Runaway retires - COCORIN interland leads

by Di Pearson on 4 Apr 2007 Sadly, the Melbourne Osaka double handed yacht race dream has come to an end for Melbourne’s James Ryssenbeek and Andrew McCole, who have advised race officials they are officially retiring from the race following keel damage to their Sayer 11m.

Race Director Kevin Wilson reported: 'We advise that the boat Runaway – James Ryssenbeek and Andrew McCole, have retired form the race and are presently in Bundaberg, Queensland. They will return to Melbourne once their boat has been repaired.'

In better news, the latest update for RYU-JIN - fgi is that Murray Bucknall and the boat’s designer/builder Jon Sayer have made the decision to endeavour to repair the damaged section of the rudder and re-join the race. They arrived in Bundaberg yesterday at approx 3.30pm.

'The repair will probably take a couple of days to complete (resin has to go off etc). They are both pretty tired, but in good spirits,' says Sayer’s wife Diane.

On the race track, COCORIN interland continues at the top of the leaderboard, sailing off Cape Flattery in Northern Queensland. Gusto keeps the Japanese entry on its toes, only 17nm separating the two crews who have enjoyed close racing for some days now. Cape York, not too far away, remains their last piece of Australia before heading towards New Guinea.

Makoto Hisamatsu/Jimmi Doherty on their Hart/Inglis 12m Tamagomalu maintain their slim advantage over Dekadence (Phil Coombs/Peter Walsh) and Hullabaloo. The Japanese boat is still the most northerly, with Dekadence in the middle and Jim and Joe O’Keeffe now sailing a more easterly course on their Yamba, NSW entry Hullabaloo.

The three continue their boat-for-boat race up the Queensland coast, in sight of each other at times, and are positioned off the beautiful Whitsunday Island group, home to numerous famous yacht events.

As far as Coombs and Walsh are concerned, the main deal is to finish the race – something which eluded them in the 2003 Melbourne Osaka. A few days into the race, damage forced their retirement aboard No Fearr.

The humorous ‘Odd Couple’ reported from the boat last night: 'All still good, we are happy. The weather hasn't relented much with 25-35 knots all night, including rain squalls.

'The most frustrating part is that the wind is actually varying between 15-35 knots, so we are gearing up for the peaks, rather than the troughs, as we continue our conservative approach. Of course, this means in the lulls, we are well underdone.

'We had a visual with Hullabaloo during the day and had been talking to them via the radio. They too confirmed they are running a conservative program with the view of completing the race intact.'

No other positions have changed overnight; Asadori and Ingenue continue their 20nm separation, abeam of Townshend Island in Queensland. Wild Boar has broken away from Pippin (sailing a coastal course), heading in an easterly direction, with Southern Light chasing the two; around 381nm in the wake of Pippin and situated off Newcastle on the NSW north coast.

This morning Esoterica was still in Southport and Alex in Bundaberg.