Pacific Phoenix spoils Africa's party

by Ian Grant on 9 Jun 2008 Allan Sneddon and his Pacific Phoenix crew showed that handicap rated speed was the important factor when they clinched a deserved win in the first race of the Cumberland Charter Yachts series on Pioneer Bay last week.

Pacific Phoenix is no real speedster in terms of contesting the Whitsunday Sailing Club seasons line honours trophy but her skipper and crew make sure they use their slower race time to the best advantage when the handicaps are calculated.

It was another normal race day for the Pacific Phoenix crew who have come to understand that they will only spend a short time sailing in the company of the line honours pace setters before they sail away.

This was again the case when the Damien Suckling skippered 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Performance Handicap trophy winner Another Fiasco set the pace to control the race for the fastest course time.

Suckling selected the best options from the breeze which blew over the deck but the speed of Another Fiasco while being impressive to add another line honours to her racing log book was never in the hunt to be fast enough to outpace her .889 correction factor.

In fact Another Fiasco failed to feature in the top six eventually finishing 9th in the race which was dominated by the lower handicapped Pacific Phoenix .680 , Terry Archer’s Bavaria cruiser Africa .749 and the well sailed Peter Norlin designed IOR Admirals Cup veteran Surefoot .749.

All three crews held a strong chance when they weathered the half way mark while officials prepared to record the finish time of Another Fiasco.
Skipper Damien Suckling accepted that Another Fiasco was not in the hunt when he set the handicap bench mark shortly after 5-15pm.

Veteran Harold Menelaus Treasure V lll provisionally relegated Another Fiasco to second before the lower rated yachts Pacific Phoenix, Africa, Surefoot, Esoteric, and Turtle Time progressively changed the corrected handicap finishing order.

Africa seemed poised to claim victory when she finished sixth over the line but the crew celebrations were spoilt when Pacific Phoenix slowly cruised across the finish line 5 minutes 16 seconds later to claim a 2 second win from Africa with another 13 seconds to Surefoot.