Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race 2024

News
2010
Laughs wearing thin for last in the fleet

Laughs wearing thin for last in the fleet

NEWS
02 Aug, 2010 03:45:00 PM

Laughs wearing thin for last in the fleet

The last boat in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race fleet, Mister Christian, entered the silver jubilee Audi Sydney Gold Coast to “have a bit of fun”. This afternoon skipper Tony Purkiss admits the laughs are wearing a little thin given the 28 year old Swanson 36 is practically stopped dead in the water, doing just 1.6 knots in the glassy conditions south east of Coffs Harbour.

Based on that speed the six man crew will finish the 384 nautical mile race in four days’ time, well after organisers have packed up and gone home.

While most of the hot shots have flown out and returned to work today, Purkiss assures, “We are well provisioned, well hydrated and not due back at work until next Monday.

“We do have some jokes left, otherwise we’ll just change the names and keep recycling the old ones,” he said after being called from on deck where he was sun tanning to answer the phone.

“Do you want to know whether something’s wrong?” was how he good naturedly answered the call. There are no issues he promised, just an aging fibreglass and ply boat that “is not a surfing boat but one that sits in the water rather than on top like a cork.

“We were 25th out of Sydney Heads after the start on Saturday and smokin’ so we were looking famous for a bit,” said the legally blind yachtsman who lost his sight in the Bali bombings.
“For me this race is about a good bunch of blokes allowing a guy who is legally blind to enjoy doing what he loves,” Purkiss said.

Quite the comedian, he pointed out that the Bureau of Meteorology’s disclaimer states breeze could be 40% either side of the forecast strength, in which case they could be looking at 40% less than nothing.

Extensively raced offshore in the late 1980s and 1990s out of MHYC, Mister Christian has been a cruising boat in recent years. Purkiss, the 2008 CYCA Highly Commended Ocean Crew Person of the Year chartered the well known Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club boat to mark his 20th race to the Gold Coast and to celebrate the event’s 25th anniversary.

There has been a fourth retirement in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, Jonathon Stone’s recently purchased Davidson 34 Illusion, a Rolex Sydney Hobart overall winner in the ocean classic back in the 1980s, then Victoria’s second only overall win.

The boat’s skipper Chris Bowling rang race organisers at 2pm this afternoon to advise he was heading into Yamba with suspected keel damage after reportedly hitting a whale last night then picking up a crab pot this morning.

Wearing lifejackets and with their life raft ready for deployment as a precautionary measure, Bowling and his crew motored into Yamba where they will have the keel inspected.

The race’s Radio Relay Vessel JBW was coincidentally in port at Yamba and chief radio operator David Kellett was on standby to provide assistance if required.

Twenty six boats from the 75 that started have now finished the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race with all but one (see above) due by 6am tomorrow morning.

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.

To view the IRC standings go to http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au/standings

By Lisa Ratcliff, CYCA Event Media

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