A massive congratulations to Christian Beck and the crew of Infotrack for the impressive second fastest in the 2019 Sydney to Hobart yacht race. The performance of Infotrack provided much interest for the Greenwich Flying Squadron membership and I particularly liked Jeff Lewis’ “GFS and the rest” caption on the photo of Infotrack leading the fleet out of the heads by a wide margin.
I would have loved to be out on the water watching the race as we did last year but this time we were on the road returning from a family Christmas gathering in Ballina. in Ballina we were surprised to meet fellow Black fleet skipper Ralph Pickering and family which shows what a small world it is indeed.
Thanks to the advancement in technology and the more generous distribution of the race start we were able to watch the pre start antics of the fleet on the approach to Port Macquarie where we pulled into the service centre with just over a minute to the start.
What a great start by the crew on Infotrack! They nailed that start with position and speed and executed perfectly to capitalise on their advantage to lead out the heads by a large margin. Five 100 ft maxies battling up the harbour is a rare sight and this one was one for the ages. Aboard Commanche there was quiet calm as they appear to have opted for a safe start and to let their superior heavy air reaching speed make it up down the coast but on board WOXI ther was at least some frustration and expletive laden exhortation to the crew. i hope it never gets edited out as it proves that all of us skippers get a bit over excited from time to time.
It was my turn to drive and we had to get back on the road again but it was a good place to leave the coverage with Infotrack extending her lead down the coast.
The calm patch down the coast meant there was plenty of time to catch up on the action once we arrived home and in particular to check in regularly this morning as Infotrack closed on Commanche but it was not to be. Nor could WOXI make up the distance but she did beat her similar narrow hull competitors, Scallywag and Black Jack but by such a slim margin.
Infotrack does appear to have beaten the other maxis on IRC so that is a double good performance.
