Suva Race Coverage:

Jive Talkin' takes the Suva Double

Jive Talkin' (yellow hull) hauls ass with her big  "A-sail" - starting the way she intended to finish!!

The Laurie Davidson designed Jive Talkin' has taken both ORC and PHRF honours in the 2005 Auckland Suva race. With about half of the fleet still at sea, the Ray Hasler skippered 35fter would appear to be an easy winner in both divisions.

In PHRF Division 1, most of the competitors have finished and Jive Talkin' has won by almost 90 minutes from Lightspeed, a 60ft Wylie design sailed by Neville Seward. Being rather narrow of beam, Lightspeed would have found the reaching conditions that prevailed for much of the race, very much to her liking, but even so was only able to finish 23 minutes ahead of the new race record holder Konica Minolta. As the fleet remained at sea, conditions lightened, and Konica Minolta rose through the fleet - at one stage it seemed that she might take line and overall honours.

In ORC Club, Jive Talking' was almost five and a half hours ahead of the second placed Cruise Control, a Ray Beale design, skippered by Murray Walbran. In third place is Moody Blue III  a 39ft Cookson design which has corrected to 100 minutes behind Cruise Control.  There is a possibility that the 4th placed competitor Ilex could stage a fast finish and move into the top three, however she is unlikely to shake Jive Talkin' from the top slot.

This is another amazing performance for Ray Haslar who has been one of the great skippers on NZ offshore racing since the mid-70's. The sight of the 35ft Jive Talkin' driving over the top of Konica Minolta - almost three times her length - just after the race start on Saturday was an amazing sight - and typified the hard-driving Haslar attitude - which has produced this result.

Now based in the Bay of Islands, Haslar started sailing at eight years old, and won back to back wins in the  Z-class (doublehander) before doing a world circumnavigation and then moved onto the offshore scene as a racing navigator and then skipper. He was key player in the golden era of NZ offshore racing with an involvement in the great yachts like Wai-Aniwa, Rebel, Pathfinder, Barnacle Bill and Jenny-H in the 1977 One Ton Cup in Auckland. During his racing career he has been with NZ teams winning the Southern Cross and Kenwood Cups. He was named Northland Sailor of the Year in 2003.

KS 100605

Suva party begins.

Moody Blue III chases Revs after the start  - they stayed this way through the race - with Revs expected to be 3rd home.

The partying has started in earnest as the remainder of the Auckland Suva fleet reaches the finish line over the nest few days. Hydroflow, Ron Brittain's Elliott was second across the line at 8.10am this morning - 31hrs and 27 mins after the record breaker, supermaxi Konica Minolta.  Next to finish is predicted to be the Ross 40 Revs, 2hrs 20 min after Hydroflow. Revs should be followed by a couple of bigger boats, the Dubois 80 Intrigue followed by the Whitbread maxi, Lion New Zealand.

The yachts expected to take overall honours, should finish within a couple of hours of each other with Moody Blue III and Jive Talking' expected to finish late this afternoon. On corrected time, officials are expecting the Ray Haslar skippered Jive Talkin' to take honours in both the ORC and PHRF divisions.

KS090605

Suva Race Record Smashed!!

Konica Minolta sets up. Chris Lewis Photography clpltd@xtra.co.nz

Konica Minolta has smashed the Auckland to Suva race record, held by Future Shock, by a margin of almost 28 hours. The Stewart Thwaites owned supermaxi finished in the rain at 47 minutes and 40 seconds after midnight on the 8th June. As evidenced by her time, the crew had a supermaxi sleigh ride hitting a peak speed of 34 knots. A spectacular wipe out on the first night in a 45 knot squall destroyed a 3.8-oz Spectra spinnaker normally considered to be a bulletproof sail.

The Bakewell-White designed supermaxi has set a record that will be very hard to beat - after the fleet got a slingshot start in winds of up to 45 knots and which provided fast spinnaker reaching for the first 24 hours, followed by quite an easy transition into the SE trades which were carried to the finish.

Race predictions have it that there will be a match race for second place with the Ross 40 Revs projected to finish 13 minutes ahead of the Elliott 50 Hydroflow at about 11.00am on Thursday morning. At the 0600 schedule this morning, both were still about 280 miles out of Suva with Hydroflow showing the higher average speed over the last 12 hours.

Sir Peter Blake's Whitbread maxi, Lion New Zealand has eased through into 5th place ahead of  a group of yachts including the Davidson 35 footer Jive Talkin', skippered by offshore legend Ray Haslar. Jive Talkin' had slipped off the pace slightly overnight and was predicted to finish eighth over the line and take overall honours in the ORC divisions. All eyes will be on the wily Haslar and his crew in the last lap to the finish. The other boat to watch is the Cookson 39fter Moody Blue III which is projected to finish 4th over the line (ahead of Lion NZ) and is set to take PHRF honours.

