Rolex Sydney Hobart Race: Wild Rose posed for win
With the line honours podium decided in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, focus now shifts to the handicap race under IRC for the Tattersall’s Cup.
Stephen Ainsworth’s crew on the successful Reichel Pugh 63 Loki is hoping that their corrected time in the race, that currently has them second under IRC, will elevate them to first place. This would give Ainsworth, who earlier this month was crowned the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s 2011 Ocean Racer of the Year, the handicap win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart that has so far eluded him.
Assuming the crew on the current IRC leader, Roger Hickman’s Farr 43 Wild Rose, continue to sail as well as they have to date in this race, then it will take a down turn in conditions for them to be toppled.
This afternoon Hickman’s 1993 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race winner had just under 100 miles to go to the finish.
From on board Jennifer Wells reported: “We’ve been up with the leaders most of the time. At approximately 2.30pm we were 75 nautical miles from the Tasman Light in fluky winds. It’s been fabulous sailing down the east coast of Tasmania, but we’re hoping we’ll get better breeze. We’re ecstatic to be able to do so well in such an old boat’ that won the race in 1993.
“It was wet and rough the first night, especially off Pambula. It was quite easy coming across Bass Strait – easier than sailing down the south coast.”
Of her skipper, Roger Hickman, currently sailing his 35th Rolex Sydney Hobart, Wells said: “It’s a benevolent dictatorship. The crew are very excited to sail on what was the original Wild Oats.”
However an area of high pressure is moving over the race area, bringing sunshine to the spectators turning out in Hobart, but also a drop in wind strength off the east coast of Tasmania. While Wild Rose has a little in the bank in terms of her lead, we will have to wait until tomorrow to find out if Hickman can achieve his second win.
Latest arrivals
Meanwhile more boats have arrived in Hobart, the latest being Jim Cooney’s former line honours winner,Brindabella, home in 12th place on the water. Ahead of the classic 1990s maxi there has been a major showdown between the Rolex Sydney Hobart’s competitive fleet of 50 footers.
Home in 11th place, 16 minutes before Brindabella was Robert Date’s Reichel Pugh 52, Scarlet Runner.
“We started off very well up until the time the sun went down on the first night, but we had a problem where we lost all our instruments, so we had to sail like blokes used to about 50 years ago with dead reckoning and a sextant!” said Date, adding that because of this they had lost around 15-20 miles on the competition and this they were unable to regain.
However this was not the end of their problems and at one stage Date said they were lucky not to dismast. “We lost one of the lower diagonal stays when the pin that holds it in came out. One of the crew managed to spot it and we grabbed it and changed on to the opposite tack and put that all back together. If we hadn’t spotted that in time we would have lost the mast.”
Aside from the boat Date admitted that he had also had a few issues of his own during the race, suffering a fall in the cockpit and on one occasion when the bunk he was in, on the weather side, gave way and he was propelled down to the leeward side of the boat.
Jason Van der Slot and John Williams’ Victorian crew on the modified TP52 Calm (formerly Stuart Robinson’s Stay Calm) were the first of the TP52s home, arriving in Hobart 11 minutes ahead of Chris Bull’s Cookson 50 Jazz, to take eighth place on the water.
They too had rigging issues. “We had a D1 pop out after Gabo on the first morning,” said Van der Slot. “We lost about six hours just making sure the rig was okay. From there we pumped the boat pretty hard and we managed to get in front of Ragamuffin and Jazz and we caught them up the river. We were eighth across the line but they might have got us on IRC. We are happy with how the boat performed – it was a good event.”
Van der Slot said that they had managed to regain lost ground on the Derwent river on the approach to Hobart thanks to local knowledge – he was born and bred here.
“The 50ft competition was amazing. Every time we tacked and gybed and crossed paths, it would beRagamuffin there. I think we finished where we thought we would with the preparation we put in. We are a bit disappointed under IRC. We put a pretty hard campaign for this together nine months ago and we have got some good key people on board for this race. We are happy with where we finished up.”
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race News Loyal Upheld
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
Sydney/Hobart, Australia
INVESTEC LOYAL CROWNED LINE HONOURS WINNERS
Following a three hour hearing at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania before the International Jury, the Race Committee’s protest against Investec Loyal was dismissed and Anthony Bell and the crew of his 100ft maxi were finally declared the line honours victors in the 2011 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
This afternoon at the Rolex Sydney Hobart 2011 prizegiving, held in front of a crowd lining Constitution Dock, CYCA Commodore Garry Linacre, Lord Mayor of Hobart, Damon Thomas, and Patrick Boutellier of Rolex Australia presented Anthony Bell with the JH Illingworth Trophy and a Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece for the line honours victory.
