Telltales_April

Frantic has been declared the official winner of the 39th Hempel Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht Race with victory in the IRC division. The margin over the 2nd place getter AFR Midnight Rambler was impressive and more than 1hr, with Alegria V 3rd.

The Mick Martin skippered TP52 has taken the double with a more emphatic win in ORCi by around 2 1/2  hours to AFR Midnight Rambler and completing an identical trifecta was Alegria V for 3rd.

The minor placings were unchanged overnight as the smaller boats assisted by breeze continued to chip away at the corrected time margins but as the wind faded it became clear that none could pull back the deficit.

Wild Rose was still in contention late yesterday evening, but slowed considerably in the early hours of this morning and then had to work back from the north of the island to finish 4th overall.

Both Luna Sea and King Billy were placed further south and kept improving in the final stages.

AFR Midnight Rambler skipper Ed Psaltis says that he was pleased to have finished last night and thought the smaller boats would struggle to pull back the margin.

However, the Hick 35 Luna Sea skippered by James Cameron, had a great last 24 hours improving from 8th to 5th overall.

Ken Saladine, a former Saratoga Sabot and flying 11 junior, was given the responsibility of putting the Frantic race entry together and was principal helmsman for the race. ‘Mick wasn’t sure that he wanted to do the race this year as we are concentrating on the TP52 regattas, but said if I could put it together, we’ll go. The thrown together crew worked on 3 shifts with one female in each and all did really well. Some of these guys had never sailed together, but are very good sailors. We are all rapt with this result.’

Ed Psaltis was first to shake Mick Martin’s hand when the provisional results were read out this afternoon at the Anchorage Restauarant and bar.

Frantic has beaten some quality ocean racers in the 2013 G2LHI race and Martin and his crew should be proud of their achievement.

The results vary somewhat from the Yellowbrick tracker estimations and this was due to a race start time input error.

Full results to be posted on the Gosford Sailing Club website.

By G2LHI media

The crew of Frantic have enjoyed an afternoon of hospitality at The Anchorage Restaurant on Lord Howe Island, pondering whether they have done enough to to take out this year’s Hempel Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht Race.

Currently placed behind them overall in the IRC division are two of the most accomplished ocean racing sailors in Australia, with Ed Psaltis’ AFR Midnight Rambler sitting in 2nd and Roger Hickman’s Wild Rose 3rd.

Both have a lot of work to do but have something in their favour….breeze strength.

The pair have had more time to work with winds in the 10-15 knot range as they make their way to island, so can slowly improve on their corrected times. Against them is the fact that will be approaching the finish from the north, into a fresh south easter.

Frantic owner Mick Martin said upon his arrival to the island;

‘I’m very proud of the crew and we believe we’ve sailed a good race. There were moments when I thought the strategy to go south had done us in, but when we saw that we had improved our position against Alegria V and saw Southern Excellence II cross tack us on the horizon, we felt we were in with a chance.’
Late today saw the arrival of one time leader Alegria V, which bashed into the SE winds for the last few hours of the race and fell away significantly in the placings to be currently 4th on IRC.

Next to finish will be Stewart Lewis with Ocean Affinity and AFR Midnight Rambler, but neither have have made the sunset shut off for entry into the Lord Howe Island lagoon.

G2LHI Media
Photo Ashleigh Evans