Skip to main content
Time to race start
00 days
:
00 hours
:
00 mins
:
00 secs

Round one to the Mexicans

Home 2010 Round one to the Mexicans

Article Image

Round one of the silver jubilee Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race went to the Victorians, the wily interstaters brazenly beating the Sydney bunch out of the starting blocks on Sydney Harbour today.

news
—

Round one of the silver jubilee Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race went to the Victorians, the wily interstaters brazenly beating the Sydney bunch out of the starting blocks on Sydney Harbour today.

Following their midline start, the crew of Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI quickly realised the better breeze was along the harbour’s edges and duly headed to the eastern shoreline with their big Code 0 flying while the helicopters buzzed overhead and a sizeable spectator fleet kept pace in the light conditions.

Further west Rob Hanna’s Victorian JV52 Shogun got the early jump in clear air with another Mexican, Michael Hiatt and his Farr 55 Living Doll closing ranks in the 8 knot SW breeze which eventually clocked to the WNW and built marginally under a darkening sky.

Nicholas Bartels’ Cookson 50, the previous Living Doll, was the third amigo from south of the border to give the Sydney crews some early stick. This is Bartels’ first outing in the Cookson having just stepped up from his successful Sydney 47 of the same name.  Aboard for the boat’s maiden voyage is master tactician Barney Walker who has just returned from Limit’s US program.

Of the Sydney boats, Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki was well placed after the start but it was last year’s overall winner, Ed Psaltis’ modified Farr 40 AFR Midnight Rambler which proved that size doesn’t always count.  AFR Midnight Rambler followed Wild Oats XI’s lead along the exclusive harbour beaches and reached Sydney Heads in the esteemed company of Peter Harburg’s Queensland RP66 Black Jack, with America’s Cup sailor Ed Smyth navigating.

The transitional breeze caught the Mark Bradford skippered Black Jack out at the start but this afternoon they are making good time averaging 18 knots in a 15-18 knot westerly as the frontrunners approach Norah Head.

With stronger winds forecast offshore it is no surprise that the majority of the 75 strong fleet is sitting east of the rhumbline. Wild Oats XI is one of the furthest out to sea, in the lead and on record pace reaching along at 19 knots of boat speed in the sparkling winter sunshine.

Reputations have this afternoon been salvaged with NSW boat Loki currently second in the fleet and Geoff Ross’ RP55 Yendys also in the vicinity of Wild Oats XI, and more importantly ahead of those show-offs from out of town.

Loki’s navigator Michael Bellingham this afternoon reported, “We had a difficult start with the big fleet but picked the right side and got out of the Heads OK. We are now romping under kite and staysail quietly expecting the stronger breeze over the next 3-5 hours.

“We are 10nm ESE of Bird Island and quite happy with only the 100 footer in front of us”.

Prior to the 1pm start there were issues on board Wild Oats XI with the mainsail track, the supermaxi’s two bowmen Tim Wiseman and Sven Runow sent aloft to bring the square top main down to effect repairs. Just 20 minutes before the start gun the huge mainsail was finally hoisted.

The honour of firing the 19th Century replica cannon to signal the start of the 384 nautical mile race today went to Joe King, Dealer Principal, Audi Centre Sydney.

Audi Australia together with ONE HD, Australia’s only dedicated free-to-air digital sports channel, will show highlights from the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race on Monday 23 August at 8.30pm on ONE HD, as part of the four episode wrap of the Audi IRC Australian Championship.

Fleet positions are available via Yacht Tracker at http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au

By Lisa Ratcliff, CYCA Event Media