Sydney yachtsman Michael Spies, Overall winner of the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, has scored a big win on corrected time with his new yacht in the Cabbage Tree Island Race sailed off the New South Wales Central Coast over the weekend.
Again named First National Real Estate, Spies’ new boat is a Beneteau 44.7 in which he is aiming for a rare back-to-back win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart.
The 180 nautical mile race which started Friday night is a qualifier for the Hobart Race, with most of the 31 competitors among the big fleet nominated for the ocean classic.
First National Real Estate took first place on IRC time correction handicaps from veteran Syd Fischer’s Farr 50, Ragamuffin, third place going to Merlin, owned by Olympic gold medallist David Forbes and Richard Brooks.
The Beneteau 44.7’s winning margin was a 4 minutes 30 seconds and also pleasing for Spies was his comfortable defeat of rival Prime Time, also a 44.7 skippered by David Mason with Neville Wittey as tactician.
Prime Time finished six minutes astern of First National Real Estate and sixth on IRC corrected time.
Of other Rolex Sydney Hobart Race entrants in the fleet, Austmark (Gunther Schmidt-Lindner) placed fourth, Ichi Ban (Matt Allen) fifth, Loki (Stephen Ainsworth) seventh and record breaking line honours winner Brindabella (George Snow) eighth.
Brindabella smashed the 18-year-old record for the Cabbage Tree Island Race, her elapsed time of 18 hours 57 minutes 37 seconds slashing 52 minutes 16 seconds off the record set by another famous maxi Sovereign during a Southern Cross international series in 1986.
Brindabella led all the way around the 180 nautical mile course which started in 18-20 knot northerly headwinds on Friday evening, easing this morning and veering to the north-east at 15 knots to give the 80-footer a spanking spinnaker run back down the NSW Central Coast and to the finish in Sydney Harbour.
The second boat to finish, the Volvo 60 Seriously Ten, owned by John Woodruff and Eric Robinson, was only six seconds outside the previous record.
Brindabella holds more race records that any other yacht currently racing on the Australian east coast, including the Sydney Mooloolaba, Sydney Gold Coast, Sydney Wollongong, Sydney Newcastle and the Bird Islet races.
Brindabella also recorded the fastest time ever for a conventionally ballasted boat in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, when she sailed the 628 nautical mile course in 1 day 20 hours 46 minutes 33 seconds, only an hour behind the record-breaking, water ballasted Nokia.
Snow also holds the record for the Sydney Noumea Race with his previous Brindabella, now racing as Infinity III and owned by CYCA Commodore Martin James who has set records for the Lion Island Botany Bay and Wollongong Sydney races with the 65-footer.
