Slow night in the lottery

• NEWS
• 28 Dec, 2013 04:35:00 AM

Slow night in the lottery

It has been slow progress overnight and this morning in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race with Wild Oats XI opening up a 15 nm lead over Perpetual LOYAL and a further eight miles back to Ragamuffin 100 as they close on the Tasmanian coast.

Those three have opened up a break on the Volvo 70 chasers Giacomo (NZ) and Black Jack (Qld).

Speeds have been down into single digits through the night with the front of the fleet covering only about 70 nm.

The “battle” for leading boat on corrected time has become a lottery with the Victorian yacht Veloce (Phil Simpfendorfer) among the latest to wear sailing’s equivalent of the orange jersey.

There are still just three retirements: Audi Sunshine Coast, Dodo and Wilparina.

More favourable north-easterly winds are expected today before a south-westerly change, possibly to gale force, hits the fleet tonight.

On present progress, the CYCA computer shows the first boat finishing late tonight or early tomorrow.

By Bruce Montgomery, Rolex Sydney Hobart Media Centre