Mark Richards at the helm of the Reichel/Pugh 66 Wild Oats X stamped his authority early on the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, leading the 72 strong fleet down Sydney Harbour and out through the Heads ahead of a cold 18-22 knot sou'westerly breeze.

A fresher than forecast breeze produced a stunning spinnaker start. Graeme Troon's Victorian Reichel/Pugh 46 XLR8 , with two time world Etchells champion and America 's Cup skipper Steven Troon on the helm, nailed the start before Wild Oats got the jump.

Steven David's Wild Joe also had a crack start as did Matt Allen 's Ichi Ban and Ray Roberts' Cookson 50 Quantum Racing . The front runners all gybed over to the eastern shore to stay inside Sow & Pigs Reef but Wild Joe , with America 's Cup sailor Adam Beashel on the helm, took the western shore option and picked up a private breeze. This gave them a super fast sprint to Middle Head which is where they gybed across to find themselves second in the fleet.

Ichi Ban, with Michael Coxon from North Sails calling tactics, was third out of Sydney Heads, their bow pointing directly east as they headed offshore in search of breeze, their pre-race strategy. This afternoon Allen reported they were sailing offshore in a 17-21 knot S/SW breeze astern of Wild Oats.

“We'd like another five knots,” admitted Allen. “We are looking for 25 knots but we figure we might be looking for a while. The fleet is really bunched up, the 50 footers are in a big group behind us,” Allen added.

Allen's thinking is that they'll stay offshore for most of the night and poke their nose back in early tomorrow morning. “There will be plenty of angles to get back in,” he said.

It took Wild Oats just 13 minutes to clear North Head and 24 minutes for the entire fleet to exit Sydney Harbour with Ted Tooher's Chancellor last out.

Apart from some rocking and rolling when the majority of the fleet converged at the face of North Head at the same time a 25 knot gust hit, there were no incidents to report with the entire fleet getting away cleanly this afternoon.

Andrew Short Marine Brindabella looked to be having some on board problems and was slow to leave the harbour but crewman Geoff Cropley this afternoon advised they were deliberately conservative at the start with a brand new bow sprit only added yesterday and a number of new crew on the powerful 79-footer.

“We've got nearly 400 miles ahead of us, we wanted to be conservative and not put any pressure on ourselves,” said Cropley who said this afternoon's conditions were perfect and not a drop of water had hit the deck so far.

Greg Antipas from the Sydney 38 Nikko Principal Investments this afternoon reported on their start. “After a close start in stiff SW breezes, we are running up the coast reaching boat speeds of around 10-12 knots. You couldn't have asked for a better race start and now we are enjoying a great spinnaker run along the northern beaches. We only hope the conditions hold as long as possible.”

Each competing yacht has been fitted with a tracking device and can be monitored constantly via Yacht Tracker on the official race web sites http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au and http://mackay.cyca.com.au Line honours positions and handicap results will be updated every 10 minutes until the last boat in both races cross the finish line.