Lindauer Coastal Classic News

by Lesley Grant on 25 Oct 2002 Grand prix racing machines NZL 40 and NZL 41, both official America’s Cup Class boats, are preparing to drag race each other in the 21st Lindauer Coastal Classic Yacht Race from Auckland to Russell starting at 10 am Friday morning at Labour weekend. They are determined to retain the line honours title won by William Goodfellow and his crew on NZL 40 last year. The $10,000 pot offered for being the first monohull to break the 1996 monohull record time of 9 hrs 22m 33s set by Greg Elliot’s Primo, will no doubt be a great incentive to push themselves and their boats to the limits.

William commented after his win in extreme weather conditions last year that “there’s a slightly insane factor in entering an America’s Cup yacht in the Coastal Classic……..the finish gun at 1.33am never sounded so good.”
Just to finish that race was a major achievement for everyone involved. The conditions caused over half of the fleet of 246 starters to withdraw.

With well over 200 boats officially entered and entries still pouring in, there is no way that William and NZL 41’s skipper, Cam Malcolm, are going to miss out on the action in this premier New Zealand coastal yacht race. Both are ‘adrenaline junkies’ and the boats can be seen regularly match racing each other around the Waitemata Harbour either under charter or competing in local races. This year they have some pretty tough competition in the wings and their impressive America’s Cup racing background may not necessarily guarantee them a sure win.

With conditions likely to be favourable for smashing records this year, both boats are going to take full advantage of their massive sail area and their undisclosed crew lists are sure to include some very experienced and well known yachties. There is little doubt that Team New Zealand and the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers will be out on the water on the 25th cheering them on their way and wishing that they could join in the action packed race.