Yachting: Sayonara heads for race record

By Suzanne McFadden

The 1998 Sydney-Hobart yacht race will be remembered for its tragedy, chaos and carnage. Will anyone ever recall the record-burning run of Chris Dickson and Sayonara?

The American maxi with the strong Kiwi flavour was last night on course to break the record for the 630-mile blue water classic.

But the effort will, of course, be forever overshadowed by one of the saddest days in Australian yachting history, where two sailors died, one was presumed drowned, and five others were missing somewhere in the perilous waters of Bass
Strait.

Only 48 of the 115 boats that set off from Sydney on Boxing Day were still racing last night. Others were still at sea, but had been abandoned by their crews, winched to safety by some of the 30 search and rescue aircraft that had buzzed over the Strait during a grim 24 hours.

At 10pm yesterday Sayonara, with Dickson at the helm, had a 30-mile lead over Brindabella as the boats surfed down the east coast of Tasmania past the Freycinet Peninsula.

After making a searing passage in howling winds and towering seas, the leaders had slowed up in the last hours, 80 miles from the finish line.

Sayonara, owned by American computer billionaire Larry Ellison, had to finish before 5.07am (NZ time) today to set a new race record.

The record stood at two days, 14 hours, 7 minutes 10 seconds, set by Morning Glory - a maxi helmed by Russell Coutts - in 1996.

Among the New Zealanders on board Sayonara were America's Cup sailors Brad Butterworth, Joey Allen, Tony Rae, Robbie Naismith and Hamish Pepper.

In a cat-and-mouse game, neither Sayonara nor Brindabella - last year's line honours winner - reported their positions at the afternoon schedule.
Race organisers were desperately trying to make phone contact with the boats
last night.

Officials were keeping silent, however, on the issue of race safety in the wake of the worst Sydney-Hobart race in 54 years.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia issued a short statement explaining why the race had not been abandoned when forecasts predicted storm conditions.

"Under the racing rules of sailing, fundamental rule four states that `a boat is solely responsible for deciding whether or not to start or to continue racing'," the statement read.

"Sydney radio, part of the Australian government marine radio network, transmits weather alerts, via HF radio to all sea-going vessels.

"In respect ... the final decision to continue racing rests with the individual skippers to ensure the safety of their vessel and crew."

The start of the Melbourne-Hobart race was delayed until yesterday. Fifteen of the 50 boats in the fleet had withdrawn from damage suffered in the lead-up to the race.

Melbourne to Devonport line honours contender Prowler led the fleet out of the heads followed by Melbourne to Hobart line honours hopefuls Medicine Man II and Longitude, with another Melbourne-Devonport front runner, Tasmanian yacht Haphazard, a close fourth.

The fleets were greeted by 15 knot south-westerly winds on the bay, which strengthened slightly to 25 knots in Bass Strait with a moderate 2m ocean swell.

With the winds predicted to swing around to westerlies but likely to diminish in strength, the possibility of a line honours race record for the Melbourne to Devonport now seems unlikely, although a fast time is expected.