8:55 AM Tue 13 Apr 2010 GMT
Apriori, the 11.6m Farr designed yacht, skippered by Trevor Hill, was scheduled to cross the finish of the solo Tasman yacht race at Mooloolaba at midnight last night but, about 17 miles from home, the mainsail boom broke. 'It went with a hell of a bang,' he said, 'the broken boom was flailing around all over the place.'
Undeterred, the young skipper, a Brisbane business consultant, dropped the sail on the wildly pitching boat and jury rigged a replacement which left him running for the line at about 6.5 knots, while just 36km behind, his nemesis, Jennifer Fitzgibbon, was working her yacht Soothsayer hard at almost 8 knots to close the gap.
Both boats were expected to finish at around midnight last night (Tuesday).
Two days ago the old foes were just 20m apart as they ghosted along in light air, but Hill was quick to capitalise on the building south easterlies and rode them to a comfortable lead.
About 10km behind Apriori, Steven Arms was also charging hard in his catamaran, Nitro, sailing at up to nine knots in the 25 knot breeze but, like his cousin Bruce, his race is really against the clock and his race time will set a benchmark to race against for future events.
The man who was first monohull home in 2007, Ian Lillie in Island Girl, was forced to take his foot off the throttle by a rigging wire failure yesterday, but even under reduced sail he was back up to eight knots last night looking like he could pip Fitzgibbon for second place.
Matt Paulin's Island Time was just 70km east of Brisbane but well south of the finish line at Mooloolaba and, if the wind dies, may face a battle to claw his way the 60km northwards and cross the line.
Mephisto, sailed by Auckland sales manager, Alan Yardley, was also relishing the fresh conditions and was about 10km behind Island Time but looked unlikely to close the gap in time for the finish tomorrow morning.
About 250km behind the pack of leading yachts, Carl harmer in Strider was leading the group at the back of the fleet and was predicted to finish the race at about 6am on Thursday.
About 70 km behind him, Rhys Boulton was sailing Spellbound hard to keep in touch. He's sailed a lot of adventurous miles in the steel Ganley and is not scared to drive her hard in heavy weather.
There are no drips on Trish Lewis's 7.6m Wishbone - she hove to for several hours yesterday to repair water leaks through the fiberglass production boats deck - a move which saw her overhauled by Blondie Chamberlain's An Cala which had been playing tail end Charlie for the entire race to date. An Cala is also reveling in the heavier wind and sea and last night was moving at about half a knot faster than Wishbone which is expected to arrive in Mooloolaba at about 6am on Friday, 12 ? days out of New Plymouth.
The 49 year old Auckland nutritionist had predicted a 12-14 day crossing of the Tasman before she left but had probably assumed that she'd be sailing in more settled weather than the meteorological mayhem which has affected the fleet.
by Lindsay Wright
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