526	Great Expectations	Rod Wills	30	07	52	31	66	52	31	1.094	73	09	42	4
97	Pacha	Bill Koppe	30	14	00	01	73	00	01	1.073	78	19	45	5
3724	Kioni	Nick Athineos	30	11	07	07	70	07	07	1.123	78	44	36	6
6343	Morna	Greg Zyner		Still to finish
6146	Polaris of Belmont	Chris Dawe		Still to finish
8008	Salona	Phillip King		Still to finish
PHS PROVISIONAL RESULTS
			FINISH				ELAPSED			PHS	CORRECTED
			DATE/TIME				TIME			TCF	TIME			PLACE
	YACHT NAME	OWNER/SKIPPER	date	h	m	s	h	m	s		h	m	s
A142	Dream Lover	Rick Morgan	30	00	10	48	59	10	48	1.053	62	18	60	1
826	Inner Circle	Darren Cooney/Ken Robinson	30	04	20	06	63	20	06	0.998	63	12	30	2
3433	Azzuro	Azzurro Syndicate	30	04	28	30	63	28	30	1.063	67	28	26	3
6388	First Light	Nicokas Ewald/Susan Rice	30	10	02	38	69	02	38	1.022	70	33	46	4
4384	Getaway-Sailing.com	Peter Goldsworthy	29	14	44	36	49	44	36	1.497	74	27	57	5
NOR2	Namadgi	Rick Scott		Still to finish						0.949
M762	Dreamtime	Paul Spira		Still to finish						1.011
b126	Silver Lady	Hugh Ellis		Retired						0.920
4045	Time Out	Pete Blair		Retired						0.957