Seriously Ten leads Lord Howe fleet

by Rob Kothe on 26 Oct 2003 At the 0605 radio sked this morning, the 2003 race leader in its first Australian offshore race, was the Volvo 60 Seriously Ten.

She is 85 miles west of the Barcoo Seamounts, 158 miles from the start-line and leading Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban by 21 miles, with Terry Mullens Fitness First Sting in third place just ahead of Zoe.

Last night the race leader Magnavox 2UE retired from the race citing ‘water ballast pump problems’.

John Woodruff’s new boat Seriously Ten, arrived in Australia as Djuice 1. It was the back-up boat from the Norwegian Volvo campaign of 2001-2002.

Woodruff, who has campaigned his Pacific 50 The Dreamtime on the Australian East Coast over the last two seasons, is stepping up quite a few notches.

‘We just took delivery of the boat and so we could have justified spending a month or so preparing for the season ahead. After all we’ve only been out on the boat three times before this race.

But we are aiming for a top level performance in the 2003 Rolex Sydney to Hobart race and that means we need lots of rehearsals.

We are sailing to Lord Howe in the 30th CanTeen Gosford to Lord Howe race, crossing the finishing line and sailing straight back to Sydney. We figure that an 800 mile passage will start to sort us out.’

The regular crew is a mixture of Music and Salt.

Music: John Woodruff, Publisher, licensee and producer of Savage Garden

Eric Robinson, CEO of Jands, the largest sound and lighting production company in the Southern Hemisphere

Shaun James, CEO of Warners Music

David Hughes, Aria Awards producer and the Manager of Bachelor Girl

Salt: Tom Braidwood, Bryce Rutherford, Brett Percy, Glen Miles, Scott Lawson, and Josh Alexander.

Sail-World will shortly post this mornings radio sked position charts and handicap and line honours calculations.

www.sail-world.com/lordhowe2003 or www.gosfordsailingclub.com.au