To nobody’s surprise, Bryon Ehrhart NYYC’s JK 88 Lucky (formerly Rambler 88) has taken line honours and set a new course record of 2d 20h 27m 7sec for the biennial 1250-mile Sydney-Auckland Race.
In fact, the surprise for anyone unfamiliar with Auckland is that Rambler came to the line in visibility-impairing rain. Yet the reality is that the City of Sails is well-accustomed to rain. It’s just that the stuff they get is somehow different in quality from the persistent precipitation everybody complains about in Ireland.
A fine soft day in Auckland as Lucky finishes. Photo: RPAYC Sydney-Auckland Race Photo: RPAYC
The small fleet have been having a very mixed time of it in the Tasman Sea, with multi-directional squalls of up to 42 knots (and always in the dark, of course), resulting in many tyro offshore racing crews learning at least something - and often quite a lot - about sail repairs in less than optimal conditions.
But equally there has been some glorious sailing.
However, the wind strengths are easing as the rest of the competition closes the north coast of New Zealand. And though defending title-holder Frantic, Michael Martin’s TP52 with ex-Pat Trevor Smyth of Clontarf on the crew, is right up with former record-holder, the veteran Santa Cruz 72 Antipodes, it’s possible that Lucky will add the S2R Double to her CV, along with the magnificent 2016 every-which-way Round Ireland performance.
