Sailors drying out in 2002 Aircalin Auckland to Noumea fleet

by Rob Kothe on 27 May 2002 36 hours of strong southwesterlies has pushed the Auckland to Noumea fleet northwards, it's been a wild and wet ride, but conditions have now eased.

In an email this morning race leader Philippe Coste aboard Rogntudjuuu, explained

'After one and a half days of 30 knot winds from the SW and big seas we are now into 10 knot winds from SSE. It has enabled us to go up the mast and fix the VHF antenna and windex. We are now drying out and in T shirts.

We are impatiently waiting for wind and have 400 miles to go.'

At this afternoon Royal Akarana Yacht Club race sked, the 17 metre Crowther cat was 113 miles east north east of Norfolk Island, still waiting for the breeze.

The first of the monohulls, the Elliott flier, Maverick II was east of Norfolk Island 468 miles from Noumea. During the day she has lost ground to the red racer Hydroflow who has closed on her and is now only six miles back.

Systems Thunder is over the horizon from these two boats to the east, but is now only 4 miles further from the finish and could easily sneak past her competitors.

There have been a number of changes in the handicaps scoring as the fleet compresses with the leaders now in lighter airs.

The magnificent green hulled Drina, with two of the most experienced short handed sailors in the South Pacific has now taken the lead on handicap in the Short Handed division. Skipper Mike Thurston, with dozens of short handed races to his credit has been joined by the dual Trans Tasman and Melbourne to Osaka race winner Rob Drury. On handicap Drina is now 30 minutes ahead of their faster rival Maverick II.

In the ORC division, the maxi cruiser Mertsi Louise powered by roast dinners and sticky date puddings is still leading the pack, with veteran racer Don St. Clair Brown now having pushed Anticipation into second place.

Mustang Sally, the Farr 46 racer turner cruiser (formerly Morning Mist II) still leads the Cruising division from Bodacious.

In the PHRF division Systems Thunder is ahead of Second Life and Cosmic Cruz.

During the race, Sail-World.com is providing up-to-date news, mid-race radio sked positions of the boats on a chart, progressive handicap positions, distances to the finish line as well as computed estimated times of arrival for each competing boat.

The full sked are available at

http://www.sail-world.com/aucklandtonoumea/index.cfm?SRSID=41

Additional race information will be available on www.rayc.org.nz