George Snow’s veteran maxi yacht Brindabella is leading the fleet on the return leg of the CYCA’s 180 nautical mile Cabbage Tree Island Race after a lively night at sea for the 31 boats sailing in this qualifying event for the 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

The 80-footer rounded Cabbage Tree Island,  north of Port Stephens on the NSW Central Coast about 7am today and is on a spinnaker run before 15-25 knot north-westerly winds back to Sydney.  She is due to finish before sunset.

At this morning radio position reports from the fleet, Brindabella  was about four miles south of Cabbage Tree Island followed by the Volvo 60s, Andrew Short Marine (Andrew Short) and Seriously Ten (John Woodruff and Eric Robinson) with Ichi Ban (Matt Allen) close astern.

Yesterday’s galeforce winds eased overnight but the Sydney 38 Yeah Baby (Mick Hinchey and Dennis Hume) reported at 1am they were beating into 17-20 knot headwinds and rough seas.

The rest of the fleet was still sailing north between Lake Macquarie and Newcastle, with Witchdoctor (The Rum Consortium) last in the fleet,  off The Entrance.

The duel between the two new Beneteau 44.7s,  Michael Spies’ First National Real Estate and David Mason’s Prime Time has seen Spies and his crew open up a two nautical mile lead heading north to Cabbage Tree Island.

Spies skippered his previous boat,  the smaller  Beneteau 40.7 also named First National Real Estate, to an overall win in last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race while Wittey is an Olympic sailor and former World champion in one design classes.

Other Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race contenders competing in the Cabbage Tree Island Race, which is also a CYCA Blue Water Pointscore Race, include Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin, the original Wild Oats and IOR winner of the 1993 Sydney Hobart, with Howard Piggott on the helm, the latest AFR Midnight Rambler, a Farr 40 skippered by Ed Psaltis, and 2003-2004 Blue Water Champion Nips N Tux (Howard de Torres).