“It is the long way around in some ways,” said a delighted Anthony Bell. “It is very relieving to get to this point. There are rules in every sport and, while it wasn’t ideal to go through this, I think that ultimately it gets beyond any question and whatever those questions that were asked have been properly answered.”
As to their victory, when yesterday Investec Loyal beat Bob Oatley’s five time Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours winning maxi Wild Oats XI to the Hobart finish line by a margin of just 3 minutes 8 seconds, Bell said: “We have come second to Wild Oats quite a lot. We came second last year to them and we kept coming second to them at Hamilton Island. It is an against-the-odds victory for us....I am still waiting for one of my crew members to wake me up and say you’re on watch!
“The buzz is made best by the fact that Wild Oats XI is such a fantastic, professionally-run campaign by the Oatley family and, to have them compete so fiercely, it accelerated and heightened the value to us to go down the wire against a raceboat team like that. They are the benchmark of supermaxi racing, not just in Australia, but in the world.”
Bell explained that the query to the ABC helicopter pilot about Wild Oats XI’s sails had been made by their tactician Michael Coxon. Coxon is also Managing Director of North Sails Australia and, after the strong winds of the first night at sea, he had been concerned about Wild Oats XI’s mainsail, made of their new product 3Di and believed to be the most expensive sail of its type in the world.
“One of the things that they did take was that Michael Coxon’s question was not to gain any advantage for our boat at all, but more to test how his business client’s product, that they bought off him, was going,” said Bell of the international jury’s decision.
10 boats home
To date ten boats of the 77 still racing (out of 88 starters) have arrived in Hobart, the latest being Syd Fischer’s modified TP52 Ragamuffin. Of the boats now docked, Stephen Ainsworth’s Reichel Pugh 63 Lokiis currently favourite for the overall IRC handicap prize in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart. However still ahead of her on handicap is Roger Hickman’s 26 year-old Farr 43 Wild Rose. Still racing, she must finish before 08:12 local time tomorrow (30 December) if she is to beat Loki’s time under handicap.
Currently lying fourth under handicap is Michael Hiatt’s Farr 55 Living Doll, which was the sixth boat to reach Hobart, arriving at 08:46 local time this morning. Hiatt believes they lost a vital 15 minutes to Loki coming up the Derwent River on the approach to the finish. “It got back up to 30 knots and then we had a nice run up here, but it faded at the end of the Derwent,” he said.
Unlike the maxi boat leaders, which, from time to time, parked up over the latter half of their race, Hiatt said that on Living Doll they never stopped.
On the breezy first night at sea, they had seen 40 knots in the gusts. “It was really tricky. Some spooky breezes came in and they were pretty fierce. It would drop off to nothing and all of a sudden we’d get a lot more, so we had to handle that, but all of the transitions were really good. We just needed a tweak more speed.”
Hiatt sailed the race with a formidable crew including round the world race winners Steve Cotton and Noel Drennan and even had their own meteorologist on board in the form of Canadian Eric Holden.
Seventh home this morning, 12 minutes after Living Doll was Matt Allen, former Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the Rolex Sydney Hobart organisers, aboard his first generation Volvo Open 70, Ichi Ban.
Ichi Ban had suffered a few issues during the race. On the first night the lock jammed, holding their main halyard, and in the strong conditions they were forced to spend the rest of the night sailing with three reefs. It was only on the following morning they were able to send a crewman aloft enabling them to hoist the sail fully once again.
“That meant we had a really poor first night and it was really hard to recover from there,” said Allen. “We also broke one of the D4s [rigging on the mast], but luckily we picked it up before, otherwise we would have lost the mast.”
