yachts

Racing yachts head into Pacific

AFTER a lapse of two years, Aus tralian ocean racing yachts are setting sail into the Pacific with plans for more major passage races to the islands over the next few years.

The last major race from Austra lia to a Pacific nation was in 1984 when the legendary Helsal 11, re named Spirit of Vanuatu, took the double of line honors and first on corrected time in the inaugural Sydney to Vanuatu race. Last year was to have been the seventh race from Sydney to Noumea but it was cancelled because of the political unrest in New Caledonia.

Now the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia which has conducted both the races to Port Vila and the races to Noumea, has announced plans to definitely run a Sydney-Noumea race in 1987. From Noumea the Club plans to conduct a cruise in company to Fiji with a race back to Sydney.

Race director Peter Rysdyk, a regular visitor to Noumea and Port Vila, is confident of a total fleet of 25 yachts racing from Sydney and Brisbane to Vanuatu. The Sydney fleet will set sail at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, with the Bris bane fleet sailing at 2 p.m. the following day.

There was to have been a start from Hobart this year, but the Tasmanian yachts will now start with the Sydney boats. Among the Tasmanian entrants is Dr Joe Can non who sailed in the last race to Vila aboard a friend’s yacht and this time is sailing his own boat, Finesse of Tasman.

The inaugural race from Sydney and Brisbane to Vanuatu proved to be a boat and body bashing slug to windward with the fleet set on a course that meant leaving Norfolk Island to port the reason was to keep the yachts well to the south of the dangerous reefs off New Cale donia. Five yachts did not make the distance but those who did received an overwhelming welcome from the people of Vanuatu.

As the yachts sailed past the islands to the south of Efate, islan ders came out in their canoes to greet the Australian sailors. When Spirit of Vanuatu (Helsal II) reached Port Vila to take line honors the crew, which included several Vila residents and two Ni Vanuatus, were greeted by the largest crowd seen in the town since independ ence celebrations.

Spirit of Vanuatu also won the

race on corrected time from Myuna from Sydney and Galaxy 111 from Hobart. Spirit of Vanuatu won’t be racing this year as she has been sold to a Victorian yachtsman who plans to sail her to Fremantle for the America’s Cup later in the year.

For this year’s race, Peter Rysdyk has devised a fascinating alternative course which has turned the marathon voyage across the South- West Pacific into two stages and takes the fleet through the waters of New Caledonia and on to Vanuatu.

The first stage will be from Sydney (and Brisbane) to Amadee Island, the little atoll which marks, with its beautiful lighthouse, the entrance through the New Caledo nia Reef.

As the yachts finish the first stage, they will enter the lagoon and motor-sail at their leisure to the Canal de la Havannah Passe, sometimes called the Havannah Passe. Each yacht will be given a maximum of 15 hours to travel the 28 miles to Baie de Prony where they will be restarted individually from a line near the Lighthouse Bon Anse.

With the race starting from Syd ney on May 17, the leading yachts should reach Port Vila during the week starting May 26.

Many Australian yachtsmen and their families were disappointed when the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia reluctantly cancelled the race to Noumea in 1985, but the club has now announced that it will run races from Sydney and Bris bane in 1987.

The Club has set May 16, 1987, as the date for the start from Sydney, with the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club expected to start a fleet from Moreton Bay a day or two later.

After the race, the CYC A is planning a cruise in company, taking between five and six days, from Noumea to Fiji and after a three day layover in Fiji a race back to Sydney. This will be with a handicap start, the objective being to have the yachts reach Sydney close together after their Pacific adventure.

Meanwhile two Australian yachtsmen have sailed across the Pacific from Sydney on their way to compete in the BOC Challenge Round the World solo race, which starts from Newport, Rhode Island, USA, on August 30. lan Kieman, skippering Spirit of

Sydney, is among 57 entrants for the 27,000 nautical mile solo race.

Another Australian, Malcolm Jack, is also a possible starter in Aussie Spirit.

One of them, however, will re quire a different boat. John Biddle combe in ACI Crusader was wreck ed off Tonga and escaped with only the clothes he was wearing. another boat.

Biddlecome was sailing his own designed, radical-shaped 60-footer singlehanded from Sydney to Tahiti to qualify for the BOC Challenge, while Kieman is firstly sailing with one crew to New Zealand to “de

bug” the Ben Lexcen-designed 60footer before then also sailing solo to Tahiti.

Spirit of Sydney is also a radical design, featuring water ballast and two angled centreboards.

From Tahiti the Australians plan ned to sail through the Panama Canal, and up the U.S. East Coast, planning to reach Newport about a month before the BOC Challenge starts.

The solo race, regarded as the toughest yachting challenge in the world, is sailed in four stages Newport to Cape Town, Cape Town to Sydney, Sydney to Rio de Janiero, and Rio back to Newport.

ACI Crusader... wrecked In a storm off Tonga.