Fidelis Among First Yachts

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31564, 29 December 1967, Page 14

Fidelis Among First Yachts

(N.Z Press Assn— Copyright) SYDNEY, Dec. 28. The New Zealand sloop Fidelis is believed to be holding her lead in the fierce struggle for line honours in this year’s Sydney to Hobart yachting classic. The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia late last night put the 61ft Auckland sloop ahead of the highly favoured French schooner, Pen Duick 111, as the fleet came through Bass Strait towards Hobart. Also up near them was the other big New Zealand entrant, the 62ft cutter Kahurangi. A spokesman said that no clear report had been re-

ceived from the Fidelis because of continuing bad communications but she was still thought to be in front. Big Gain

In spite of her second position the French vessel has improved remarkably on handicap. On Wednesday she was forty-eighth but the latest information worked out by the computer compiling the handicap positions puts her fifth. As the fleet passed the halfway mark in Bass Strait, about 110 miles south of Gabo Island, the yachts were working into a four to sevenknot breeze and slight seas. Front runners at 11.30 p.m. were Fidelis, Pen Duick 111 (distance between these unknown), Kahurangi 10 miles back, Mercedes 111 six miles further back, and Fare Thee Well and Salacia just behind. Positions on handicap were

were Mercedes 111, Fare Thee Well, Maria van Dieman, Wathara II and Pen Duick 111. Although still holding third place, the Kahurangi, claimed to be potentially the fastest vessel in the race and obviously handicapped as such, is only forty-eighth on handicap. The three yachts of the New Zealand Southern Cross series team, Rainbow 11, Castanet and Santanita, have improved their handicap positions but are still well behind the New South Wales team. Now Eighth Rainbow II has picked up considerably and is eight over-all on handicap and fourth in division two (for smaller yachts). Cantanet is sixteenth over all and ninth in division two, and the Santanita, which is too big to qualify for divis-

ion two, is thirty-first over all. However, with Mercedes 111 leading on handicap and the two other New South Wales team boats well up, the New Zealanders seem to have little chance of usurping the lead the locals established in the first three races of the Southern Cross series. The handicap positions of the other New Zealand vessels in the race are: Myth of Arran, forty-fifth; Carol Anne, fiftieth; Southern Star, fiftyseventh: and Sea Witch, sixty-second. Commenting on the race last night, an official of the Cruising Yacht Club said it appeared that the Fidelis and Pen Duick 111 would be the yachts to fight it out for line honours. “But I’d say at this stage that it was Fidelis that had the lead,” he added. i