Allen said that in 22 Rolex Sydney Hobarts, he had never previously seen such big wind shifts, especially coming down the coast of Tasmania. During the race they ended up using all the sails on board, with the exception of the heavy running spinnaker. “It was hard work for the navigators, but we had nice sailing for the last 24 hours, good reaching spinnaker work – it’s been really enjoyable. The run we had from Tasman Island to the finish was probably the best run I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
Sydney/Hobart, Australia
INVESTEC LOYAL CROWNED LINE HONOURS WINNERS
Following a three hour hearing at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania before the International Jury, the Race Committee’s protest against Investec Loyal was dismissed and Anthony Bell and the crew of his 100ft maxi were finally declared the line honours victors in the 2011 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
This afternoon at the Rolex Sydney Hobart 2011 prizegiving, held in front of a crowd lining Constitution Dock, CYCA Commodore Garry Linacre, Lord Mayor of Hobart, Damon Thomas, and Patrick Boutellier of Rolex Australia presented Anthony Bell with the JH Illingworth Trophy and a Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece for the line honours victory.
“It is the long way around in some ways,” said a delighted Anthony Bell. “It is very relieving to get to this point. There are rules in every sport and, while it wasn’t ideal to go through this, I think that ultimately it gets beyond any question and whatever those questions that were asked have been properly answered.”
As to their victory, when yesterday Investec Loyal beat Bob Oatley’s five time Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours winning maxi Wild Oats XI to the Hobart finish line by a margin of just 3 minutes 8 seconds, Bell said: “We have come second to Wild Oats quite a lot. We came second last year to them and we kept coming second to them at Hamilton Island. It is an against-the-odds victory for us....I am still waiting for one of my crew members to wake me up and say you’re on watch!
“The buzz is made best by the fact that Wild Oats XI is such a fantastic, professionally-run campaign by the Oatley family and, to have them compete so fiercely, it accelerated and heightened the value to us to go down the wire against a raceboat team like that. They are the benchmark of supermaxi racing, not just in Australia, but in the world.”
Bell explained that the query to the ABC helicopter pilot about Wild Oats XI’s sails had been made by their tactician Michael Coxon. Coxon is also Managing Director of North Sails Australia and, after the strong winds of the first night at sea, he had been concerned about Wild Oats XI’s mainsail, made of their new product 3Di and believed to be the most expensive sail of its type in the world.
“One of the things that they did take was that Michael Coxon’s question was not to gain any advantage for our boat at all, but more to test how his business client’s product, that they bought off him, was going,” said Bell of the international jury’s decision.
10 boats home
To date ten boats of the 77 still racing (out of 88 starters) have arrived in Hobart, the latest being Syd Fischer’s modified TP52 Ragamuffin. Of the boats now docked, Stephen Ainsworth’s Reichel Pugh 63 Lokiis currently favourite for the overall IRC handicap prize in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart. However still ahead of her on handicap is Roger Hickman’s 26 year-old Farr 43 Wild Rose. Still racing, she must finish before 08:12 local time tomorrow (30 December) if she is to beat Loki’s time under handicap.
Currently lying fourth under handicap is Michael Hiatt’s Farr 55 Living Doll, which was the sixth boat to reach Hobart, arriving at 08:46 local time this morning. Hiatt believes they lost a vital 15 minutes to Loki coming up the Derwent River on the approach to the finish. “It got back up to 30 knots and then we had a nice run up here, but it faded at the end of the Derwent,” he said.
Unlike the maxi boat leaders, which, from time to time, parked up over the latter half of their race, Hiatt said that on Living Doll they never stopped.
On the breezy first night at sea, they had seen 40 knots in the gusts. “It was really tricky. Some spooky breezes came in and they were pretty fierce. It would drop off to nothing and all of a sudden we’d get a lot more, so we had to handle that, but all of the transitions were really good. We just needed a tweak more speed.”
Hiatt sailed the race with a formidable crew including round the world race winners Steve Cotton and Noel Drennan and even had their own meteorologist on board in the form of Canadian Eric Holden.
Seventh home this morning, 12 minutes after Living Doll was Matt Allen, former Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the Rolex Sydney Hobart organisers, aboard his first generation Volvo Open 70, Ichi Ban.
Ichi Ban had suffered a few issues during the race. On the first night the lock jammed, holding their main halyard, and in the strong conditions they were forced to spend the rest of the night sailing with three reefs. It was only on the following morning they were able to send a crewman aloft enabling them to hoist the sail fully once again.
“That meant we had a really poor first night and it was really hard to recover from there,” said Allen. “We also broke one of the D4s [rigging on the mast], but luckily we picked it up before, otherwise we would have lost the mast.”
