Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - A Smuggler, a sunfish and a sunphone
by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS 27 Dec 2019 03:49 AEDT
TP52 Smuggler - 2019 RSHYR © Mitch Pearson / Surf Sail Kite
At something like 2018hrs AEDT, Smuggler, part of the village of TPs racing this year informed the Radio Relay Vessel that they had performed a two-turn penalty inside the allotted time, after an earlier infringement in the Harbour.
Smuggler also went on to add that they had hit a sunfish, but the vessel was OK. It is alleged that the sunfish later reported in by sunphone to inform JBW that he too was fine.
Later on, at around 2201hrs, Comanche was really hurting as the hit the wall with the first transition becoming very evident. They had been doing 26 knots, and then they were making doing barely 2.8. The others of all sizes slowed in behind them in succession, and the reset button got hit once more. Wild Oats XI grabbed the lead, but by 0308hrs on December 27, Comanche had regained the lead, with Scallywag, Black Jack, InfoTrack, and Wild Oats XI all fairly much off each other’s Starboard quarter in a line, and all heading back to the rhumb line.
All were doing around 5 to 6 knots, which kind of puts paid to any quick result happening. Yet at 0316hrs, Wild Oats XI was seen to be doing 11, and others around them like the Maxi 72 URM were making 10s, so perhaps another shuffle of the deck was about to commence as the ‘inshore’ boats took advantage of more wind, and turned back out to sea (Sou'east).
The pecking order was pretty much the 70s and 60s (like Naval Group), then the TP52s and so forth, with no one really punching much above their weight class. As all of this occurred the overall leader board changed dramatically, with all the ‘quicks’ going, to be replaced by displacement vessels.
One of these, and sitting in fifth place overall at the time of writing, was John and Laura Warlow’s Beneteau First 40.7, Ocean Crusaders. Ian and Annika Thomson are no strangers to readers of Sail-World, for their brilliant efforts to not only raise our awareness of our environment, but to do something about it. This is certainly the theme of their campaign with the Warlows, and hence the boat’s name. Also on board is the famous Wendy Tuck, who won the Clipper Round the World Race.