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Gold Coast fleet surfing towards new race record

Home 2003 Gold Coast fleet surfing towards new race record

Ichi Ban

A brilliant red sunset marked the end of the first afternoon for the fleet sailing north in the 18th annual Sydney Gold Coast Race as crews prepared for a cold night at sea.

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At 1800 hours this evening, Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race leader Grundig (Sean Langman) was streaking up the coast averaging 16 knots of boat speed and had negotiated a handy five-mile lead from Ludde Ingvall’s Luna Park Sydney.

There will be little rest for the six crew on board the 66-footer Grundig tonight with fast spinnaker sailing and surfing northwards towards the finish line off Main Beach on Queensland’s Gold Coast, and possibly a new race record.

Brindabella set the current record of 27 hours 35 minutes 03 seconds for the 384 nautical mile course in 1999 and if its current speed is maintained, Grundig will break that record by an amazing four hours.

The two race leaders are north of Port Stephens and ahead of the group of three Volvo 60s – Andrew Short Marine Djuice, Indec (David Gotze) and Magnavox 2UE (Hodder, Gray, Zemanek, Sorensen).

After a superb start on Sydney Harbour this afternoon, the best-placed Queensland boat is still Stewart Lewis’ Enigma in 12th position on line honours.

While it’s early on in the race, on IMS handicap Andrew Cochrane’s Pendragon is the surprise leader ahead of Terry Mullens’ Sting and Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban while on IRC handicap, Broomstick (Wallace/Cranitch) is leading Grundig and Enigma.

PHS results have CYCA Vice Commodore Geoff Lavis leading with his Inglis 50 UBS Wild Thing with Andy Allsep and Gary Anderson’s Bullistic in second and Tony Williams’ Balmain Experience in third.

In the 12-boat Sydney 38 One Design division, Graham Gibson’s Hidden Agenda is leading Nigel Holman’s Cuckoos Nest and Easy Tiger (Way/McWilliam).

A brilliant red sunset marked the end of the first afternoon for the fleet sailing north in the 18th annual Sydney Gold Coast Race as crews prepared for a cold night at sea.

The crew on Ichi Ban were pulling out beanies and gloves earlier this evening as they sailed past the lights of Newcastle while the Magnavox 2UE crew were enjoying hot percolated coffee and looking forward to Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.

Both boats reported fantastic sailing conditions at sea with a southerly swell and a 25+ knot sou’wester allowing the boats to surf the waves.

“We are regularly reaching speeds of 18 knots as we coast down the wave face,” said Ichi Ban’s sailing master Roger Hickman tonight.

The overnight forecast is for the breeze to stay fresh from the southwest.