Commodores Cup Pursuit Race to Queen Island - Results

1) Grand cru (4:20:30)
2) Raven (4:37:00)
3) Sorcerer (5:10:20)
4) Borderline (5:10:00)
5) Auberg (dnf)
6) Vixen (dnf)
7) Snafu (dnf)
8) Blondie (dnf)
9) Oh boy (dnf)
10)Africa (dns)

The Treasure hunt race was once again well attended with 10 boats registering for the race including the first (of what we hope to be many) appearance of Snafu on the racing scene.

The wind was in transition just as the first boat (Borderline) was set to start. Borderline approached the start line under spinnaker with a dying north wind that promptly tuned into a 5 kt south wind just as they drifted across the line. The south wind held for about 20 mins before it became light and variable.

After exiting Pine Portage Bay, Sorcerer Raven Vixen Blondie Auberg and Snafu headed south while Borderline and Grand cru stayed further north. The north side ended up favourable as an approaching undeveloped storm cloud that was coming in from the north west created a 5kt north wind that lasted for about ten minutes. The wind then turned south for a while around 5-10kts that was enjoyed by most boats as they rounded Scotty with Grand Cru being the first to round Scotty followed by Raven with Borderline close on their tail to head south to Gaherty.

As the initial part of the race was so slow the race had to be shortened to 10 miles so the Whisky and Birch rounding marks were removed…so after rounding Gaherty the fleet went straight to the finish around Iriam.

The wind had now established itself as south south east but was filled with holes that could last up to 10 mins so the last few miles were nerve wracking. Grand cru held onto their lead over Raven. There was a long hard battle for third place between Borderline and Sorcerer. Under spinnaker, Borderline eventually passed Sorcerer who was racing under white sails and beat sorcerer to the line by 20 seconds. Unfortunately for Borderline, since the race was shortened by four miles they needed to beat sorcerer across the line by 72 seconds.