Allen said that in 22 Rolex Sydney Hobarts, he had never previously seen such big wind shifts, especially coming down the coast of Tasmania. During the race they ended up using all the sails on board, with the exception of the heavy running spinnaker. “It was hard work for the navigators, but we had nice sailing for the last 24 hours, good reaching spinnaker work – it’s been really enjoyable. The run we had from Tasman Island to the finish was probably the best run I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
photo Credits Rolex / Daniel Forster , Rolex / Kurt Arrigo ,
Sydney-Hobert race win in doubt Official ABC Repot
Sydney-Hobart race win in doubt
Updated
A post-race drama has overshadowed one of the closest finishes in Sydney to Hobart history, after a protest was lodged against provisional line honours winner Investec LOYAL.
Investec LOYAL crossed the line about 7:15pm (AEDT) on Wednesday after two days, six hours, 14 minutes and 18 seconds. Just three minutes and eight seconds behind was five-time winner Wild Oats XI.
But within half an hour celebrations had turned sour.
The race committee lodged a protest against the supermaxi for allegedly asking a third party for assistance during the race.
The crew of Investec LOYAL have been accused of asking the crew of the ABC helicopter to tell them what sail Wild Oats XI was using when the yachts were just off Merimbula on the NSW south coast.
In an audio recording, Investec LOYAL tactician Michael Coxon is heard asking: "Can you confirm, does Wild Oats have their trysail up? What colour is the mainsail they've got up?"
Race commodore Garry Linacre told a press conference the conversation was recorded, sent out and heard by others.
Investec LOYAL skipper Anthony Bell will face an international jury at a hearing at 10.00am (AEDT) today.
The yacht could be disqualified or face a time penalty.
Bell says he is confident the hearing will confirm Investec LOYAL as the line honours winner.
"We respect that there's rules in racing, we respect the fact that there's rules to yachting," he said.
"We are confident the outcome will confirm our victory in the race."
The crew were told about the protest after they crossed the finish line.
The skipper of Wild Oats XI says Investec LOYAL deserves the win and should keep the title.
"There were three stages to the race where we had a really big lead and we lost it, had no wind at all and they sailed around us," Mark Richards said.
"They did a fantastic job and we congratulate those guys. We'll have to come back next year and have another crack."
Mr Linacre says it is a "disappointing situation".
"I am very sorry about this; I can assure you I could well do without it," he said.
Investec LOYAL and Wild Oats XI had jostled down Tasmania's east coast in a light northerly breeze but the brakes came off when they rounded Tasman Peninsula late on Wednesday afternoon.
At the mouth of the River Derwent only a few hundred metres separated the two yachts and the pair raced for the line in a dying sea breeze.
Several thousand people lined the Hobart waterfront for the finish.
It was the fourth closest race in the event's history.
The race's closest finish was in 1982 when seven seconds separated Condor of Bermuda from Apollo.
Meanwhile, the battle for race handicap honours is heating up, with most of the top contenders for overall winner still at sea this morning.
Loki finished fourth and is currently the benchmark for the race.
Leading the charge is the New South Wales yacht Victoire.
Close behind by about 40 minutes on corrected time is the 1993 overall winner Wild Rose. The 2009 handicap winner Two True is in third.
It is going to be a tight contest, with fickle weather conditions continuing to pose challenges.
Race spokeswoman Di Pearson says at this stage it's anyone's race.
"Should they get conditions, say a north-north-easterly that pushes them home quickly, that situation could completely change," she said.
A final result could be in late tonight.
Follow the progress of the fleet on the yacht tracker.
First posted
Rolex Sydney To Hobart News: Ivestec Loyal @2 days 6hrs And !4 minutes
The closest finish in the last 29 years of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race took place this evening when Anthony Bell’s maxi Investec Loyal fended off repeated challenges from Bob Oatley’s perennial line honours victor Wild Oats XI to win by just 3 minutes and 8 seconds, after 2 days 6 hours 14 minutes and 8 seconds of racing on this classic 628 mile course.
The competition for line honours in this race was one of the closest in its 67 year history with the two Australian maxis gunning for each other from the moment the canon was fired on Sydney Harbour on Monday afternoon. Wild Oats XI led until 20:00 local time (09:00 UTC) on Tuesday when they were becalmed.
“They [Investec Loyal’s crew] were keeping track of how we were doing and the moment we stopped under a cloud with no wind under it, they basically sailed right around the outside of this large hole we were stuck in and came back above us. It was good work on their part,” described Wild Oats XI’s co-navigator, Ian Burns.
