PWC-Shockwave tunes up for Lord Howe
'Shockwave (during Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2008)'
Andrea Francolini / Audi © Click Here to view large photo
Judging by her speed in Wednesday night's St Arnou Twilight Series, Andrew Short's maxi yacht PWC-Shockwave looks set for a record-breaking dash across the Tasman Sea in the Gosford Lord Howe Island Race, starting Saturday week, 25 October.
The Twilight race was just a 40 minute dash around the shortened course with a boatload of Price Waterhouse Cooper guests on board and no spinnaker, but the 24.4m sloop finished seven minutes ahead of the next boat. Translate that into 414 nautical miles and massive spinnakers for Lord Howe!
Once again, it was a glorious evening afloat for the 50 boats and their crews, although the breeze eased away just before the start to a 6-8 knot sou'easter.
With the wind continuing to ease, conditions favoured the quicker boats and in each division the handicap winner came from the first or second boat to finish.
PWC-Shockwave, which will race as Andrew Short Marine in the Lord Howe Island Race, took the double in Division 1, winning comfortably on handicap from Dick Cawse's Vanguard and Geoff Lavis' UBS Wild Thing.
In Division 3, Shere Khan, Rod Gibbs' Flying Tiger, and Pendragon, Andrew Cochrane's Stewart 32, dueled around the course with Shere Khan finishing just 19 seconds ahead. On corrected time, the honours went to Pendragon by a comfortable 2 minutes 30 seconds, third place going to Erin Mander's 9m Lidgard design, Lady Bug.
Division 2 results have been revised following the RAF (retired after finish) of provisional winner Runaway. The winner, also taking the line/handicap double, is Callista, Tim Flahvin's Beneteau 47.7, with second place going to Rob Skol's 30 square metre Scarlett O'Hara, third to Audacious (Joe Chadwick).
Herman Heiligers' smart-looking new Beneteau 40 Hubcap II won Division 4 on corrected time after finished second across the line to Bill Hall's Beneteau 34.4 Jewel, which placed third on handicap. Second place went to the last boat to finish, John Roth's Sunset 750 Papillon, with John sailing exceptionally swell with a pick-up crew from the club.
www.cyca.com.au
by Peter Campbell 
Paynesville, VIC
