Latest reports from the fleet

• NEWS
• 27 Dec, 2005 06:30:00 PM

Latest reports from the fleet

"Not sure how much ground we have lost, but we are back firing again now and going to give it a real good go. Back in the hunt, with still everything to play for," says Skandia's skipper Grant Wharington. .

Report from Jennifer Rezek (Diomedea) - 8.15pm, Tuesday 27 December

After a clear start with good pressure up the harbour and through the heads, the crew settled into the first evening at sea confident they would be able to build on their solid start.

Alas, the wind gods were not kind. Trying to make an 18+ ton steel yacht achieve more than 3-4 knots in the light and variable 6-8 knot overnight breeze proved difficult.

Tuesday morning's sked confirmed the previous night's observations ... many of our lighter competitors had skipped away from us. However when the NE finally filled in, good pace returned with most of the day spent barrelling along at 8-10 knots.  The forecast 25-30 knot evening breeze and associated strong wind warning will certainly suit us!

We are steadily gaining on one of our "enemies" dead ahead and are hopeful of moving up the standings at Wednesday morning's sked.

Although the faster, more glamourous boats are past 40S, we are having fun in this year's race and thoroughly enjoying the experience.  The current on-deck crew is looking forward to hot showers with a rum and coke/ginger beer at the end of their watch.


Report from Grant Wharington (Skandia) - 6.00pm, Tuesday 27 December

Well, crisis averted!! Did you know we had a crisis?!  Yes well we did, even if it was short lived! We have been on the same gybe for the last two hours due to engine failure - the engine powers the keel so we couldn’t cant easily (we have batteries but they would have run out quite fast) - we thought that we had water through the engine but it seems that it is OK!

Not sure how much ground we have lost, but we are back firing again now and going to give it a real good go. Back in the hunt, with still everything to play for.

This yacht racing is a frustrating business. With the guys hanging about in Tee shirts and shorts, all rather hot and bothered, this race is a stark contract to last year's hennery.

The breeze we have at the moment doesn’t allow us to use our secret weapon of the increased righting moment we have with our extra 5 tonnes of lead, in fact there is a reasonable argument that we would have been faster before we did the changes that have emptied our coffers (again) over the last few months. Such is the game of yacht racing - we have less wind than we had in Sardinia earlier this year in a race that always
(well, almost always) promises a tough ride across Bass Strait.

Very frustrating but if only the breeze would swing slightly we could start powering forth with our extra stability.

Better get back to it. Pray to the wind Gods for us and see you soon.

Report from Geoff Boettcher (Secret Mens Business) - 10.00am, Tuesday 27 December

We’re absolutely rapt with the way we have raced so far. Before the race, we set ourselves the challenge of staking our position early.

We know we have a fast boat that really ‘fights above its weight class’. As a crew, we just couldn’t wait for the race to start so we could get out there and prove it.

I believe we are in a really strong position to be right up there for handicap honours.

We need to continue to work hard as a team, and keep our fingers crossed that Lady Luck stays on our side too.

Report from Grant Wharington (Skandia) - 10.00pm, Monday 26 December

A good day so far – we are going pretty well with about 2 miles to Wild Oats and 4 to Alfa, doing 16 knots across the ground on course. We expect this to remain the same for the next 60 miles before the pressure drops and moves aft. Between about 11.30pm and 7.00am life will become a little trickier for us as it will be very light, and we will have our shutes up trying to keep up in the lighter air. Once we are in the Strait we expect to have our shutes up until Tasman Island.

We were pretty happy with our start, although our safety tack at the Sow and Pigs put us a little behind we were able to get away from the bulk of the spectator fleet and get some clean air – and we caught up quite considerably. When we were able to use our stability, we are equal in pace to the other two. It just needs to blow a little harder.

Annoying having two boats in front but there is plenty of runway and the mood on board is great. Gerard Healy ran a team building / “bonding” hour this morning, which did a great deal in focusing all as a group and we have only one mission, to overtake those other blokes.