Noakes Youth Sailing Team finishes 5th in Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
30/01/06
After many months of hard work and fitness training, eight lucky members of Noakes Youth competed in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, finishing 5th over the line in an exciting race.
Luke McClean, Tim Austin, James Christian, Ed Christian, Reid-Peter Fleming, Richie Snow, Jacqui Bonnitcha and Erin Cameron were offered positions aboard the 92' maxi yacht AAPT2, and for many it was a dream come true.
The Noakes Youth contingent were accompanied by 12 professional sailors including skipper Sean Langman, bringing the total number of crew to 20. The team sailed the 630nautical miles in just over two and a half days, finishing 5th over the line in an 85-strong fleet.
“We are ecstatic with our result, despite a few hiccups along the way” said Noakes Youth member Luke McClean. “We had a few dramas on the second night when our boom broke about 100 miles away from Tasmania. Because it was the middle of the night and we were in the middle of Bass Strait, we thought it was safer to keep sailing rather than to pull the mainsail down in the dark and try to fix it.”
The crew kept racing for 6 hours with the broken boom, until daylight when they could pull the mainsail down and replace it with the smaller tri-sail. Nine hours later they limped across the finish line in the Derwent River, greeted by cheers from hundreds of spectators lining the shores.
The crew were ecstatic to have finished the race in such a high position, albeit slightly disappointed at having lost two places overnight. Nevertheless the hard work put in by the entire crew during the leadup and the race was well worth the effort, and everyone enjoyed the celebrations in Hobart.
The entire crew, including the Noakes Youth contingent, had put in hours upon hours of work getting the boat ready for the race, and prior to that, months of fitness training sessions two evenings a week.
The next goal for the Noakes Youth sailing team is the Sydney – Gold Coast Yacht Race which begins on 1 April, so the team will be back in the park training hard in order to prepare for their next challenge.
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