Audi Sydney Gold Coast fleet home

by Jennifer Crooks on 29 Jul 2008
The arrival of Andrew Wenham’s SES Inch By Winch at 4.33am this morning heralded the finish of the 23rd Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.

The 384 nautical race, which began at 1pm on Saturday from Sydney Harbour, had everything – a delayed start, with light breezes, then a wind change as the fleet exited the heads of Sydney Harbour, strong winds offshore on the first night down with bitterly cold temperatures, inshore westerlies and offshore sou’westers which forced make or break decisions by the tacticians; stunning lightening shows offshore, wind squalls of 40 knots, and lastly, a fresh west sou’wester which picked up the second half of the fleet and hurtled them to Southport. Whales, dolphins and flying fish provided momentary distractions from racing but the big decision all skippers and navigators had to make was whether to go offshore or stay inside the rhumbline. Those that took the offshore decision were the first home.

The original fleet of 75 representing Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales set off with spinnakers hoisted in a blaze of colour on Saturday afternoon and close to 63 hours later 61 boats had finished. Three boats retired due to damage sustained on the first day and night with gear breakages.

A further ten boats retired from the race due to weather conditions and damage.

Line honours and IRC Overall was confirmed as Ray Roberts’ Quantum Racing with Quest second and Cockatoo Ridge – The Goat third.

The overall winner of the PHS division was John Simpson’s Shark Face, with Sea Quest second and Obsession third. After being notified of his win in the PHS division John Simpson was an even happier man than yesterday evening. 'This is great news to be told first thing in the morning. The boat is based out of Lake Macquarie and we had built her ourselves with designer Denis Phillips. She is part of our family as we live around our boat – we have family holidays on her and sailing is our sport.'

'The crew is made up of sailors from Lake Macquarie with an average age of 50+ and they all put in a terrific job – rotating throughout their positions all race. When we got caught in the thunderstorm and shredded one spinnaker - it seemed like we were holding our breath throughout it – it seems like we were flying down black mine shafts and then we were off sailing again. We made it through the thunderstorm and arrived at Southport safely without any major damage to the boat.'

In the six-boat Sydney 38 division, Cockatoo Ridge – The Goat placed first with Gordon Ketelbey’s Zen second and Marc and Louis Ryckmans Tigerspike Yeah Baby third.

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

Results

Line Honours
Quantum Racing (Cookson 50, NSW) – Ray Roberts Elapsed Time 01:17:59:26

IRC Division 0
1st and 1st IRC overall: 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: Living Doll (Cookson 50 MOD, VIC) – Michael Hiatt

IRC Division 2
1st: Chutzpah (Caprice 40, VIC) – Bruce Taylor
2nd: Wedgetail (IRC 42, QLD) – Bill Wild
3rd: Limit (Corby 49, WA) – Alan Brierty

IRC Division 3
1st: Cockatoo Ridge – The Goat (Sydney 38, NSW) – Clayton/Foye/Gordon/Peckman
2nd: Swish (Sydney 38, NSW) – Stephen Proud
3rd: Splash Gordon (Farr 40 MOD, NSW) – Stephen Ellis

IRC Division 4
1st: Upper Northshore (Northshore 37, NSW) – Michael Spies
2nd: Pendragon (Stewart 34, NSW) – Andrew Cochrane
3rd: The Philosophers Club (Sydney 36CR, NSW) – Peter Sorensen

PHS Division
1st: Shark Face (Phillips 37, NSW) – John Simpson
2nd: Sea Quest (Radford 50, NSW) – David Fernie
3rd: Obsession (Sydney 38MOD, NSW) – Obsession Syndicate

Sydney 38 Division
1st: Cockatoo Ridge – The Goat – Clayton/Foye/Gordon/Peckman
2nd: Zen (NSW) – Gordon Ketelbey
3rd: Tigerspike (Yeah Baby) (NSW) – Louis & Marc Ryckmans

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