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Wild Oats X leading, Shogun retires

Home 2009 Wild Oats X leading, Shogun retires

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Robert Oatley’s Wild Oats X, skippered by Mark Richards has maintained their strong position, leading the fleet of the 24th Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race. She is currently 4 nautical miles SE of Cape Byron and is expected to finish early afternoon.

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1000hrs 27 July 2009

Robert Oatley’s Wild Oats X, skippered by Mark Richards has maintained their strong position, leading the fleet of the 24th Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race. She is currently 4 nautical miles SE of Cape Byron and is expected to finish early afternoon.

Wild Oats X, who stayed with their tactics of being pressed against the coast and keeping a watch over those boats that were offshore, are now facing a challenge from Loki and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, who have made their way inshore, providing what will be an exciting tactical battle for the line honours glory.

The crew of Wild Oats X are anticipating some fast and interesting angles as they head towards the finish line. A predicted SW breeze may also come into play mid-morning which may see the leaders pick up speed and finish early than expected.

Will Oxley, navigator on Geoff Ross’ Yendys, have had a pretty rough night with 30 knots of wind and a rough sea state. “We went wide to try to find some favourable current and get ourselves a good line into the finish. We have a nice break on the rest of the 50 footers although we were a little nervous last night when we were the furthest boat offshore - out 65 nautical miles.”

"With the temperatures and conditions we experienced last night, it felt more like a Hobart than a warm Gold Coast race,” concluded Will.

The race for IRC Overall honours is still wide open, given the southerly change predicted this afternoon which could provide the yachts at the rear of the fleet an opportunity to make up precious time on corrected handicap.

Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas’ AFR Midnight Rambler is currently leading IRC Overall, from Stephen Proud’s Swish, with Henk Welleman’s Aileron third. The friendly rivalry between AFR Midnight Rambler and Anthony Paterson’s Tow Truck (currently fourth on IRC Overall) is alive and well on the race track. With Tow Truck having beaten AFR Midnight Rambler to a divisional win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2008, Ed Psaltis and crew are in a position to take revenge.

Four retirements occurred overnight including Rob Hanna’s Shogun who retired with minor damage; Tim Casey’s St Hilliers Quest; Stephen Robb & Jonathon Moore’s Siena IV and The Obsession Syndicate’s modified Sydney 38 Obsession with backstay problems.

Early retirements this morning include Peter Mosely's Local Hero; Feldmann and Buchan's Stampede Colortile; and Asher Lockhart skippered Lockhart Solutions.com

Yesterday’s retirement of Lahana, owned by Peter Millard and John Honan, was a result of ballast tank issue. “We had a minor rupture in one of the ballast tanks, which caused things to twist out of shape and created a slight fracture in the deck. We took the more prudent decision to retire,” said Peter

“Up until we retired from the race I was very happy with the boat and how it was performing. We will assess the damage, undertake the repairs and you will see us back at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week,” concluded Peter. 

Keen enthusiasts can track the fleet as they sail up the coast as each yacht is fitted with the CYCA’s unique yacht tracking device which sends regular updates to the race website – http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au. Details of all yachts participating in the event can be found under ‘The Yachts’ tab. Line honours positions and handicap results will be updated regularly until the last boat cross the finish line.