N.Z. hopes fade in Southern Cross

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34037, 29 December 1975, Page 3

N.Z. hopes fade in Southern Cross

(N.Z P.. 4. Staff Crspdt)

SYDNEY.

New Zealand hopes in the Southern Cross ! yachting series were taking a heavy battering (yesterday as the fleet in the Sydney-Hobart race made record time down [the New South Wales I coast.

The official New Zealand team pricings in mid-after-

noon were Prospect of Ponsonby twenty-second (on corrected time), Quicksilver seventy-first, and Tempo ninety-second. This was a long way short of the New South Wales team pricings of Mercedes IV second, Love and War fourteenth, and Patrice 111 seventeenth, and unless the Kiwis can pick up dramatically on the last day of the race, they may finish behind Britain and the United States, as well as New South Wales, i Other New Zealand yacht

pricings computed yesterday afternoon were: Brer Fox fifth, Kailua ninth, Natell II thirteenth, Whispers of Wellington eighteenth, Quando twenty-ninth, Corinthian thirty-first. Quickstep fortyseventh, Anticipation fiftythird, Thundercloud sixtyeighth, and Buccaneer eightyninth. Savant, of New Zealand, withdrew in the morning with a broken boom. The race record of three days, one hour, seemed sure to be broken by the leading yachts. Kialoa II (Jim Kilroy, United States) had taken back the lead from Windward Passage (Fritz Johnson, United States), both yachts averaging about 12 knots running before a 20-knot northerly with masses of sail up. Kialoa II was flying three extra sails from her two masts, and had averaged more than 10 knots since leaving Sydney at noon on Friday. She was two miles ahead of Windward Passage when they reported this afternoon, and was 50 miles ahead of the pace set by Helsal when she set the race record in 1973. The leaders at this stage had 134 miles to sail, and might finish early today. Ballyhoo (Jack Rooklyn, Queensland) was holding third position, 11 miles beihind Windward Passage, with two miles back to Buccaneer j(Tom Clark, Auckland). Out I to seaward was Apollo (Scott (Barrett, Queensland), while Gretel (Jack Sturrock, Victoria) and Leda (N. Gossan, I New South Wales) were also ; inside Helsal’s record pace.