Highland Fling out of Cup race

Press, 29 December 1987, Page 36

Highland Fling out of Cup race

PA Sydney The retirement of Hong Kong’s top performer, Highland Fling, put New Zealand back in second spot in the Southern Cross Cup yachting series yesterday. Highland Fling pulled out with a broken mast as the Sydney to Hobart fleet encountered 25 knot southerlies and confused two metre swells. Australia continued to hold on to the lead with a provisional points total of 648. Each of its boats, Madeline’s Daughter (seventh), Sagacious V (tenth) and Joint Venture (seventeenth) remained ahead of its nearest New Zealand rival on corrected time, when the fleet reported its position yesterday afternoon. New Zealand, with the mishap to Hong Kong, moved up a place and trailed the leader by 68 points.

Mad Max remained the top New Zealand boat in the Sydney to Hobart race, which is the fifth and final race of the series and carries triple points.

The Rick Dodsonskippered one-tonner was in eighth place on corrected time among the 33

cup campaigners, and had 253 of the 630 nautical miles to go. The two other New Zealand one-tonners, Fair Share (Peter Lester) and Swuzzlebubble VI (lan Gibbs) were fourteenth and twenty-first respectively. Hong Kong, previously second, dropped to fourth after the retirement of Highland Fling, allowing New South Wales into third place, 23 points behind New Zealand. Highland Fling, helmed by the New Zealand America’s Cup skipper, Chris Dickson, was tenth in the cup fleet when it broke its mast about 1 p.m. The Australian-owned Farr 50, chartered to the Hong Kong team, is the only yacht to win two races in the series so far. Highland Fling was reported to be making its way back to Eden, on the New South Wales-Victoria border. However, its team-mate, Switchblade, continued to lead the Southern Cross fleet on corrected time, followed by two New South Wales entrants, Beyond Thunderdome and Another Concubine. The same three boats

were also one, two and three in the race for overall winner in the Sydney to Hobart race. The best of the New Zealanders among the 152 boats left in the fleet was Max Max, which was tenth. Fair Share was eighteenth and Swuzzlebubble VI twenty-fifth. The three other New Zealanders — Starlight Express, Barnstorm and Larrikin — were thirtysixth, thirty-eighth and one hundred and thirtyninth respectively. In the battle for line honours, Sovereign continued to be the frontrunner. It had 126 miles to sail and was expected to reach Hobart at 8 a.m. (New Zealand time) today. The- 25.6 m maxi, the largest in the world, led into Bass Strait last year but had to retire because of spreader problems. However, it appeared to be in good shape this time around. In second place, 1.8 miles astern, was the Sydney maxi Gazebo, formerly known as Ragamuffin. However, Gazebo reported that it had torn a mainsail.