Southern Raider in peak condition for today’s big race

Press, 30 October 1981, Page 28

Southern Raider in peak condition for today’s big race

Special correspondent Wellington The Canterbury yacht Southern’ Raider Was slowly returning to a ship-shape state yesterday as repaired, altered and new gear was freighted to Wellington and refitted. This afternoon, Southern Raider starts on the feature race of the Southern Cross Cup trial series after managing to sail into third place on aggregate points despite being badly hit by gear failures and sail problems during last week-end's. three races. The boat’s mainsail arrived back in the capital yesterday morning after being recut in Auckland on Wednesday under the watchful eye of the skipper, Frank Dickson. While Dickson was in Auckland the crew remained in Wellington working on the mast bend and they are confident they have that problem straightened out. New aluminium sail slugs arrived with crew members from Christchurch last night along with new jammers and the boat’s radio, which last

week was refusing to transmit, is expected to arrive back from Wanganui this morning after repairs. As well as all this, a new small spinnaker is due to arrive from Auckland and Southern Raider will be out of the water and up on the slip for a short time this morning before the race begins at 5.30 p.m. “We will be doing a bit of go-fast polishing,” said a cohelmsman, John Rountree. The 135-mile off-shore race is the final of the series to select a three-boat New Zealand team to sail against the world’s best in- Australia later this year. The race will take the big keelers from Wellington to The Brothers light, back across Cook Strait to Kapiti Island, down to Jag Rock and on to the finish at Ship Cove. “We will be hanging in there,” said Rountree yesterday, “but we want some windward work.” The first three boats in the competition are now close together on points, with Wellington's Ngaruru leading on 13, Auckland's Roperunner

next on 12, and Southern Raider on 11. There is quite a drop back to Red Herring II on 6 and then to the cruiser-racer Expectation on 3.

In spite of the impression the points situation gives, things are not entirely plain sailing for Southern Raider to make the team.

It will have to come fourth or better if Red Herring II comes first — and even then the third place in the team is chosen by selectors rather than being selected automatically on points as the first two places are. Today’s race counts for: first, 7’/2 points; second. 6; third, 4%; fourth, 3; and fifth, l*/2.

The race is expected to take about 24 hours and, with Cook Strait’s notorious weather conditions, a surprising finish is not altogether out of the question. In the 1979 series the Wellington yacht Lisa hit a reef and sank just 100 metres from the finish during heavy southerly conditions and big seas. Until it sank, Lisa had been virtually assured of a place in the team.