Condor’s wings clipped mid flight

by Lisa Ratcliff on 24 Aug 2008 The spinnaker start of this morning’s round the islands race began in Dent Passage in a building south easterly breeze, providing plenty of action on day two at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

Officials aboard a race committee boat at the pin end of the start line came close to having their day ruined when money man Paul Clitheroe’s Sydney 47 Balance almost took them out in the argy bargy at the start of the first division off the line, IRC Premier Passage at 10am.

With the gusts piping up Dent Passage, some found themselves in hot water. None more so than David Molloy’s IOR maxi Condor, which ran aground on the reef off Plum Pudding Island. After suffering indignantly for around 25 minutes as the remaining divisions sailed past them, the recently refurbed Condor, a former Sydney Hobart line honours winner in its heyday in the 1980’s, eventually sailed free of the reef and continued on before finally calling it quits and heading back to the marina.

Graham Jones’ Bluewater, the first Beneteau First 45 in Australia, is looming as a serious contender for the IRC Premier Passage silverware with his second consecutive win in today’s race on the back of a third at the lead in Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Regatta.

Peter Sorensen inched a step closer to winning the prestigious four part Audi IRC Championship and the Q7 with The Philospher’s Club picking up its second win on the trot in the IRC Passage division.

In the PHS Grand Prix division there were no flies on Guy Holbert and Mick Hinchey’s Fly Blown today. They beat Garry Holder’s The Real Thing and Geoff Lavis’ downwind rocket ship UBS Wild Thing from Sydney.

In the PHS Passage division Jim Thomas’ Dances with Waves and Reaburn Reynolds’ Marisa took Division 1 and 2 honours respectively.

Robbie Vaughan’s Muir 66 Van Dieman, with its crew of ageing rock stars including Charles Blundell, also known as Chaz from Tas, News Limited columnist Piers Ackerman and Michael 'Zapper' Bell on board, climbed from yesterday’s third to a first today in the Cruising with Spinnaker division.

Tomorrow is the 59 nautical mile Club Marine Classic Hayman Island Race, the longest race of the series for the IRC Grand Prix, IRC Premier Passage, IRC Passage and Performance Grand Prix divisions. The first division will set off from the Dent Passage start line.