Another Fiasco makes the right move

• NEWS
• 30 Dec, 2006 07:35:00 AM

Another Fiasco makes the right move

The decision to stay close to the NSW coast on the first night of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, as the rest of the fleet headed out to sea, appears to have paid dividends for the Queensland yacht Another Fiasco.

She crossed the finish line in Hobart at 5.49 am to put it in a strong position to take out the Performance Handicap System (PHS) division of the race, one of the corrected time categories but which does not qualify for overall winner of the race on corrected time.

For owner/skipper Damian Suckling it was his second Sydney Hobart and first as an owner/skipper.  Another Fiasco previously raced under the names of Esprit de Corp and Maglieri Wines.

“I think we had a lucky first night. We made a different decision, decided not to follow the rest of the fleet,” Suckling said. “We made our own decision and it came up trumps."

“We know we’re not as quick as the other boats so we decided to do something different and decided to go inshore and luckily it paid off.

“We got lifted straight onto our lay line and basically held our lay line on the opposite tack to the other boats.

“We just tacked back and forth across the rhumb line for the whole race.”

Flatter water inshore meant that Another Fiasco was able to delay until the second day of the race the rougher conditions offshore. She sailed the whole day with two reefs in the mainsail and a number three headsail.

“We suffered no damage. None at all,” he said.

‘I am ecstatic. It hasn’t hit me yet.”