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| Conditions abating as afternoon wears on. |
By Lisa Ratcliff, Bruce Montgomery and Danielle McKay,
Sydney Hobart media team. |
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Photos by
Peter Andrews,
Story and page edited By Peter Andrews. |
| 18:30 AEDT, December 27,
2010. |
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| Conditions appear to be easing at sea, but not before the strong gale force south-westerly wind that built to its peak this afternoon, claimed another three yachts in the Sydney Hobart fleet. The people’s maxi, Jim Cooney’s Brindabella, has retired this afternoon with a torn mainsail. The Jutson 79, the 1997 line honours winner, is now returning to Sydney. |
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Jim Cooney’s Jutson 79 Brindabella, offshore after the start
of the Sydney Hobart 2010.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage Australia.
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| Two more yachts have retired this afternoon; Robert Reynolds’ DK46 Exile has pulled out of the blue water classic, navigator Julie Hodder reporting "our steering wheel was smashed by the boom when we took off our main. We are very disappointed." Martin Power’s Victorian Peterson 44 Bacardi has also retired from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s annual classic, after being dismasted 35 nautical miles east of Batemans Bay on the New South Wales south coast. |
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Victorian Martin Power’s Peterson 44 Bacardi, outside the heads
after the start of the Sydney Hobart 2008.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage Australia.
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The Mark Richards skippered Wild Oats X1, still leads the fleet. The supermaxi is in the middle of Bass Strait, about 290 nautical miles from the finish, with a computer-projected finishing time of about 9pm tomorrow evening.
The 100 footer is maintaining an 18 to 19 nautical mile lead over Sean Langman’s supermaxi Investec Loyal with the big mover today, Matt Allen’s Jones 70 Ichi Ban lying third and eight miles further back. Then follows Peter Millard and John Honan’s 30 metre maxi Lahana, Grant Wharington’s Wild Thing and Niklas Zennström’s JV72 Rán; the first foreign entry about 47 miles astern of the race leader. |
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Matt Allen’s Jones 70 Ichi Ban, offshore after the start of the
Sydney Hobart 2010.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage Australia.
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Barring mishap, four-time line honours champion Wild Oats XI is continuing to charge toward a fifth title and could herald some good news of kinder conditions for those in her wake. Navigator Ian Burns said the crew had experienced 40 knots, but the yacht and crew had punched on to be in good condition and high spirits.
"It was pretty arduous going, very hard to slow the boat down to keep it in one piece," he said. "We had to get down to very, very small sails and really worked at keeping the boat slow, so we weren’t crashing off waves too much."
Burns said seas were calming down and the breeze was softening to 15 knots, as the 100 footer charged about 120 nautical miles south of Gabo Island at 6pm this evening.
"We’ll just deal with each wave and each puff of breeze as they come to us. We’ll get there when we get there," Burns added. |
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Stephen Ainsworth’s Reichel Pugh 63 Loki, offshore Sydney during
the 2009 Trophy Rating Series.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage Australia.
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Ichi Ban has relinquished first place on corrected time to Stephen Ainsworth’s fancied Reichel Pugh 63 Loki, which has a notional lead of 18 minutes over Ichi Ban. They are followed by Lahana and Alan Brierty’s 62 foot Reichel Pugh design Limit.
The injured crew on Dodo reportedly has a broken arm and a name is yet to be released, while Ludde Ingvall’s 90 footer YuuZoo has arrived at the New South Wales coastal port of Eden.
As of 6.30pm this evening, there have been a total of nine retirements from the 87-strong line up that began racing from Sydney Harbour at 1pm yesterday afternoon.
For further information about the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, go to: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com. The race can also be followed on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/rshyr. |
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| Outimage © 2010 |
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