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Friday 4th January 2008 3:00pm
Steven David's 'Wild Joe' has been declared the overall IRC handicap winner of the altered 2008 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race, the re-routed 210nm Pittwater return Race. In PHS Division, handicap honours went to Steven Hobbs Harmony 42 'Kick Back' . Both yachts represent The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.
Steven David said a short time ago that, "winning the IRC handicap is what we set out to achieve for this race and we're happy for the line honours/handicap double, it makes it all the more sweeter. We've had two 2nd placings in the past two years in the Coffs race on handicap with Wild Oats XI last year and Balance the year before, so were determined to do it this year, to achieve it albeit on the altered Pittwater to Pittwater course, is absolutely awesome."
'Wild Joe' overall IRC Handicap winner of the 2008 Pittwater to Pittwater race - photo by Andrea Francolini
Commenting on the altered course and the decision made by The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club to run with the altered course due to the severe & dangerous conditions currently being experienced on the mid North Coast, Steven said, "We were happy to go with whatever the club decided, it was a smart decision and the right move for everybody. Naturally we're disappointed not to do the Coffs Race, as we really enjoy it and were looking forward to the challenge. But, we were ready to race regardless and in the end it was a great result and an enjoyable race. But we look forward to going back to Coffs next year."
'Wild Joe's' crack crew of 12 crew on board for the race was an array of talent & experience, amongst them including; many offshore races, over 50 Hobarts, America's Cup campaigners, a couple of Volvo around the world racers and an Olympian and World Champion. Steve spoke highly of his crew and said "yeah, not a bad mix of talent I guess, but they're a great bunch of guys, most of them local and members of the RPAYC and really enjoy racing with them. I guess when you have blokes like "Beasho" (Adam Beashel), Ed Smythe and Brett Ellis who were part of the '07 America's Cup campaign, Nathan Wilmot who is going for Gold this year (Wilmot is part of the 2008 Olympic sailing team and current 470 World Champion), Mitch White (8 Hobarts and Volvo round the world ocean race) and Kiwi Geoff Scott, who you learn something new every time you race with him (Geoff's a triple Volvo ocean round the world ocean racer) and all the other guys on board who have done plenty of ocean miles and plenty of racing, they sure know how to get the job done. We had a bit of fun."
A bit of excitement for the crew aboard 'Wild Joe' just prior to sunset on the first night of the race, when sitting on the rail and sailing in 8m of water off Stockton when "two large 10 foot waves just appeared out of nowhere breaking within half a boat length right in front of us. We called tack and got out of there as fast as we could," said Olympian and current 470 World Champion Nathan Wilmot.
With an elapsed time of 20hrs 11mins 12 secs for this 210nm alternate course from Pittwater to Port Stephens to Botany Bay and then back to Pittwater, creates yet another record for 'Wild Joe', being the first and no doubt will last for a very long time as the event returns to Coffs Harbour same time, next year. 'Wild Joe' is the current race record holder of the 226nm Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Race set in 2003 (then as Wild Oats IX) in a time of 18hrs 29mins 14secs.
Results were provisional last night as the breeze picked up to 16 knots from the SE, bringing some of the smaller boats home from the last mark in Botany Bay in a hurry under spinnaker. However, in the end it wasn't good enough to affect the final three placings.
So declared the winner overall on IRC, 'Wild Joe' finished on corrected time of 29hrs 58mins 38 secs, ahead of Bill Ebsary's Beneteau 44.7 'Le Billet' by an hour and 45 minutes with another, smaller Beneteau, a 40.7, Chris Lancaster's 'First Priority' who sailed an extremely good race to finish in third a further 18 minutes behind 'Le Billet' on corrected time. All three boats are from the host club, The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Newport.
Divisional splits for the three IRC divisions see Division
1 ending up as Steven David's Wild Joe 1st, in front of the two Farr 40 ODs in Short Shipped
and Brannie Three in 2nd & 3rd respectively. Division 2 it's another title and back to back victories for Bill Ebsary's Le Billet, The Business in 2nd and
Dark & Stormy Witch in 3rd and finally in Division 3 the top three
places are First Priority from Willyama and Onya sharing the podium.
In PHS Division, it was Steven Hobbs Harmony 42 'Kick Back' in first on a corrected time of 30hrs 29mins 16secs, followed by the 15m Radford 'Sea Quest' owned by Graham Friend , with the Sydney 38 'Love Byte' owned by Anthony Pickering in 3rd.
Steve Hobbs Harmony 42, Kick Back - winner of the PHS Division
The results in PHS were finalised following a protest at the start. Fortunately for 'Sea Quest 'she survived the protest when the Protest Committee found that 'Illusion', did not conspicuously display a red flag at the first reasonable opportunity. The protest was therefore found invalid and the handicap results remains unchanged.
Breaking the results down further, in Division 1 it was Love Byte from
Coffs Harbour entrant B52, a Sydney 41 in 2nd and Pete Van Ryn's Farr
44 Sea Hawk form the Cronulla Sailing Club taking out 3rd spot.
In PHS Division 2, the Harmony 42 Kick Back won from Sea Quest with
the second Coffs entrant Overdrive in 3rd. Overdrive is owned and
skippered by husband & wife team Andrew & Meegan Johnson in
their Northshore 380.
For Provisional results and Divisional results click here
Report by Damian Devine.
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