Yendys Wins IMS Rolex Trophy With One Race To Spare

• NEWS
• 15 Dec, 2003 02:45:00 PM

Yendys Wins IMS Rolex Trophy With One Race To Spare

"There are a number of boats that can win the Rolex Sydney Hobart..we'll be hoping for heavy duty upwind conditions," says skipper Ross.

Geoff Ross has moved into an unbeatable position on the IMS pointscore of the Rolex Trophy Series after winning the seventh race of the eight-race event. 

This is Yendys’ sixth consecutive victory, a remarkable performance given that Geoff Ross and his crew have had the boat less than three weeks.

Ross has withdrawn the boat from the final race now that she cannot be beaten and is this afternoon preparing to pull the boat out of the water.

Second placed in the IMS division of Race 7 was Ichi Ban, Matt Allen’s Farr 52.  The two boats had engaged in something of a duel around the course. They were neck and neck on the first upwind leg.  Ichi Ban opened up a lead on the first downwind leg but on the final run Yendys picked the favourable side of the course and with a little extra wind pressure was able to close the gap, trailing the higher rated Ichi Ban across the line by just 44 seconds.  Close enough to take the race on corrected time.

Ichi Ban was second across the line a whopping 14 minutes behind Grant Wharington’s 98-foot super maxi Skandia, which scored her most emphatic line honours victory in the Rolex Trophy Series so far. 

Skandia led the fleet from start to finish.  Although the big boat has previously been thought to need 8 knots of wind or more to really get going, in today’s sparkling but light conditions Skandia showed surprising pace downwind. She doubled her lead in the first spinnaker leg, despite using an old spinnaker, and then cleared away dramatically on the second, final downwind run.

Skandia’s big lead was not enough, though, to edge out Ichi Ban from 1st place on corrected time in the IRC Division, and with just one race left, which is currently underway. The blue-hulled maxi would need an absolute disaster on Ichi Ban to close the gap in the divisional pointscore. 

Ichi Ban went into the final day of the three-day series with a twelve point lead over Skandia and has increased that lead by two points in the seventh race.

Note: All placings in the race are still provisional.