Following a solid start to the Flinders Islet Race, Chinese Whisper's line honours win came down to 37 seconds over No Limit at the Rushcutters Bay finish line in Sydney Harbour, while Ichi Ban is in the box sea to take overall victory.
As the afternoon progressed in the 90 nautical mile race to the Islet south of Sydney, conditions were not kind. As the frontrunners turned for home, Ichi Ban and No limit led the fleet.
However, the JV62, Chinese Whisper, kept pushing and as she entered Sydney Harbour, was in within touching distance of leader, No Limit. In sight of the finish, Henry/Griffith’s Chinese Whisper overtook David Gotze’s Reichel/Pugh 63 to claim line honours.
Nine boats crossed the finish line before Saturday midnight in a fading northerly, with a further 10 crossing since. The forecast shows a dramatic drop in wind strength before a soft southerly change in the early hours of this morning.
Conditions for the overall win have favoured the TP52s and this morning Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban was leading from Gordon Ketelbey’s Zen, Matt Donald and Chris Townsend’s Gweilo, Sam Hayne’s Celestial and Craig Neil/Bob Steel’s Quest. Chinese Whisper and No Limit fill sixth and seventh places.
At 8.30am Sunday Sydney time, just five boats remained on the racetrack, all due to finish by lunchtime today.
Retirements from the race to-date are:
Arch Rival – steering damage
Enigma – after providing assistance to an overturned catamaran on the way to Flinders Islet
Mille Sabords – damaged headsail track
Koa – sail and hatch damage (heading to Port Kembla)
Blink – dismasted (heading back to Sydney)
Snowdome Occasional Course Language Too – rudder damage (heading to Wollongong)
Follow the remaining yachts via the yacht tracker: https://bwps.cyca.com.au/tracker/
Progressive Standings: https://bwps.cyca.com.au/standings/