Fortunately the wind filled in soon after for Wild Oats XI and they were able to resume the fight and, from this point on, the event became truly a gloves-off match race between the two 100 footers.
Finally this morning at 07:30 local time, Wild Oats XI regained the lead. With rarely more than two miles separating the two boats, it was not until Wild Oats XI was becalmed again just short of Tasman Island and the entrance to Storm Bay, that Investec Loyal managed once more to skirt around the wind hole. This time they took up residence directly ahead of their opponent and from that point, despite the best efforts of the Wild Oats XI crew led by Mark Richards, Investec Loyal was not going to be passed.
Much to the delight of spectators thickly lining Hobart’s Constitution Dock, the two ocean racing giants came into sight up the Derwent River, but it was Investec Loyal and her crew, including sports stars, such as Australian rugby union internationals Phil Kearns and Phil Waugh, which was first home. They arrived at 19:14:18 local time, their elapsed time for the course being 2 days 6 hours 14 minutes and 18 seconds.
“It was one of the great experiences in my life,” said Anthony Bell, Investec Loyal’s owner and skipper with a beaming smile. “The whole thing from the very start, right through to the finish line was exhilarating. It was a really tough fought out race, but the crew believed in the boat and the cause right from the start and we are so happy to have got past the finish line first.”
Michael Coxon, tactician on Investec Loyal shared his thoughts on their win: “It has a very competent professional crew and a great owner who does it all for the right reasons. It is like a fairy tale – a boat that supports charity. This boat raised Aus$ 1 million this year for charity. That is the way it should happen. I am very happy for Anthony Bell. We sail with people who have never gone sailing before and they did a really good job.”
In what was principally a tactical victory for the older Investec Loyal, Coxon paid tribute to their American navigator. “The difference is a gentleman called Stan Honey,” he said. “He is an absolute legend - just amazing. His knowledge of weather and weather routing and the information he provides to me...at the end of the day he is just so good.”
Investec Loyal – provision winner at this stage
However at present Investec Loyal’s line honours victory in the 2011 Rolex Sydney Hobart is provisional. The event’s Race Committee, led by Tim Cox, is protesting Anthony Bell’s boat over a believed infringement of Racing Rule of Sailing 41 entitled ‘Outside Help’. This involved the audio recording of a conversation that took place at 06:30 local time on 27th December between the pilot of an ABC TV station helicopter and an Investec Loyal crewman seeking information on the sail plan in use on Wild Oats XI - in particular whether she was flying a trisail. “This is assessed to breach Rule 41 by soliciting help from an outside source,” explained Garry Linacre, Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, organiser of the Rolex Sydney Hobart.
The case is to be heard by the race’s international jury at 10:00 local time tomorrow, 29th December.
Gracious in defeat
On board second placed Wild Oats XI, skipper Mark Richards was categorical about the outcome. “Those guys won on the water and we came second. That’s all there is to it. They did a great job those guys and they deserve the win.”
Richards added that he thought it had been a fantastic race. “We had to work our butts off until the end and we came in second. That’s the way it is. They sailed very well. We were very unlucky in a few situations, but those guys did a great job and when it came to the crunch. Their boat was little bit quicker than us downwind in the lighter air and they just managed to keep their nose in front and got to the line first.”
Next up
The next two boats expected to arrive in Hobart at around 01:00 tomorrow morning are Peter Millard and John Honan’s maxi Lahana and Stephen Ainsworth’s Reichel Pugh 63, Loki.
The race for the Tattersall’s Cup, for handicap honours under IRC, remains wide open with Michael Hiatt’s Farr 55 Living Doll ahead earlier this evening, but with Australian sailing legend, 84 year-old Syd Fischer and his modified TP52 Ragamuffin having taken the lead under IRC at the time of writing. Line Honours
Rolex Sydney Hobart News : Its Murray and Honey Neck and Neck
Labels: AMERICAS CUP, hobart, http://rolexsydneyhobart.com, SydneyWild Oats XI’s position as the fastest boat in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was being severely tested last night when at the 20:00 sched (local time, 09:00 UTC), Anthony Bell’s maxiInvestec Loyal overhauled the five time line honours winner.
Overnight the wind the leaders have seen has clocked through 360 degrees.
