Skandia shows her power in Race 2 of Rolex Trophy Series

• NEWS
• 13 Dec, 2003 04:23:00 PM

Skandia shows her power in Race 2 of Rolex Trophy Series

With the nor’easter freshening to 10 knots, Skandia's massive waterline length and sail area saw her power away from the rest of the fleet.

Super maxi Skandia has shown she needs decent wind to show her true potential around the buoys in the Rolex Trophy Series, her eight race final preparation for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

While she took line honours in Friday’s Canon Big Boat Challenge and the opening race of the Rolex Trophy Series this morning, her line honours winning margins were relatively small for a boat of her size.
 
This afternoon, however, with the nor’easter freshening to 10 knots, her massive waterline length and sail area saw her power away from the rest of the fleet.

Two of her major rivals, first race handicap winner Ichi Ban (Matt Allen) and George Snow’s Brindabella did themselves a disservice at the start by beating the gun and having to re-start, with Brindabella losing about 5 minutes of valuable time.

Earlier, race officials had to abandon the start of Race 2 because of a 30 degree windshift seconds before the gun.

With a winning lead of more than seven minutes around the six nautical mile course, Skandia won the IRC division on corrected time, while Geoff Ross scored his first win with his green-hulled Vrolijk 52, Yendys, taking out the IMS division.

Skandia took out Race 2 of the Rolex Trophy Series by just 21 seconds on corrected time from Stephen Ainsworth’s Swan 48 Loki, the former Australian IRC champion, with third place going Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin.

Yendys, a former European IMS champion, won the IMS division on corrected time from Loki and another Swan, the 45-footer Joe, skippered by Steven David.

Ichi Ban failed to make up time after her recall and finished 6th in IMS and 4th in IRC.

Race 3 is due to finish shortly.