Pittwater to Pittwater race win for Wild Joe

by Damien Devine on 3 Jan 2008 Steven David aboard his 60 foot Reichel Pugh 'Wild Joe' says it was a 'fantastic feeling' to win the inaugural Pittwater- Port Stephens-Botany Bay-Pittwater Race, after crossing the line at precisely 8:11am this morning.

With an elapsed time of 20hrs 11mins 12 secs for this 210nm alternate journey, as a result of yesterday's decision not to run the Pittwater to Coffs Race due to predicted severe weather conditions, creates yet another record for 'Wild Joe', being the first ever race on this course. 'Wild Joe' is the current race record holder of the 226nm Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Race set in 2003 (then Wild Oats IX) in a time of 18hrs 29mins 14secs.

With the crew now back into dock at The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club with the boat moored in Refuge Bay unable to get down the bay at low tide, Steven David said, 'It's unreal to finish in the 20 or so hours and it's great to get line honours in the first time this race has ever been run, we're now hoping we can get the handicap double but I guess time will tell. It's fantastic, an unreal feeling. The crew are very happy and are looking forward to some bacon & egg rolls.'

Getting the best of the starts at 12 noon yesterday, Steven added 'We couldn't have asked for a better start, our pre race tactics were all about the pin end, so we just positioned ourselves perfectly and judged the tide and clock and got out of the blocks very well.

We were geared for up for a tussle with the other 60 plus footers, and our objective was for a handicap win. We knew we had our work cut out for ourselves, so it's a little disappointing they weren't there. Anyway it's great to get this victory regardless.'

At the midnight sked 'Wild Joe' were 2nm South of Swansea sailing in a light 8 knots of breeze that was swinging from NE through E to SE 'so we had to keep staying with the pressure, and managed keep the boat moving at 11 knots of boat speed across the water. We had a good run into the Botany Bay mark in a light westerly around 5am and then reached back to Pittwater with a boat speed averaging between 9-11 knots in 10 knots of breeze. We're very happy with this time and we were here to race.'

A bit of excitement for the crew aboard just prior to sunset last night , when sitting on the rail and sailing in 8m of water off Stockton Beach 'two large 10 foot waves just appeared out of nowhere breaking within half a boat length right in front of us. We called tack and got out of there as fast as we could,' said Olympian and current 470 World Champion Nathan Wilmot.

Steven David said on the Club's decision not to go to Coffs this year 'was very smart and the right move. Naturally we're disappointed not to do the Cofffs Race as enjoy it and we were looking forward to the challenge but we'd been watching the wave cams and were concerned about getting over the bar. Obviously you need to be very careful with these things and particularly for the smaller boats it would have been extremely dangerous, so absolutely the right decision was made by Club & Race officials. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about Mother Nature. But we'll back for the Coffs race next year.'

The forecast is proving correct with waves breaking over the outer seawall and across the mouth today and is expected to worsen and peak tomorrow at 5.5m with SSE winds in excess of 30knots.

For the remainder of the fleet, Peter Harburg's MDB 66 'Spirit of Qld' crossed the finish line at 10:37am in an elapsed time of 22hrs 37mins 3secs. Many of the fleet are expected to finish later today somewhere between 5 and 9pm just inside Pittwater. At 12pm, the fleet is currently spread between Botany Bay in the South to Newcastle in the North so will be a spectacle for Sydneysiders as fleet sail up and down the coast of Sydney as the afternoon goes on.