British yachts ‘sail’ highway

Press, 9 December 1985, Page 31

British yachts ‘sail’ highway

NZPA-AAP Melbourne More than one SydneyHobart race navigator has been known to mistakenly radio a latitude and longitude position placing his yacht on the Hume Highway instead of in the Tasman Sea. Such a position was true over the week-end, with three British yachts “sailing” 1000 km up the highway from Melbourne to Sydney. The yachts comprise the strong British team for the international AWA Southern Cross Cup which starts in

Sydney'next Monday. The yachts were unloaded from the container ship ACT 5 in Melbourne yesterday as the ship will not reach Sydney until after the series starts. Twelve teams: Britain, two from New Zealand, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Australia and one each from the Australian states, will contest the fiverace AWA Southern Cross Cup which ends with the 630 nautical mile AWA SydneyHobart race starting on December 26.

The British teams’ chances of competing were further thrown into jeopardy by the Australiawide tug stoppage, but striking engineers returned to work late on Saturday.

Yesterday morning Port of Melbourne authorities, the ACTA shipping line, stevedores, police and Melbourne tramway workmen combined to unload the Sachts and get them on leir way to Sydney. The police gave special permission for the four trucks with low-loaders

carrying the three yachts and their masts and sails to drive on Victorian roads during the week-end. Special permits for Sunday travelling were issued by New South Wales police. The Melbourne tramways brought on a special crew to lift tramlines to enable yachts, with the decks 5.5 metres above the road, to pass safely. A British yachtsman, Chris Griffith, skipper of one of the yachts, Cifraline 3, said yesterday he hoped the fleet would reach Sydney early today.