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2010
Super Maxis to Enter the 25th Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race

Super Maxis to Enter the 25th Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race

NEWS
24 May, 2010 11:41:00 AM

Super Maxis to Enter the 25th Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race

Super maxis Wild Oats XI (Robert Oatley) and Investec LOYAL (Sean Langman and Anthony Bell) have signalled their intentions to head north in the 25th Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race with the 11 year old race record of 27 hours, 35 minutes and three seconds, held by Brindabella, to be seriously challenged.

Super maxis Wild Oats XI (Robert Oatley) and Investec LOYAL (Sean Langman and Anthony Bell) have signalled their intentions to head north in the 25th Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race with the 11 year old race record of 27 hours, 35 minutes and three seconds, held by Brindabella, to be seriously challenged.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, together with sponsor Audi Australia, are pleased to release the Notice of Race for the 384 nautical mile Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race. In this milestone year, entries are now being accepted online with a fleet of 80 plus anticipated. Enter today by logging on to http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au/editorial.asp?key=4366

The 25th Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, which starts from Sydney Harbour at 1pm on Saturday 31 July, is the third event of the four-part Audi IRC Australian Championship.

Two brand new small yachts, Harvey Milne’s Archambault 31 Aroona and Peter Horn’s King 40 Canute, are in a tight struggle at the top of the leaderboard following the first two rounds, Audi Victoria Week and Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta.

Rather than the 100 foot Reichel Pugh designed super maxi Wild Oats XI spending up to 10 months of the year in dry storage and the crew switching to the smaller Wild Oats X for the major races and regattas, this year the big boat is undergoing “refinements” at Woolwich Dock before its re-launch and ramp up for the 2010-11 blue water season.

The Oats team, having spent the last five months regrouping after their second across the line in last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, has also registered their interest in contesting the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s entire seven-race Blue Water Pointscore Series that commences with the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.

“We just need to get out and do some more sailing,” concedes skipper Mark Richards. “We didn’t sail enough last year, and it showed. We are getting back on the horse.”

Joining Wild Oats XI in the fight for line honours will be Investec LOYAL, which is currently in the shed undergoing the first of two re-fits. To find a better form and trim for the 25th anniversary winter coastal race north and the follow up “tacking regatta” that is Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, the first stage is to widen the hull.

“We will use Wild Oats as a trial horse at Hamilton Island then it will be back in the shed for a second round of modifications to make us faster sailing in a straight line,” explains Langman.

“Like I did with Xena, we are aiming to have the fittest and lightest crew for the upcoming season. I want to do the Audi Sydney Gold Coast with 14 compared to the 22 we took south, and there will be a celebrity element,” he promises.

So with two 100 footers on the start line for this year’s sprint to Southport, surely the odds are better than ever for the 11 year old race record to finally tumble? “These boats could flog every record in the world, but only given the right conditions” suggests Richards.

South Australian based Geoff Boettcher and his Reichel Pugh 51 Secret Mens Business 3.5 will make the long trek to the Sydney Harbour start line from Adelaide in mid June. After taking an early lead in round one of the Audi IRC Australian Championship; foul conditions prevented him from participating in the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta (Round 2 of the Audi IRC Australian Championship).

“We were really disappointed that we missed the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta. The heavy conditions in Bass Strait meant we couldn’t get through. The Audi IRC Australian Championship is a great series and I just love being a part of it” Boettcher said.

“The crew are itching to do this race and Audi Hamilton Island Race Week as we haven’t done much racing since the Port Lincoln race earlier this year. When we arrive in Sydney in mid-June, it’s our intention to compete in a few races prior to taking the start line,” Boettcher added.

When asked about a possible handicap win in the silver anniversary Audi Sydney Gold Coast yacht Race, Boettcher was coy. “I’d love a good performance – just like Geelong; but in all honesty we just want to place well and be amongst the 50 footer boys” (referring to the highly competitive TP52s of Quest (Bob Steel), Scarlet Runner (Robert Date), and Ragamuffin (Syd Fischer).

To bring sailing and the IRC Series into the forefront of Australian households, championship sponsor Audi has partnered with ONE HD and the highlights from each regatta will be shown nationally following each round of the series.