From Sail-World

Bob Steel’s TP52 Quest led the fleet out of Sydney Heads this afternoon in the 2008 Audi Sydney to Gold Coast Race.

After the oil tanker Diamond Queen ploughed up the harbour, the fleet was held for around 15 minutes.

At the start Jamie McPhail drove Quest from the eastern end of the line on port gybe in a 3-4 knot south wester and she was not headed in the gradually building breeze.

Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats X, the canting keel Reichel Pugh 66 was expected to win the race to the heads but she had, in helmsman Mark Richards terms, ‘n ordinary start’.

She was on the second row at the western end of the Nielsen Park start line and just never managed to get powered up, while the TP52's -Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin. Alan Whitley’s Cookson TP52 Cougar and Quest had the best of the conditions.

At Sydney Heads Quest lead the fleet easily from Cougar, then another TP52 Graham Woods Wot Now, were ahead of Ray Roberts Cookson 50 Quantum Racing.

Behind them was Ragamuffin and Geoff Ross' Yendys and Geoff Boettcher’s shiny new silver Secret Mens Business III, with a silvery Australian flag emblazoned on her beam looking well placed.

As the fleet headed north on a shy shy reach, the wind had freshened to 10 knots, still from the southwest, there was a slight swell, sunshine and puffy clouds, and it was postcard sailing for most of fleet.

It seemed the only crew not enjoying the day was on the Getaway Sailing Volvo 60, flying her kite from the masthead like a flag.

Ragamuffin chases Quest to the Heads - Sydney Gold Coast Race - Crosbie Lorimer

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One boat is conspicuous by her absence, after all that hype and hoopajoo over the past few weeks what happened to Black Jack?

they had a bit of bad luck i hear. bit of a bugger but hey, you move on and go to the next race.

hype and hoopajoo? i hardly think so. they bought a boat, they launched it. they were excited, and as they should be. anyone else would have been equally excited.

ffs, shit happens.

on another note, can anyone make ensure on the standings so far? are they really accurate? http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au/standings_ext.asp?key=24

Wild Joe - Crosbie Lorimer

From Sail-World.com

Ocean Racing is a sport that commands attention and can make people stand up and take a look – man and his yacht, against the elements mother nature throws at those in her territory. Last night the lead pack went outside the rhumbline to pick up on the moderate westerly breezes that were occurring offshore.

Overnight leader Ragamuffin, together with the pack she was in including Flirt, Shortwave, Quantum Racing, Wot Now and Yendys continued their journey up the coast.

In the early hours of Sunday morning Wot Now was forced to retire due to rudder damage having been sustained whilst off Port Stephens.

Shortly after the withdrawal of Wot Now, another big boat Wild Joe was also forced to retire due to rudder damage sustained to the forward rudder.

Owner Steven David reported in after the boat was in port after assessing damage, “We were surfing off a wave at approx. 1.20am this morning (about 60 miles offshore) and we had good boat speed of 20-22 knots in 18-20 knots of breeze. We came down off the wave and hit a whale.

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Lot of carnage for such light conditions! Who would of thought with the entries that the 50footers would be leading the linehonours charge!

Bit of bad luck for the boys on BJ!

(c) Christophe Launay - www.sealaunay.com

From Sail-World.com

Quantum Racing has held onto her position as fleet leader from earlier today with a lead on Quest of approximately 16 nautical miles. Quest is in a group of five yachts that are TP52s, Cookson 50s or IRC 52 designed yachts and is closely followed by Yendys, Shortwave, Cougar II and Secret Mens Business III.


(c) Christophe Launay - www.sealaunay.com

These five yachts have been trading places all day across the water while the navigators and tacticians huddle together working out how to squeeze that little bit extra out of the boat. With 140 nautical miles to the finish, their race will be competitive to the end with fresh weather conditions coming in.

Quantum Racing and Quest are recording almost identical boat speeds and are in average pressure offshore of the Solitary Islands, with the group of yachts behind the leader experiencing boat speeds of approx 9 knots.

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Standings >>

'Dolphins celebrate Quatum Racing win' - Andrea Francolini / Audi ©

From Sail-World.com

Ray Roberts Cookson 50 Quantum Racing crossed the finish line at 0719 this morning to take line hours in the 334 nautical mile 2008 Audi Sydney to Gold Coast Race.

Bob Steel’s TP52 Quest is now just minutes from the Main Beach finish line with Geoff Ross Reichel Pugh Yendys two miles astern.

On IRC handicap, Quantum Racing is leading Division 0 and looks set to take the overall crown, with Quest on top of Division 1 and is second on handicap at the moment. More news shortly.

Standings ]]

Fair enough Wanna Be but what happened to them for those of us who dont have their fingers on the pulse? Im sure a lot of on lookers are dissapointed as well.

They ran into something whilst training. All good now though. They are fixed and ready to head to Bris for the start of the Keppel Race.
There was a whisper that Wild Oats would join them, but they can't now.
So the BJ and WO line up will have to wait for Hammo.

Thanks Wanna Be, i think ived worked out what I wanted to know. Sounds like more of a case of a good old fashioned f---up than bad luck. The 2 seem to get mixed up quite often.

No such thing as luck in yachting a wise man once told me.

I do wish Black Jack and Her crew the best of luck in the upcoming races and regattas. Its definitely about time Qld Yachting is snapped into the 21st century, and it looks like Harburg has the boat and the crew to do it. Looking foward to seeing it happen.

Punter

This was a joke

They have a bit of work to do
A 'professional' outfit should not make these mistakes
Hope they pull their heads in up north