7:01 AM Sat 22 Aug 2009 GMT
Light weather sailing conditions for the first race in the 2009 Audi Race Week at Hamilton Island. For the IRC Grand Prix divisions 1 and 2 and IRC Invitation fleets it was the 23.5 nautical mile Lindeman Island Race.
Bob Oatley's Reichel Pugh 66 Wild Oats X led off the line as the larger boats in the fleet headed from the Committee boat on port, under spinnaker.
Wild Oats X steamed towards Pentecost Island on the right, she ran towards a glass out and changed to Code Zero as she ran out of breeze and started to stall.
Behind her Peter Harburg's 66 foot Reichel Pugh Black Jack helmed by Mark (Squark) Bradford gybed while still in a slight amount of pressure and headed east. She found the new breeze on the east and kept moving wide of Pentecost.
The gap widened out to almost a mile before the Oats escaped from her private parking lot.
Up ahead on Blackjack there was sail change after sail change from headsail to code zero to spinnaker. Dave Biggar was up the mast calling the breeze
While Peter (Billy) Merrington doing tactics, a picture of concentration at the back of the boat.
The soft conditions meant that sharp crew work was needed to keep the boats moving. Black Jack was all of that, almost blemish free just one snafu, a wine glass off the eastern shore of Lindeman allowed Wild Oats and Lohana (the former Konica Minolta in IRC Invitational ) to close up a little.
Behind her the bulk of the fleet keep going left looking for pressure, at one stage looking like they were heading for Whitehaven.
Black Jack floated around the shoal off the eastern tip of Lindeman, and then followed the zephyrs back up towards the Lindeman resort, where she hit glass.
Wild Oats X sailed out of the breeze and the 55-60 footer sailed up to her. Steven David's Reichel Pugh 60 Wild Joe (formerly Wild Oats IX) was prominent, then along came Michael Hiatt's Farr 55 Living Doll , up ahead Black Jack crept along the Royal Seaforth Island shoreline
As the fleet headed to the Spitfire Rock mark, it was Blackjack, then daylight, then Wild Joe, followed by wild Oats X, then Farr 55 Living Doll well advanced in the fleet to windward of Stephen Ainsworth's Reichel Pugh 62 Loki, Andrew Banks Your Hired (Davidson 60-IRC Invitation) Leslie Green's Ginger Swan 601 (IRC Passage 1) who had been doing much better until she was becalmed off Royal Seaforth, Blue Hogan's deep blue hulled Marten 49 (IRC Invitation), Tony Donnellan's Shamrock Reichel 48 - near sistership of XLR8 (IRC Grand Prix Division 2 , then Bruce Absolon's Volvo 60 Spirit of the Maid (as in Ausmaid)., Alan Brierty's Reichel Pugh 62 Limit (IRC Grand Prix Division 1), Kevin Miller's Farr 40 Bribie Star.(IRC Invitation).
Living Doll enjoyed the ten mile beat back up to the Dent Passage finish line at Hamilton Island, her light weather sailing prowess home over the last week at Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week and she emerged as the clear winner in the IRC Grand Prix Division 1 fleet.
Dockside Michael Hiatt commented 'Yesterday when we saw the light weather forecast. I said bring it on. We've done a lot of work getting the boat going fast in light conditions. We had a hard battle at Airlie Beach mostly in light conditions so we just kept doing today, what we've been doing for the last week.'
Second today was another Melbourne sailor Rob Date. His Reichel Pugh 52 Scarlet Runner, who finished third at Airlie Beach last week, continued her good form.
Date commented 'A lot of luck today, we sailed inside Pentecost Island and possibly that helped us. Certainly our last weeks racing at Airlie held us in good stead today.'
