Quotes from the fleet

• NEWS
• 28 Dec, 2007 08:38:00 PM

Quotes from the fleet

Capriccio of Rhu - 1100hrs, 28/12
 
We had a bit of an exciting and busy time earlier in the race. At about 6pm on the 26th we were setting a cracking pace and had Phillips Foote Witchdoctor in our sights. A big gust of wind blew up and the spinnaker pole came crashing down, pulling the stopper out of the block. As crew members Andy Poole and Dave Durham went to grab it, the pole crossed David’s hand, slicing of the top of his little finger.
 
On top of this the sheet then went overboard and wrapped itself around the prop. We sent Andy into the water shortly after to retrieve the sheet while we tended to David’s finger.
 
We decided to head into Wollongong to have David’s finger assessed. With David feeling fine we decided to keep moving and set off at about 9am the following morning.
 
We are just polishing of a lovely glass of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, we have refuelled checked the boats and are now we on our way across Bass Strait and looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Michele Colenso – Owner Skipper
 
City Index Leopard - 1400hrs – 28/12

We knew from the minute we started in Sydney that this year’s race would not hold ideal conditions for City Index Leopard, and that they suited Wild Oats XI beautifully. It’s just like race horses who are good on the flat; some prefer soft ground, some are better on hard ground. We’re better in the upwind breezier conditions, as we had in the Rolex Fastnet Race, and Wild Oats XI prefers the lighter conditions which we’ve seen for this event. Downwind, Wild Oats XI sails 15 degrees lower than we do, so they were able to sail a more direct route than us.
 
After the first night, they had a 15 mile lead over us, and by the time we were in sight of Tasman Island, they were 23 miles ahead. I’m very proud of all the crew onboard City Index Leopard as we managed to claw that back to just three miles between us this morning, and we finished only half an hour behind Wild Oats XI, and must have had them looking over their shoulders at the end there!
 
The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is a great race, and we love coming down here to compete. It’s quite a circus, packing up the boat and getting her and all of the crew and their families down here, over Christmas, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s a long trip but we’d like to come back again one day, it’s a great race.
 
 
Toyota Aurion V6 - 1430hrs – 28/12 

Last night we had to bail the boat last night took on big amounts of water, the hull was holed with broken pipe drain, interesting times till problem found all good now though.
 
We threw (put) up a mast head runner earlier today and we all got excited. 

Geoff Cropley
 
Phillips Foote Witchdoctor - 1643 – 28/12
 
Conditions are so nice that Cable (crewman Tony Cable who is contesting his record equalling 44th Rolex Sydney Hobart) said he would take up ocean racing full time if it was always going to be like this.
 
Our only issues were a couple of arguments on the boat.
 
The menu is great; we are eating like Kings and enjoying a cold cleansing ale.

Maurie Cameron  
 
Spirit of Koomooloo - 1900hrs, 28/12
 
We are heading along quite nicely now but had a very frustrating night, It felt like we fell into a hole with no wind and lost about 15 miles, we fell down to 57th place at one stage. We didn’t really get a breeze until about 8am but now we are clawing back.
 
Tonight we are sitting on 8.5 knots and heading in the right direction.
 
We are all happy and as always having a great time, we have a pod of whales about two boat lengths away but they are heading north its terrific out here. It looks like we are going to get a good breeze up and a good moon.

Mike Freebairn
 
Balance - 2000hrs, 28/12
 
It has been an interesting couple of days. We make good progress by day but we are no good at night. First night we played "break the spinnaker. This was fun and very fast at times, but we soon ran out of weapons except for the code zero. As its range is up to 10 knots, we decided not to risk it in 28  knots and went back to the boring old jib top.
 
Next night we played "find the only area off the coast with no wind". The one advantage of this was we did not break anything, and while floating around we managed to sticky back a spinnaker together. We also got to use the code zero, mainly going east or west, but rarely south.
 
Anyway, at daylight the breeze kicked in from the north and we have had a very pleasant cruise across Bass Strait. Fortunately the breeze is around 15 knots and our remaining sticky back repaired spinnaker is holding together. Naturally, if the breeze builds we will watch with interest to see how long sticky back lasts.
 
I'll report on the strength of sticky back later...should be another entertaining night!

Paul Clitheroe