Whisper chews up Morning Star’s lead

TASMANIAN yacht Morning Star was expected to finally lose its lead in the two-handed, non-stop 5500-nautical mile Melbourne to Osaka yacht race late last night.

Morning Star is the smallest and oldest boat in the race, crewed by Jo Breen and Peter Roberts from Launceston’s Tamar Yacht Club.

The race has taken Morning Star from Bass Strait, into the Tasman Sea, north to the Coral Sea and north of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean.

After 35 days, the two sailors have maintained the S&S34’s lead since setting sail on March 15, first away in the staggered start for the 19-boat fleet. However, the biggest and fastest boat, the Sydney yacht Chinese Whisper, a Judel/ Vrolijk 62, has steadily closed the gap since starting last on April 1.

Late yesterday afternoon, Chinese Whisper, sailed by Rupert Henry and Greg O’Shea, was just 50 nautical miles astern of Morning Star which was 386 nautical miles from the finish at the southern Japanese port city of Osaka.

The race tracker recorded Morning Star making a steady five-plus knots yesterday, but Chinese Whisper’s boatspeed was more than 14 knots, almost three times that of the little Tasmanian boat.

The tracker calculated that Chinese Whisper would finish around midnight today, smashing by about five days the record elapsed time set by Victorians Grant Wharington and Scott Gilbert in Wharington’s 50-footer Wild Thing in 1995.