Aera moves into poll

Anglo-Greek Ker 55 lining up for Rolex Sydney Hobart handicap honours

British 55-footer Aera has stolen the handicap lead from Nicorette in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race after crossing the finish line at 15:43:43 hours. Their corrected time under IRC handicap means Nick Lykiardopulo and his team have prevented Ludde Ingvall and the brand new super maxi Nicorette from winning the rare race double. Ingvall, however, will be well satisfied to have won line honours in one of the toughest races of the event's 60-year history.

As a Volvo Ocean Race veteran, Aera's skipper Jez Fanstone is well used to racing far from land. In stark contrast to Nicorette's strategy of hugging the Tasmanian coast to escape the worst of the southerly swell, Fanstone took Aera on the most seaward course of the whole 116-boat fleet. At one point the British crew was 150 miles from land. "We were the furthest offshore boat, which we felt was taking us where we wanted to go," explained Fanstone. "We didn't go for shelter under the Tasmanian shore because with the wind direction we didn't think there would be any.'

Aera crashed and bashed her way through some harsh weather. "44 knots and big," was Fanstone's succinct description. "The waves were manageable but the problem was they built up very quickly, they broke on top which wouldn't have been very pleasant in one of the smaller boats. We had to back off occasionally. We went to the trysail but we were still doing 9 knots even with the trysail."

Then the brains trust on Aera spotted something on a weather file that tempted them even further out into the Tasman Sea. "We got this GRIB file yesterday morning which showed a bit of a left-hand shift going through. At that point we were heading towards Tasmania but we tacked back and went south again, and it came in. Beauty!"

With all the talk of survival sailing, there hasn't been much talk of windshifts and the other niceties of tactical racing. But Aera's bold move may prove to be one that earns them The Tattersalls Cup, the trophy for handicap victory in the Rolex Sydney Hobart. Fanstone is not allowing himself the luxury of believing he has won yet. "We can only tell with the boats that are here, some of the small boats could have a blinder. It's a bit early to say. You have to wait until everyone finishes, don't you?"

Fanstone said he was happy just to have fulfilled Aera's pre-race plan of beating all her similar-sized rivals such as Ichi Ban and Yendys. "All the way through the Rolex Trophy series we were checking in with them, seeing where we were strong and where we were weak. All we could do was win our part of the fleet, we can't influence what happens in front or behind us."

Other finishers during the day were the 66-foot AAPT, Sean Langman's lightweight downwind flyer, and George Snow's Jutson 79 Brindabella. Langman finished runner-up on line honours to Nicorette despite being heavily optimised for downwind sailing. This race had been a hard upwind slog for Langman and his small crew of eight, which included Australia's Olympic 49er skiff representatives in Athens earlier this year, Chris Nicholson and Gary Boyd.

AAPT surged down the New South Wales coast on the first day of the race, but managed to find a patch of no wind in an otherwise wind-ravaged Bass Strait. Langman could do nothing as the bigger boats stomped away from him. Frustration and the desire to make up the lost ground caused Langman and his skiff sailors to put the hammer down. In the process he made an error that could have cost him the boat. "We were trying to get further west and using too much of the waterballast and it knocked us down."

The boat was on its side, the mast parallel with the water, pinned down by the water in the ballast tank. Water was dangerously close to leaking through the main hatch. "I didn't quite see my life pass before my eyes," said Langman, "but it was pretty serious. We dropped the jib, moved more water into the other tank and just tried to get the mast pointing towards the sky."

Once he'd recovered from that, Langman went into survival mode, and as with Nicorette, he profited from the conservative, shore-hugging approach.

The Bureau of Meteorology forecast predicts another day of southerlies, but with a number of smaller yachts still in the hunt tomorrow will determine whether Aera's bold move out to sea is the one that wins the coveted Tattersalls Cup.

Five yachts have finished, 57 are still racing and 54 yachts have retired

Provisional Line honours standings, recorded at 1800 local time (0700GMT), 29 December 2004

1. Nicorette finished at 05:10:44 hours
2. AAPT - finished at 11:40:42 hours
3. Brindabella - finished at 13:56:50 hours
4. Aera - finished at 15:43:43
5. Seriously Ten - finished at 16:16:38 hours

Provisional IRC standings, recorded at 1800 (AEDT), 29 December 2004
1. Aera
2. Nicorette
3. AAPT
4. Brindabella