Skandia leads Gladstone fleet

by Ian Grant on 14 Apr 2006 Skandia, the Brisbane to Gladstone race record holder proved her light wind speed to break away to a handy lead shortly after the start of the 58th annual Easter classic on Moreton Bay earlier today.

The powerful 30m super maxi with her high power to weight ratio, was unmatched in pace in the light 5-8 knot easterly wind. She rounded the first mark off Garnett Rock with a comfortable margin over the Brisbane sloops Heaven Can Wait (Peter Hollis) and the smaller Wedgetail (Bill Wild).

Skandia’s crew racing with her charter skipper Kerry Spencer of Brisbane who entered purely to chase the race record were subjected to a heavy workload of sail changing to maintain a respectable speed in the light winds.

They started with a code zero before changing to windward working sails when they cleared the Garnett Rock buoy for the leg across Moreton Bay to enter the shipping channel off Tangalooma.

However while Skandia looked impressive she was falling behind her 2004 race record speed average of 15.09 knots while her smaller rivals including the race handicap favourites Wedgetail and the Michael Spies skippered Sirromet Life Style Wines entered into a close duel to set the fastest corrected handicap time.

The unsettled light winds will continue to present Skandia and her 47 other rivals with slow sailing progress over the 42 n/ml leg to clear Moreton Bay off Caloundra later this afternoon.