Sydney Southport fleet spreads south of Coffs Harbour
by Rob Kothe, Sail-world.com on 26 Jul 2009
Wild Oats X - Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race Crosbie Lorimer
http://www.crosbielorimer.com
This morning Andrew Short’s Reichel Pugh 80 Price Waterhouse Cooper was heading towards Tacking Point, south of Coffs Harbour briefly overtaking Bob Oatley’s canting keel 66 footer Wild Oats X, who was some ten miles further off the coast.
(Tacking Point was so named by British explorer Captain James Cook, who in similar conditions back in 1788, took three days to round the point.)
Stephen Ainsworth’s fixed keel Reichel Pugh 62 Loki was just a few miles back and further to seaward, with the Mark Bradford skippered 66 footer Black Jack further to seaward again.
Tom Addis, tactician on Wild Oats X reports that yesterday and last night went to plan. 'We timed the left hand shift pretty well and managed to extend on the closest boats behind us. We have tried to hold an inshore position since getting around Seal Rocks.'
'It’s all good so far but we will be keeping an eye on the boats offshore in case they start gaining but we have a few cards up our sleeves due to our positioning. Life is fine, pretty chilly with plenty of water over the deck and pretty routine upwind sailing. Things should get more interesting tonight,' concluded Addis.
Peter Millard and John Honan’s 30 metre Lahana, the New Zealand designed and built supermaxi known previously as Zana and Konica Minolta, had climbed into third place during the night, but this morning she has advised the race committee she is retiring at sea, apparently with some deck cracking. Whilst the crack is not major, the owners decided to return to port to further assess the damage.
Behind them Michael Hiatt’s Farr 55 Living Doll was over the horizon, 17 miles behind the leader is the inside boat of the next group, with Lockhart Solutions, the old Volvo 60 djuice, and the Geoff Ross’ Farr 55 Yendys most easterly.
The leading 52 footer, Graeme Woods TP52 Wot Now was just a few miles back inside behind her and spread across the course were Shortwave, Ragamuffin, Wot Yot, Rob Date's Scarlet Runner, the division 1 IRC handicap leader, and out wide Shogun.
Also retired from the fleet was Michael Cranitch’s Broomstick, who turned around and headed south and Andrew Cochrane’s Pendragon, apparently with rigging damage.
Upon arriving back at the CYCA, owner Michael Cranitch said multiple gear failures ended Broomstick’s race. 'We had unexplained water in the water ballast tanks, a diesel leak and then we lost the instrument lights.'
'Up until then we had been having a fabulous time. Our modelling took us offshore and as night fell we were getting 8.5 knots of NNE breeze, but the current slowed us down by 2-3 knots, so our eventual boat speed was averaging 5.5 knots.
'When we came back inside the rhumbline, we had calmer seas and good pressure. But with all the gear failures we had to retire from the race which was disappointing for the crew,' concluded Cranitch.
The leaders are expected to reach the Southport finish line on Monday afternoon, some 50 hours after their Saturday start.
The race record of 27 hours 35 minutes 03 seconds was set by George Snows unballasted 80 footer Brindabella in 1999.
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