Bounding back

First step towards IMS victory for RORC Commodore Chris Little and his team in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race

RORC Commodore Chris Little and his crew on board Bounder crossed the finish line of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race at 20:58:06 local time (09:58:06 GMT) 12th boat home, probable winners of the IMS A division and possible winners overall of this year's antipodean classic offshore race. Should Bounder win overall on IMS, and thus become overall winner of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race, it would be the first occasion the race has had a British winner since Ted Heath won on board the S&S 34 Morning Cloud in 1969.

Bounder, a Farr 49, is the former Yendys, winner of the Sydney-Hobart race in 1999 in the hands of Australian Geoff Ross. For this race Ross had purchased one of the top latest generation Spanish IMS boats and renamed her Yendys with a crew including Neal and Lisa MacDonald, Alinghi's Grant Simmer and former illbruck navigator Juan Vila. It was therefore with both irony and delight that as Bounder came in sight of the Hobart finish line the boat not a mile ahead of her up the Darwent River - rated under IMS at 1.1517 TMF compared to her 1.127- should be Ross' new and supposedly much faster Yendys.

The only contender left in IMS A at the time of Bounder's arrival here in Hobart was Robert Steel's Nelson Marek 46, Quest, who had to arrive within 2 hours 20 minutes to beat her. At the time Quest was sailing at 2 knots and her arriving within the allocated time seemed near impossible.

At the time of writing Bounder was lying 19th overall under IMS. While this doesn't sound hopeful, the boats currently ahead of them are all considerably smaller and have been sailing at speed down the east of Tasmania today. Certainly overnight they will slow down and the standings are likely to be skewed even further as they tackle Storm Bay and the Derwent. All should be decided by midday tomorrow (local time).

"It was a fantastic tussle," said Little on his arrival. "Match racing with Ragamuffin for the first half of the race. Then she tacked inshore - different tactics - and she was 23-30 miles behind this morning.

"Then we had the heavy weather coming down - it was a great run. We got 26 knots out of her. 38-39 knots of breeze. And then we hit the light bit where it all died. It was great racing and a fantastic trip down. We had a great crew, a great team, fantastic preparation which is the key and we thoroughly enjoyed it."

Sailing with Little were many of his regulars who sail with him on his IC45 of the same name including the likes of Alinghi navigator Andrew Cape and Team Tonic helm Jeremy Robinson.

Andrew Cape that there had been nothing special about their tactics - they had just worked the shifts effectively. There were significant shifts sailing the first part of the course down the New South Wales coast.

"We timed them well," said Cape. "Off Montague we got off really quick. That is where we lost Rag [Syd Fischer's Ragamuffin]. We were toe to toe with her, she took a bad shift in and we took a shift out and when we were out there we got another shift and then they were history - 20 miles behind.

"Bass Strait - it was a pretty rough night. But it was always is in Bass Strait so it was expecting the expected. We just sailed low and got speed."

The high speed part of the course came as they sped down the east coast of Tasmania broad reaching in winds approaching gale force. "The water was piling back. I was soaked just steering," entused Jeremy Robinson, admitting that they had suffered one small broach during this period.

The decisive move may have been in their approach to Cape Raoul passing Tasman Island on Tasmania's southeasternmost corner further offshore than Yendys.

"We came up with a better angle and then it was a case of catching them in Storm Bay," said Cape. "You don’t want to come into the coast too early, but they got stuck against the coast. We even had to gybe out once this morning."

After their blast of the previous evening, their passage past Cape Raoul and into Storm Bay was accompanied by nearly six hours of relative calm.