Race fleet becalmed

Press, 29 December 1979, Page 4

Race fleet becalmed

! NZPA Sydney) ; Near millpond conditions off the east coast of Tasmania dashed ■ Bumblebee IV's hopes for a race record in the Sydney-to-Hobart, ocean classic yesterday. After almost 24 hours of brisk; J twenty-to-twenty-five-knot north- ! easterly breezes the wind veloc-! it\ drooped to less than five knots as the fleet threaded its! wav down the Tasmanian coast. Although Bumblebee IV. bril-; liantly skippered by the Sydney! businessman. John Kahlbetzer.; . managed to increase its lead, it; progressed onlv 65 miles in the, . eight hours between the morn-! ing and afternoon radio positional report*. At 3.30 p.m. th? giant 66-foot white hulled Bumblebee IV. it<; bin* and white spinnaker flut-i | ferine in th* breeze was just south of S» Helens and east of ’tn* tiny fishing village of Bi-; I cheno. *

The Sydney sloop led by 18miles from the second placed' British international fiver Con dor of Bermuda with the West j Australian sloop S«ska dropping back to join the early leader. • Helsal 11 in the battle for third’ spot three miles further astern. Siska put the pressure squarely on Bumblebee IV in a lhelv ( (overnight crossing of Bass Strait and by davbreak was within 15' ; miles of the race leader. But the controversial red-hulledi Western Australian vacht :slumned alarmingh in the lighter' , mid-dav airs and Bumblebee, ’showed its undoubted class to ram home its advantage. Nevertheless at the afternoon renort Bumblebee was sHll 150 (miles fmm the Hobart finish line, and had onlv eleven hours to , beat th? rar? record set bv th* ~g?snt American yacht Kialoa in i 1®75. j

I Bumblebee s only chance was ; for a audden increase m the ■ wind velocity to near gale for e magnitude if she was to o e - haul Kialoa's record of two da s • 14 hours 36 minutes and 56 ae< • ! onds. I After the wind drop the fleet again bunched behind the leaden and the race appeared headed , for a king-size traffic jam when the bulk of the yachts reach the Derwent River today . I The lighter conditions we e disastrous for the maxi'aci 1 but threw the battle for handicap honours wide open. ' At th? afternoon positional '* port the race computer plar*d the 33-font Tasmanian sloop Sa landra. th? leader on correct*' 'time closelv followed bv M*l bourne's unioue “olastir buck?’.* Pirra and another Tasmania! jhalf-tonner Screw Loose.