Tassie duo leave rivals behind

TASMANIAN sailors Jo Breen and Peter Brooks, sailing Morning Mist, have passed the 2000-nautical mile mark in the 5500nautical mile, double-handed, non-stop Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race.

According to the race tracker, Morning Mist, an S&S 34 and the oldest and smallest boat in the fleet of 19, late yesterday was sailing northwards in the Coral Sea, southeast of Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea. Morning Mist was first yacht away in the staggered start from Port Philip on March 15 and 15 days later is making excellent time, yesterday recording more than seven knots.

She still has a lead of more than 280 nautical miles over second-placed yacht, The Edge, with the leading boats in the main group of 15, which started Monday, still about 1430 nautical miles astern.

The second Tasmanian boat in the fleet, Force Eleven, sailed by Tristan Gourlay and Jamie Cooper, is among the main bulk of the fleet, which set sail last Monday after a day’s delay because of gale-force winds in Bass Strait.

The final entry, the biggest and fastest boat, Chinese Whisper, a 62-footer. is due to set sail tomorrow in pursuit of the fleet.

Another Tasmanian boat, Philip Turner’s Reichel/Pugh 66 Alive, last evening was expected to finish second in line honours and the first monohull yacht in the Rolex China Sea Race.

Two years ago, Alive set the race record of 47 hours 31 minutes 8 seconds for the 565-nautical mile race from Hong Kong to Subic Bay in the Philippines, but will not beat that time this year. Skippered by Derwent Sailing Squadron member Duncan Hine, Alive could not match the boatspeed of Karl Kwok’s new 70-foot multihull, which finished early yesterday.