Now line honours has been settled, all eyes have turned to the Audi Sydney Gold Coast handicap results which provisionally have the defending champion leading the IRC fleet.

Steven David’s Wild Joe won this race last year on handicap and it was always David’s ambition to achieve back to back wins. After sailing a smart tactical race, yesterday afternoon Wild Joe was also leading the fleet but in the end was overpowered by Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats X which took line honours at 11.02pm last night.

David and his crew are currently holed up at Southport Yacht Club continuously checking the progress of those still at sea who remain a threat.

“We are sweating on when the smaller boats finish but we are quietly confident something will come off,” said David.

“Hopefully the crew sailed a fast enough race to put enough space between first and second.”.

On PHS provisional results, Corinne Feldmann’s Inglis 37 Stampede has slipped into first place ahead of ACT entry Namadgi. Immediate past CYCA Commodore Geoff Lavis is provisionally third with UBS Wild Thing, another Inglis design.

In the Sydney 38 division, Marc and Louis Ryckman’s Star Dean-Willcocks Yeah Baby leads Gordon Ketelbey’s Zen and The Bigger Picture (Bigger Picture Partnership).

Ten yachts from the fleet of 67 have now finished with the remainder making good time in a 12-14 knot southerly. The last boat, currently the Rum Consortium’s Phillip’s Foot Witchdoctor is due tomorrow morning, Tuesday 31 July, at around 8.30am.