Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race 2024

News
2014
Twenty-one yachts home

Twenty-one yachts home

NEWS
28 Jul, 2014 02:00:00 PM

Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race 2014 copyright Howard Wright/IMAGE Professional Photography 2014

Twenty-one yachts home

A mere 21 yachts have crossed the finish line of the 384 nautical mile Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s (CYCA), and with one retired, 33 are still racing.

Paul Clitheroe, sailing his new Balance, the TP52 formerly known as Quest, finished this morning just before 10.00am. He was looking good for a top three place overall, but the weather changed the landscape in a minute, and currently he sits in sixth place overall, waiting to see if any of those left at sea can better his handicap time.

The ‘Money Man’ had a lot to live up to in his first offshore race with the yacht he only recently took charge of. It won the 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart and so many other races under then owner, Bob Steel.

“Quest is such a beautiful boat; it’s so damn good, I don’t think even I can slow it down,” he said laughing.

“But boy, the TP52 is a very different kettle of fish to my previous boat, a Beneteau 45. I used to get home from this race on the Tuesday, and here I am sitting at Southport Yacht Club, two days early on a Monday. I’m enjoying a nice little break.”

Asked the biggest differences between the two boats, Clitheroe mused: “I used to enjoy a lamb roast at the table on my Beneteau. On this yacht, it’s freeze-dried food on the rail – yuk. I’m missing the real toilet on the Beneteau too.”

Clitheroe is rapt that he did not disgrace himself or the boat. He is also pleased for some changes to the CYCA summer racing program. “I’m so grateful the CYCA has changed the program so we can now race in the Blue Water Point Score and the Ocean Point Score. Before, because some of those races were doubled up, you couldn’t do all of them. Now you can.” Others echoed his thoughts.

South Australia’s Geoff Boettcher revisited the yacht which won him the 2010 Hobart race (then named Secret Mens Business 3.5), when new owner, John Newbold, invited ‘Boettch’ and a couple of the old crew to race on the rebadged Primitive Cool. Like Clitheroe, the Victorian had stepped up to a more technologically advanced yacht.

Boettcher says the crew did fine. “It was a great race, the boat’s still fast. There’s a lot of up-and-coming sailors aboard who are still learning the ropes. They’ll get there – it will just take a bit more getting to know the boat and some more regattas. It was nice to be back aboard the boat again – nice of John to ask us,” said Boettcher, the commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia.

Out on the race course, the breeze has changed direction to north-west at 8 knots, slowing the remaining boats down as they head more into the wind.

What does one do to while away the hours? Some are taking on board photos, such as Warren and Kristy Buchan’s “colourful by name and colourful by nature’ crew on Colortile, those on Close Halled, owned and skippered by Lake Macquarie Yacht Club’s past commodore Graeme Hall, and the Lake Macquarie/Newcastle culprits on She’s the Culprit. The latter friendly crew currently leads PHS overall, so are obviously paying attention to sail trim as well.

The last two boats on line are expected at the finish early tomorrow. They are Bear Necessity and Mortgage Choice Rumba, both still south of Yamba, while the rest of the fleet is north of the great holiday destination town.

The CYCA’s proven yacht tacker system is allowing family, friends and yachting enthusiasts to follow the race and their favourite yachts for its duration. Each yacht isfitted with a Yellowbrick tracker that will obtain a position using the GPS satellite network, and then transmit the position back to Yellowbrick HQ using the Iridium satellite network.

Each yacht’s position is then visualised on the race yacht tracker map,or overlaid on Google Earth. In addition, the yacht tracker system also shows distance to finish line and progressive corrected time positions under the IRC, ORCi and PHS handicap divisions.

For more information log on to http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SGCYachtRace or find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Land-Rover-Sydney-Gold-Coast-Yacht-Race/160447917453560?ref=hl