British yachts sail to decisive lead

Press, 20 December 1985, Page 4

British yachts sail to decisive lead

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney

England’s trio of light-wind specialists yesterday mugged the New Zealand defenders and sailed to a decisive lead in the Southern Cross Cup. The three British yachts chased the big boats of the fleet over the line at the end of the 180-mile third race of the cup series to be fifth, sixth and seventh on the water and fill the first three places on handicap. With the race carrying a 50 per cent points loading, that puts the British on top of the New Zealanders for the first time in the series — by 335 points. By late last night the tailenders of the 35-boat fleet had still not finished, but up at the business end, it was all Britain and its team of three boats which are specialists in lightweather reaching and running. Under the points system for this five-race series, the points for the three 24-mile Olympic course races are multiplied by two, those for the 180-miler by three, and those for the Syd-ney-Hobart by five. Lijje honours last night went to tfiE Australian boat Drake’s Paryer, which led the race

from start to finish, followed by its Australian teammate Marloo 11, skippered by Sir James Hardy. Next across the line were the New Zealand twins Switchblade and Thunderbird, then came the Englishmen. Of the other New Zealanders, Mad Max, the magic boat of the series so far, just couldn’t make it three trailblazers in a row, finishing fourteenth on the water, two places ahead of Barn Storm, with Exador twentieth home and Swuzzlebubble twentyfourth.

Converted to handicap and points, Mad Max was again the best of the New Zealanders, this time seventh on handicap, with Thunderbird again consistent for thirteenth, while Barn Storm finished twentyseventh on handicap to give a the B team 306.25 points for the race.

New Zealand A collected 293 from Exadoris tenth, Switchblade’s fourteenth and Swuzzlebubble’s eighteenth. The British, however, amassed 782.14 points to surge to 1400.2, a good 335 points clear New Zealand B, whicj is still ,171 clear of New Zealand A.