Sydney 38 Cuckoo’s Nest wins IMS in FKP Sydney to Mooloolaba race

by Rob Kothe on 12 Apr 2003 ‘It was a bizarre race, we blew out two spinnakers, our 1.5 ounce and then our asymmetric on the first (rough) night and we thought we were out of the running'

Nigel Holman dockside this morning at the end of the 469 miles Sydney to Mooloolaba race.

'We only had a 0.5 left, so really had to nurse that. We made a few good tactical decisions and we were but it could be we’ve won the race overall and also the MHYC Gilawa Shield'

Nigel Holman has always taken his sailing seriously. His original Cuckoos Nest, a Lyons 40 won the very rough 1993 Sydney to Hobart.

He then campaigned a Sydney 41 Zurich before joining the growing ranks of the One Design sailors.

Holman says ‘this new Cuckoos Nest a Sydney 38 One Design is proving to be very good an ocean going vessel as the earlier boat. Since launching, the boat has been campaigned hard. Our first offshore race was the 2001 Lord Howe race and we finished 4th on IMS.

In the NSW Sydney 38 One design State Titles we finished a creditable 4th and competed in the Southport race and the Whitsunday series last year’.

Nigel has been trying for 10 years to win the MHYC Gilawa Shield Offshore series, but old campaigners like John Walker have always topped him.

Going into this final race in the series, Cuckoo’s Nest had to beat Impeccable by three places to take the Shield for the first time.

We ended up with a poled out headsail on the first night, we did well out wide, then came in yesterday near Coffs Harbour and went inside North Solitary.

We found Wayne Kirkpatrick and his Hamilton Island crew on the Sydney 38 Run Paradise had sailed like demons to catch up the 90 minutes they lost at the start.

So we went back offshore again last night. It was a tough night. We had lots of rainstorms and lots of wind shifts, but we just kept the boat moving.

We hit a three-metre shark off Cape Byron, we had a bunch of minor injuries, one guy with a back spasm, spent 24 hours in a bunk we had another with a dislocated finger but both recovered and contributed to the overall effort. But the most continuous task on the boat was patching our single remaining spinnaker…its amazing it survived to get us over the line.

Now we are waiting to see if anyone still on the water can beat us on corrected time.’

Since that interview the clock has ticked away for David Beaks and Michael Spies aboard the Beneteau 40.7 P& O Ned Lloyd. They needed to finish a little after 10am to win the Sydney to Mooloolaba IMS division, but there was just not enough breeze.

Pippin, AFR Midnight Rambler and Impeccable are still racing and they cannot threaten Cuckoo’s Nest time.

The next sked at 15:05, posted hopefully by 16:00 should confirm the winner and the minor placings.

http://www.sail-world.com/mooloolaba2003/index.cfm?SRSID=53