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A clean exit and off up the coast

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  • 29 Jul, 2017 10:08:00 PM
A clean exit and off up the coast
Matt Allen's TP52 Ichi Ban ©Andrea Francolini

A clean exit and off up the coast

While the starting gun welcomed very little in the way of wind, a solid breeze did build for the fleet racing out of Sydney Harbour for the start of the Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race 2017.

The start of the race was broadcast live to the CYCA’s social media channels with the recording available to be watched on Facebook and YouTube.

Ten hours into the offshore battle and already teams have had to make some big decision about how they approach the remainder of the race.

Out in front are the two hundred-footers with Black Jack managing to stay relatively close to line honours leader Wild Oats XI.

Showing promise as expected are the TP52’s who have taken a few different approaches but ended up in a similar spot, charting a middle course, close to the rhumb line.

Bob Steel’s Quest leads a group of four which also features Celestial, RKO and Ichi Ban. Following a very strong start in challenging conditions, Ichi Ban’s navigator Will Oxley was quick to concede that there had been an element of good fortune in their early progress and that the playing field had been levelled not long after the boats had departed from the heads.

From Oxley's comments and the CYCA Yacht Tracker there was clearly a split of opinion on where the best gains were to be made by groups of the fleet. A selection of yachts hugged the coastline in the opening hours while the others moved further offshore.

Despite the best efforts to get an edge it seems that either option was a good one and the battle through the night has been perfectly set up and could be a huge factor in deciding the winner of this year's race.

The start itself saw a fleet of 56 yachts set off from Sydney Harbour on Saturday at 1300hrs AEST as the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) started the 32nd Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.

The 384-nautical mile race, is second only in status to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race among long ocean races conducted by the CYCA and starts from Sydney Harbour and finishes off Main Beach on the Queensland Gold Coast. It was first conducted in 1986. The CYCA works with Southport Yacht Club as the race finishing partner.

Speaking on the commencement of the 2017 race, CYCA Commodore, John Markos, said:

“The Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race is our second biggest offshore race of the year and with that comes an enormous amount of prestige, excitement and amongst our sailors, a great desire to win. Offshore racing is never for the faint of heart and our competitors will face tough challenges out there. Good seamanship, tactics and teamwork will see the best boat victorious and we look forward to congratulating the worthy winner of this challenging race, on the Gold Coast.”

 

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