Crossing the Bass Strait yesterday Investec Loyal’s track south was some 20-30 miles east of Wild Oats XI’s. But early evening, when the wind backed from the southwest into the southeast, both boats tacked southwest, Loyal getting the better of the shift, aggressively bearing away towards her opponent. Making 14 knots compared to Wild Oats XI’s 9 knots, within an hour Investec Loyal had pulled ahead by 6 miles.Overnight the lead duo in the Rolex Sydney Hobart have continued to round the northwest quadrant of an area of high pressure that, since yesterday, has been shifting east out into the Tasman Sea. With the wind continuing to back into the northeast so the duo at around 01:00 local time this morning on this occasion gybed southwest, allowing them to close on the east coast of Tasmania.
“We've got a yacht race on our hands out here!” came back the succinct report from the Wild Oats XI nav team in the early hours. “We are high speed running - more wind shifts ahead.”
However at around 07:30 local time this morning, Wild Oats XI nosed her way back into the lead.
With another light patch off the southeast coast of Tasmania, so the boats remain still quite offshore, now with the wind back in the southwest, where it was yesterday afternoon. With 72 miles to go to the finish off Hobart for Wild Oats XI at the latest sched, leading Investec Loyal by just 1.5 miles, ETAs into Hobart remain vague. The forecast is now showing the wind dying in Storm Bay and up the Derwent River leading up to Hobart – conditions which have destroyed many a winning yacht’s chances in previous years.
Under IRC handicap, the battle for the Tattersall’s Cup continues to rage, with the best hopes now back to the maxis. In particular Peter Millard’s maxi Lahana (the former Zana/Konica Minolta), holding third place on the water 62 miles astern of Wild Oats XI, is looking very strong. For at present across the race course conditions are generally light, with the exception of where Lahana,Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki and Alex Thomson’s IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss, are located off the east coast of Tasmania, where in 15-20 knot northerlies, Hugo Boss is recording the highest speed in the fleet of 17 knots.
Rolex News: Investec Loyal Gaining On Wild Oats for lead
 |
| Photo By: Rolex / Daniel Forster |
Further back still, Alex Thomson’s IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss is fourth on the water, doing well to fend off the advances of Stephen Ainsworth’s all conquering Reichel Pugh 63, Loki.
Yesterday evening local time, the fleet saw the wind clock around through 180 degrees as the front passed overhead, the wind kicking in with some violence from the south, putting the boats hard on the wind.
As Mike Broughton, navigator on Chris Bull’s Cookson 50 Jazz recounted: “The front passed last night with quite a punch, with pelting rain that lasted for about 40 minutes, but kept things busy for Andy Hudson and the bow team, as we quickly had to change sails.” The rapid change in wind direction, and with the wind now counter to the south-going current, has kicked up an evil sea. Broughton described this as being 3-4m high, short and confused.
In the all-important IRC handicap battle for the Tattersall’s Cup, nothing clear is transpiring yet. At the time of writing Wild Oats XI, the biggest fastest boat in the fleet, had eased ahead, but previously leading had been the 1985-built Farr 43 Wild Rose, winner of the Rolex Sydney Hobart in 1993 and skippered by race veteran Roger Hickman. The smaller Beneteaus were also performing well – in particular Darryl Hodgkinson’s much tipped Beneteau First 45 Victoire, Paul Clitheroe’s 45 Balance and Andrew Saies on his 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart winning First 40, Two True.
At present the bulk of the fleet are still hugging the New South Wales coast where the wind is in the south and they are hard on the wind. However conditions have momentarily improved for the maxis out in Bass Strait where the wind, currently blowing 25-30 knots, has veered into the southwest allowing the boats to head south on starboard tack. But the forecast is indicating stop-start progress for the 100 footers. The wind is due to fizzle out this afternoon (local time) as a small bubble of high pressure eases east off the coast of Tasmania. But once the high gets offshore, some northerly pressure could build close in to the Tasman coast, allowing the big boats to forge south once more.
Despite a first testing night at sea, to date there have only been three retirements from 88 starters. Just before midnight local time Sam Haynes’ Rogers 46 Celestial withdrew having suffered a broken gooseneck, while Marc and Louis Ryckmans GP42 Accenture (Yeah Baby) pulled out with unspecified gear failure.
Hot off the press is that 2003 line honours winner, Grant Warrington ‘s Wild Thing is the latest retirement, having suffered sail damage. At the time of her pulling out she was holding third place on the water.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
