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Gold Coast leader on course for race record

Home 2003 Gold Coast leader on course for race record

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Race leader Grundig is on course for a race record in the Sydney Gold Coast Race after a windy and icy-cold night at sea off the New South Wales North Coast.

Running north under spinnaker in fresh to strong south-westerly winds,  skipper Sean Langman had the 66-footer surfing the waves at speed of 15 to 20 knots knots to be only 117 nautical miles from the finish off Southport’s Main Beach at 7am today.

Grundig was holding out Ludde Ingvall's 80-footer,  Luna Park Sydney,  by 17 miles after passing Coffs Harbour in the early hours.  Then came the three Volvo 60s,  Andrew Short Marine Djuice, Magnavox and Indec, followed by Broomstick and Ichi Ban.

At that stage, Grundig was only 55 nautical miles south of Ballina,  with the other leading boats north of Smokey Cape.   Two hours later she was only 90 miles from the finish,  averaging 14 knots,  but Luna Park Sydney had reduced the gap to 13 miles.

To break Brindabella’s record of  27 hours 35 minutes 03 seconds,  Grundig must  finish before 4.35 this afternoon. 

 

While the winds have eased this morning, gusts of up 40 knots overnight
caused some problems amongst the fleet with Phil and Nada Dickinson's Beneteau 50 Champagne on Ice sending out a Pan Pan urgency signal after the steering broke and the 50-footer began taking on water.

The boat has since arrived safely in Port Stephens.

Julie Hodder, navigator on Magnavox 2UE,  this morning reported that the 60-footer lost steerage for almost half an hour last night during a spinnaker change in the gusty conditions.

"In the change down to a headsail, the halyard got caught and the kite started flogging and pulling us sideways. We had to send Lindsey Stead up the mast in the dark to cut the halyard so we could regain steerage. The guys are exhausted this morning," she admitted.