At 4am and after 15 hours on the water in the Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, Peter Harburg’s super maxi Black Jack had just passed Forster and retained the race lead on water, just 3.3 nautical miles ahead of John Winning Jr’s Andoo Comanche, which had overtaken the Oatley family’s Hamilton Island Wild Oats.
All three super maxis are sailing outside the rhumbline after rounding Seal Rocks and have been achieving speeds of 12-13 knots, sailing in 7-8 knots of north/north-westerly breeze on a 1.5m swell, some 250 nautical miles from the finish.
Sean Langman’s Moneypenny is looking strong, 22 nautical miles behind Black Jack, with a slight gap over David Griffith’s Whisper. The pair was near Seal Rocks, with David Gotze’s No Limit giving chase. The ever-present TP52 guard, led by Craig Neil’s Quest, were not far away, off Port Stephens.
At 8.10am this morning, the TP52’s had made their presence felt, with Matt Donald/Chris Townsend’s Gweilo leading the race overall from Quest, Zen (Gordon Ketelbey), Ichi Ban (Matt Allen) and Patrice (Tony Kirby).
The best placed two-handed entry is Shane Connolly’s Rum Rebellion in 19th place overall to lead the Two-Handed division. Connolly has Tony Sutton as his co-skipper. Martin and John Cross have settled in second place in the Two-Handed division. Rolex Sydney Hobart Two-Handed winners, Jules Hall/Jan ‘Clogs’ Scholten on Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth were in third.
Follow the race via the live tracker and standings at: https://goldcoast.cycaracing.com/
