Wild
Oats X's elapsed time was 1 day 10 hours 2 minutes 45
seconds for the 384 nautical mile race which began at 1pm from
Sydney Harbour on Saturday afternoon.
Steven
David, owner of the Reichel/Pugh 60 Wild Joe , wasn't
aboard for this race after stepping off his boat at the last
minute, but he was on the finish line to congratulate his weary
crew. Wild Joe recorded a finish time of 11.22pm giving
them an elapsed time of 1 day 10 hours 22 minutes 44 seconds.
Wild
Joe's skipper Adam Beashel and tactician David Dickson
put up a valiant fight, plotting a course which took the 60-footer
well offshore and put them at the front of the pack at lunchtime
today. But in the end they couldn't hold out the larger Reichel/Pugh,
which happens to be Bob Oatley's former boat.
“We
had a great battle playing the shifts with Wild Oats,” said Beashel
tonight at Southport Yacht Club. “They found a couple of shifts
this afternoon and from there it was a case of the rich getting
richer. We had one final shot at them and thought we might be
able to slip through but it wasn't to be. They sailed a good
defensive race to the finish.”
The
crew of Wild Joe now has their sights on the handicap
prize. Currently second on provisional results to Stephen Ellis's
Farr 40 Splash Gordon , they are hoping the breeze lightens
overnight which will slow the progress of those in the hunt for
the handicap silverware. Wild Oats is also currently
well placed on provisional handicap results.
Rather
than waiting until daybreak, both Wild Oats X and Wild
Joe decided to take a chance and shoot across the sand
bar into the Gold Coast seaway on the outgoing tide. Wild
Oats X , with their keel canted and three crewmen up the
mast to lean the boat right over, made it down the channel and
they and Wild Joe are now berthed at Southport Yacht
Club which is eerily quite before the full brunt of the large
fleet is felt tomorrow and into the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The
PHS fleet has a new leader tonight. ACT entry Namadgi ,
skippered by Rick Scott Murphy, has obviously capitalised on
the weather knowledge of champion balloonist Sean Kavanagh and
his father Phil and is out in front with Stampede still
in second and new entry into the top three, Phillip's Foote
Witchdoctor in third.
The
next boat due to finish is Matt Allen's Ichi Ban with
an ETA of 2am tomorrow morning.
Official race website http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au
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