Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race

Sydney, Australia - The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia held its 23rd annual Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race this past weekend, where the fleet experienced all the joys and hardships a yacht race has to offer.  A fleet of 75 yachts representing Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales sailed out of Sydney Harbour on Saturday to run the 384 nautical mile Gold Coast Yacht Race course, all with the aim to win this prestigious Australian sailing event.

The yacht race had a bit of everything – light breezes, strong offshore winds with frigid temperatures, stunning lightening shows, and wind squalls of 40 knots causing thirteen boats in the race to retire due to damage or weather concerns.  The fleet skippers had their hands full deciding what type of sails to fly in the unpredictable winds, but the biggest decision all skippers and navigators had to make was whether to go offshore, or stay inside the rhumbline. Those that took the offshore route in the Gold Coast Yacht Race where well rewarded, as they were the first yachts to arrive home.

IRC Overall and Line honors for the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race have been confirmed as Quantum Racing, with Quest in second, and Cockatoo Ridge – The Goat in third.  Although Quantum Racing’s elapsed time was 1 day 17 hours 59 minutes 26 seconds for the 384 nautical mile race, they were hard earned miles for the twelve crew members aboard.  Skipper Ray Roberts said, “It was a fantastic but tough race. We had a pretty good start and were in a good position with Quest and Ragamuffin and Yendys. We continued to battle with the other 50 foot yachts over the first afternoon and evening.  During that first evening we had to make a critical decision whether we went offshore or kept inshore. We opted to go with the offshore strategy as we analysed the weather patterns and though that there would be more breeze offshore. It panned out that we made the right choice early in the race that helped get us into a good position – We needed to continually consolidate our position as we headed up the coast so that when we made our move back inside the rhumbline, we had enough of a lead that if we lost the breeze we would still be able to maintain it.”  Congratulating his crew Ray said “The crew sailed really well and tactics that we used made us come out on top. We made good decisions at the right time and it’s not easy to make those decisions as the weather and current is changing constantly."

For Bob Steel on the yacht Quest, finishing second over the line was fantastic news. “We knew Quantum Racing had got the line honours win – they had us beaten when they went offshore and we got a little nervous and came back in. We went out again but we couldn’t catch them, so all in all 2nd across the line is not too shabby!” said Bob. 

   
In the six boat Sydney 38 division, it was the yacht Cockatoo Ridge – The Goat placing first, with Gordon Ketelbey’s Zen second, and Marc and Louis Ryckmans Tigerspike Yeah Baby third.  The PHS division saw John Simpson’s Shark Face confirmed as the overall winner.  Simpson was very excited by the news “This is great news to be told first thing in the morning. The boat is based out of Lake Macquarie and we had built her ourselves with designer Denis Phillips. She is part of our family as we live around our boat – we have family holidays on her and sailing is our sport.”  Simpson continued on to say “The crew is made up of sailors from Lake Macquarie with an average age of 50+ and they all put in a terrific job – rotating throughout their positions all race. When we got caught in the thunderstorm and shredded one spinnaker - it seemed like we were holding our breath throughout it – it seems like we were flying down black mine shafts and then we were off sailing again. We made it through the thunderstorm and arrived at Southport safely without any major damage to the boat.”

Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race

Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race Line Honors

Quantum Racing (Cookson 50, NSW) – Ray Roberts Elapsed Time 01:17:59:26

Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race IRC Division 0

1st and 1st IRC overall: Quantum Racing (Cookson 50, NSW) – Ray Roberts

Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race IRC Division 1

1st: Quest (Transpac 52, NSW) – Bob Steel
2nd: Yendys (Reichel/Pugh 55, NSW) – Geoff Ross
3rd: Living Doll (Cookson 50 MOD, VIC) – Michael Hiatt

Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race IRC Division 2

1st: Chutzpah (Caprice 40, VIC) – Bruce Taylor
2nd: Wedgetail (IRC 42, QLD) – Bill Wild
3rd: Limit (Corby 49, WA) – Alan Brierty

Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race IRC Division 3

1st: Cockatoo Ridge – The Goat (Sydney 38, NSW) – Clayton/Foye/Gordon/Peckman
2nd: Swish (Sydney 38, NSW) – Stephen Proud
3rd: Splash Gordon (Farr 40 MOD, NSW) – Stephen Ellis

Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race IRC Division 4

1st: Upper Northshore (Northshore 37, NSW) – Michael Spies
2nd: Pendragon (Stewart 34, NSW) – Andrew Cochrane
3rd: The Philosophers Club  (Sydney 36CR, NSW) – Peter Sorensen

Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race PHS Division

1st: Shark Face (Phillips 37, NSW) – John Simpson
2nd: Sea Quest (Radford 50, NSW) – David Fernie
3rd: Obsession (Sydney 38MOD, NSW) – Obsession Syndicate

Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race Sydney 38 Division

1st: Cockatoo Ridge – The Goat – Clayton/Foye/Gordon/Peckman
2nd: Zen (NSW) – Gordon Ketelbey
3rd: Tigerspike (Yeah Baby) (NSW) – Louis & Marc Ryckmans

Video: Time lapse video of a fast paced day and night scenic view of Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Harbour bridge, Sydney Opera House and surrounding area.