星期四 [ 2010/1/7 10:19:56 | watches1013 ]   Down the rhumbline Peter Campbell joined in the ne Wandering around the docks at Hobart on New Year's Eve, along with thousands of other visitors and Hobartians out to celebrate New Year's Eve, we watched and cheered Gillawa, the last boat to finish the Rolex Sydney Hobart, as the 30-footer crossed the finish line in the fading summer twilight. While the state-of-the-art maxiyacht Wild Oats XI failed to break the race record she set a year ago, Gillawa, a 26-year-old 30-footer skippered by David Kent from the Canberra Yacht Club, set a personal record. She completed the 628 nautical mile race in last place for the third consecutive year and in finishing before midnight on 31 December 2006 she achieved her fastest time for the ocean classic. Canberra Yacht Club may also claim a record. Not only is Kent a member of the club on Lake Burley Griffin but so also is George Snow, the retired maxi yacht owner who sailed as 'cook' aboard the overall winner Love & War. His Brindabella has always proudly carried the sail number C1 and Gillawa's is C2, although, of course, neither boat has never been closer to Canberra's beautiful lake than the Tasman Sea off Bateman's Bay on the NSW South Coast. George was 'over the moon' with the victory, of Love & War. "I've twice won line honours and a second on handicap, but never a handicap winner until now ... winning line honours is great, but a handicap win is what it's all about,' he told Mittagong hotelier and yachtsman Bruce Rowley at Hobart airport while waiting to catch a plane back to Sydney to join his family for New Year's Eve. Talking to local and visiting yachties and Hobartians on New Year's Eve--and the following day at the Rolex 62nd Sydney Hobart Yacht Race prizegiving at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania--there is no doubt that the victory of Love & War could not have been more popular. The cheers and clapping for skipper/navigator Lindsay May were long and loud as he went up to collect a swag of trophies. Bvlgari Replica The win epitomises the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's concept that the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is a race for all--be they multi-millionaires with professional crews on canting keel super maxis or the ordinary amateur yacht club members, mates who get together each year to 'do a Hobart' once more in a boat they have sailed on for years. Whether they win or not, it doesn't really matter to most of them. This year was a great test of seamanship, a tough first night at sea for many Fendi Bags Replica yachts and yachties and it took its toll on a number of prominent boats. As George Snow said, the results showed that any boat sailed well, on the right day, in the right conditions, could win. "I think it's a good thing ... it encourages everyone to stay in the fleet." Snow added: "Multi-million dollar maxis come down and then they go, but they are not part of the regular sailing fleet. It's important to have good, wholesome boats in the fleet." Come and go is right. Many locals were bitterly disappointed that Wild Oats XI disappeared back down the Derwent within a few hours of her taking line honours, as did most of her crew--by air. Their objective was to set a record by taking line honours in the Pittwater to Coifs Harbour Race starting on 2 January. Which they did; also winning IRC Overall when the wind died for most of the fleet. The maxis will be back again, but the victory of Love & War and the fine performances of placegetters Bacardi and Challenge, both from Victoria, will certainly encourage more of those 'good, wholesome boats' to enter for the 2007 Ro Other articles:http://www.ccncct.com/Blog/View/?952 http://www.cyz18.com/Blog/View/?781 浏览(175) | 回复(0) |