Maria Island Yacht Race - 2 Unlimited leads

by Peter Campbell on 19 Nov 2011 In the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s 64th annual Tasports Maria Island Yacht Race the fleet have managed to make fast time overnight with the Hobart yacht 2 Unlimited rounding the historic island off the Tasmanian East Coast about 7.30 this morning.

2 Unlimited, a fast Melges 32 skippered by Greg Prescott, overtook Rob Fisher’s Helsal III and Andrew Hunn’s Mr Kite as they neared the northern tip of the elongated island.

At daybreak, Helsal III was maintaining a comfortable lead that she had held in the 19-boat fleet for much of the race that started from Hobart’s Castray Esplanade at 7 o’clock last night. However, 2 Unlimited picked up a stronger breeze as they neared the island and came from astern to narrowly lead around the northern tip from Helsal III and Mr Kite.

Last night, the fleet enjoyed a spinnaker run down the River Derwent and across Storm Bay to Tasman Island before facing a long hard beat to windward up the Tasmanian East Coast into 20 knot north-westerly winds.

With the fleet leaving Maria Island to port and sailing down the inside of the island, off Orford, crews should be able to quickly set spinnakers for a fast run south to Tasman Island.

Still to round Maria Island at 7.30am were Sydney Hobart race entrant Martela, followed closely by Auch, Whistler (also entered for the Sydney Hobart), Masquerade and Host Plus Executive.

Within sight of Maria Island came another group of boats, including Pyxis, 42 South, Footloose and Wildfire while at the tail end of the fleet were Not Negotiable, Natelle Two, Hot Prospects and Hot August Night.

The tracker has been showing Dump Truck trailing the fleet, still only abeam of Eaglehawk Neck, a surprising position for the Sydney Hobart contender, but this may be a glitch in the satellite tracking system.

Since the start, the race lead has swapped between Helsal III, Mr Kite and 2 Unlimited and any one of the three could end up line honours winner.

If the leaders can maintain their boatspeed throughout the day they could cross the finish line off Castray Esplanade by late this afternoon.

The race record for the 189 nautical mile course stands at 19 hours and 50 minutes set in 1994 by the maxi ketch Tasmania, skippered by Bob Clifford. To break this time, the first boat would need to finish before 3pm.

On handicaps, Martela, Whistler, Masquerade and Host Plus Executive are all well placed at this stage of the 189 nautical mile race. Of the smaller boats, Wildfire has significantly improved its position since losing 11 minutes having to re-start after breaking the line last evening.