IRC - Grand Prix
IRC Div1 results Start : 10:10:00 Lindeman Island Race
Place Boat Name Sail No Elapsed AHC Cor'd T Fin Tim Skipper Score
1 LIVING DOLL R55 03:33:49 1.396 04:58:29 13:43:49 Michael Hiatt 1.0
2 SCARLET RUNNER SM11 03:45:50 1.356 05:06:14 13:55:50 Robert Date 2.0
3 WOT NOW 6952 03:47:29 1.358 05:08:55 13:57:29 Graeme Wood 3.0
4 BLACK JACK 52566 03:16:25 1.591 05:12:30 13:26:25 Peter Harburg 4.0
5 WILD JOE AUS7002 03:29:15 1.498 05:13:27 13:39:15 Steven David 5.0
6 LOKI AUS6000 03:33:23 1.496 05:19:13 13:43:23 Stephen Ainsworth 6.0
7 WILD OATS X AUS7001 03:27:25 1.580 05:27:43 13:37:25 Bob Oatley 7.0
8 LIMIT 98888 03:39:44 1.500 05:29:36 13:49:44 Alan Brierty 8.0
9 EVOLUTION RACING 8899 04:08:22 1.358 05:37:17 14:18:22 Ray Roberts 9.0
10 SHOGUN R50 04:32:27 1.313 05:57:44 14:42:27 Robert Hanna 10.0
IRC - Grand Prix
IRC Div2 results Start : 10:10:00 Lindeman Island Race
Place Boat Name Sail No Elapsed AHC Cor'd T Fin Tim Skipper Score
1 ALEGRIA Q345 04:01:17 1.094 04:23:58 14:11:17 Rod Jones 1.0
2 CRACKLIN ROSIE 6530 03:56:15 1.177 04:38:04 14:06:15 Robbo Robertson 2.0
3 TWO TRUE EVOLUTION YC400 04:17:10 1.088 04:39:48 14:27:10 Andrew Saies 3.0
4 CHUTZPAH R33 03:53:59 1.203 04:41:29 14:03:59 Bruce Taylor 4.0
5 GEORGIA ONE NZL11111 03:59:34 1.178 04:42:13 14:09:34 Jim Farmer 5.0
6 DEKADENCE SM46 03:56:34 1.196 04:42:56 14:06:34 Philip Coombs 6.0
7 SHAMROCK M330 03:50:44 1.281 04:55:34 14:00:44 Tony Donnellan 7.0
8 RATIONALE AKATEA G8710 04:22:59 1.141 05:00:04 14:32:59 Ian Holten 8.0
9 TERRA FIRMA SM47 04:23:05 1.187 05:12:17 14:33:05 Nicholas Bartels 9.0
IRC - Invitational
Hosted By Hamilton Island Yacht Club
Race 1 (22/08/2009) PROVISIONAL RESULTS
Updated: 22/08/2009 15:37:03
IRC results Start : 10:15:00 Lindeman Island Race
Place Sail No Boat Name From Elapsd AHC Skipper Score Fin Tim Cor'd T
1 RQ2008 BRIBIE STAR RQYS 03:50:19 1.182 Kevin Miller 1.0 14:05:19 04:32:14
2 6749 PERPETUAL MOCEAN RPAYC 03:45:28 1.253 Bruce Hogan 2.0 14:00:28 04:42:31
3 RQ64 OCEAN AFFINITY RQYS 03:50:13 1.258 Stewart Lewis 3.0 14:05:13 04:49:37
4 601 GINGER CYCA 03:35:34 1.354 Leslie Green 4.0 13:50:34 04:51:53
5 98 ZOE TCYC 04:13:59 1.168 Wayne Millar 5.0 14:28:59 04:56:39
6 SYD222 YOU'RE HIRED CYCA 03:36:00 1.394 Andrew Banks 6.0 13:51:00 05:01:06
7 MH888 SPIRIT OF THE MAID RQYS&CYCHI 03:44:54 1.354 Bruce Absolon 7.0 13:59:54 05:04:31
8 F310 SUE SEA FSC 04:20:02 1.249 Brian Todd 8.0 14:35:02 05:24:47
9 8638 E11EVEN RQYS 04:39:49 1.166 David Elliott 9.0 14:54:49 05:26:16
10 USA50062 CLUB MARINE SHOCKWAV CYCA 03:38:10 1.543 Andrew Short 10.0 13:53:10 05:36:38
11 M4 CADIBARRA 8 SYC 04:35:48 1.226 Peter Blake Kate Mit 11.0 14:50:48 05:38:08
12 10081 LAHANA RQYS 03:31:49 1.659 Peter Millard 12.0 13:46:49 05:51:24
13 8679 TELCOINABOX MERIT WSC 04:12:45 1.421 Leo Rodriguez 13.0 14:27:45 05:59:10
by Rob Kothe
|
Mount Wellington, TAS
Kitesurfing - Kites
Windsurfing - Boards
Surfing - Longboards (7' and over)
Foiling - Wind Wing Foilboards