Dismasting costs New Zealand the Clipper Cup

Press, 20 August 1984, Page 40

Dismasting costs New Zealand the Clipper Cup

PA Honolulu Even though its A team was reduced to two yachts by the dismasting of Exador, New Zealand just failed to win the Pan Am Clipper Cup from the United States in the five-race series off Hawaii..

New Zealand A was leading the series until Exador lost her mast midway through the last race. Exador, a Farr 40 design,- had finished first in division E in every race. The A team had a sixpoint lead going into the last race, and finished second with 2199 points, 12 behind the top American squad, USA White, with 2211. The Americans also held onto third place with their second team, USA Red, oh 2193. The Australians, usually strong contenders, could only manage fourth place with 2133 points. New Zealand’s B team, also racing with only two boats for part of the series, finished seventh with 1905 points. Exador lost her mast ploughing into rough seas off the southern point of the island. Crew members on

Exador’s sister ship Sundance said it tacked inshore and was caught in huge breakers about 200 m from the beach. It was the second dismasting for the New Zealand teams as Blacksheep, a member of the B team, lost it mast during the first race and was only back competing in the fourth and fifth races. Sundance was New Zealand’s top scoring' boat. It finished in third place with 736 points. Sundance was also the top-scoring yacht at its last international event, the Southern Cross Cup Series in Australia. The five-race Clipper Cup series is one of the top events in yachting. It includes three Olympic triangle heats and middle and long-distance races. Boats compete in teams

for the Pan Am Gold Cup and on overall points for the top boat award, the King Kamehaha Trophy, which has been won by an American maxi, Boomerang, with 763 points. Kialoa, another maxi, finished second overall with 739 points. The New Zealand A boats Shockwave and Exador finished twelfth and twentyfourth, respectively while B team platings were Anticipation thirty-third, Blacksheep forty-third and Blast Furnace forty-sixth. Delvin Hogg, the owner of Sundance, was delighted with the boat’s performance. He said the series had shown the “amazing quality of the Farr boats.” “We sailed a conservative series, kept dean, had no altercations with any other boat and kept out of the protest room,” he said.