It's Saturday morning in Hobart, and out at sea the smaller boats in the big race from Sydney are still punching it out with a sou'wester which gives them a beat round the convoluted peninsula that ends at Tasman Island, along shorelines of other-worldly cliffs and crazy rock
formations.
There's Irish interest in Division 3, where Richard Williams' Cookson 12 Calibre, with Steph Lyons of KInsale YC on the bow, is second in class on the water 1.5 miles behind the Mark Mills-designed, Turkish-built White Noise (Daniel Edwards) which has 25 miles to sail to the finish, with both boats hitting speeds around the 6.5 knot mark.
Three miles astern is the leading Two-Hander, Rupert Henry's Mistral, a Lombard 34 which is first in the duo class on the water and on IRC, while second in both categories - but 30 miles astern - is Kraken III, the Sunfast 3300 raced by previous Two-Handed winners Rob Gough and John Saul.
They have been giving sister-ship Cinnamon Girl-Eden Capital (Cian McCarthy & Sam Hunt, Kinsale YC) one very competitive race, but in the last hour or so the Kinsalers have managed to take a mile or so out of Kraken, but they're still seven miles behind.
With 56 miles still to race there's a chance of making further gains if it becomes a full beat to the finish, but daylight makes the chance of taking an unobserved flyer less likely.
CARO'S THIRD PLACE CLOSELY CHALLENGED
Meanwhile in port, Max Klink's Botin 52 with Gordon Maguire and Cian Guilfoyle on board has been confirmed in third among the TP 52s, but by just five minutes ahead of Ian & Annika Thompson's Ocean Crusaders J-Bird, which rates at only 1.300 against the high-rated 1.416 of Caro, so it was a nervy time as the old J-Bird came up the Derwent.
As for Mickey Martin's veteran TP52 Frantic, with three from Ireland on board in the form of Trevor Smyth, Conor Totterdell and Cian Ballesty, she finished on corrected time plumb in the middle of the 52s at 7th in Division 1, and just three hours behind Caro's Corrected Time. The
Customs House can be expecting a thirsty raid from the Leinster Coast Pirates if they're not there already.
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