Update later in the day. KS 080605

Suva Race finish close 

7 June PM Wellington' s Konica Minolta (Stewart Thwaites) was almost assured of taking the record for the Auckland Suva Race after the evening reporting schedule. With just 88 miles to go at 1840hrs tonight (Tuesday) officials were predicting a finish at about 0100hrs on Wednesday morning which would knock almost 27 hours off the previous record held by the Elliott pocket-maxi, Future Shock - who was no slouch either. According to calculations the new record should be 3 days, 11 hours - a big improvement on the old mark of 4 days and 14 hours. As she came out of the convergence zone and entered the SE Trades for the final sleigh ride to Suva, Konica Minolta's  average speed picked up a couple of knots, and on this basis the predicted time could be even earlier.

The other start of the show looks like being Ray Haslar's Davidson 35 fter , Jive Talkin' which is predicted to be 5th yacht to finish in Suva and should take overall trophies for both ORC and PHRF. Her speed for the race is expected to be just under 10 kts - although she has slowed as the boats leave the strong offshore winds that have propelled them from Auckland and pass through the no-man's land of the convergence zone before they hit the 25 kts SE trade winds. Underlining her remarkable effort is the prediction that Jive Talkin' will beat the Whitbread maxi Lion New Zealand over the finish line.

Second boat home should be the Chris Hornell skippered Ross 40 Revs, which pulled through to second today ahead of Ron Brittain's Elliott 50, Hydroflow. Rev's finish - although fast, was not expected to go under the old record.

For full results see earlier links to the Royal Akarana Yacht Club website www.rayc.org.nz and for the latest race placings  http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/~mcintyre/Fiji/speeds.php

Photo: Konica Minolta clears away from the fleet after rounding Rangitoto Light. Credit: Chris Lewis clpltd@xtra.co.nz

7th JuneAM: At this morning's schedule, Konica Minolta has continued her charge to Suva and is now just 281 miles from the finish. Big gains have been made overnight by Jive Talkin' and Moody Blue III who are now 4th and 5th behind Hydroflow - which remains in second place 477 miles from Suva and the Ross 40 Revs which is  489 miles out of Suva. The Davidson 35ft Jive Talkin' is 4th just 23 miles behind Hydroflow, with Moody Blue III six miles further back. In a report later this morning on Radio Sport, Whitbread winner, Ross Field reported that Konica Minolta was 200 miles out of Suva and was expecting to chop up to 24 hours off the race record of 4 days 14 hours which has stood since 1989 and is held by the Greg Elliott designed pocket-maxi, Future Shock. Although the front runners in the van of the fleet did close up on Konica Minolta earlier in the race as the boats transitioned from the strong southwesterlies that had prevailed since the start to the South East Trades, Field reported that they were stretching away now, and were expecting to be 300 miles in front of the second place yacht (Hydroflow) at the race finish. More updates later today.

6th June: Konica Minolta is over halfway to Suva and on track to take a big chunk out of the race record. In an interview on Newstalk ZB, Ross Field reported they had done 417 miles in the first 24 hours, but had been plagued with lighter winds as they transitioned to the SE trades which were expected to blow at 25kts. At the time of speaking they were sailing in a 6kt breeze - a big change from the 35kts that prevailed at the start, and for much of the first day. In second place on the water is Ron Brittain's Hydroflow, with Intrigue in 3rd and then followed by two mid-range boats - Jive Talkin' (Davidson 35fter) and Moody Blue III (Cookson 12M), who at 0640hrs where 700 miles out from Suva and were within a mile of each other on the water. These two would seem to be the front-runners  for the major trophy. Some very fast speeds have been achieved both over the last 12 and 24hrs and since the start. See average speeds and distance travelled at http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/~mcintyre/Fiji/speeds.php

Magic Moments ........

Photo; Jive Talkin' lines up the supermaxi Konica Minolta (almost three times her length)

l

Photo: And a minute later Jive Talking' has driven through to windward followed by Bare Essentials which later blew up her rudder just north of the Hen and Chickens when lying in second place.

4th June: The 50th anniversary Suva Race got underway on Saturday at 1400hrs off Orakei Wharf. with the Wellington supermaxi Konica Minolta leading the 37 strong fleet around the first turning point, North Head. After setting a spinnaker at Rangitoto light, Konica Minolta was reported to be hitting speed of up to 26 knots in the 35 knot SW breeze. At that stage the four day race record looked to be in the bag, however winds may lighten with the approach of a high pressure zone from the Tasman.  See further pictures on the link in the Image Gallery. Follow the updated results from the Royal Akarana website http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/~mcintyre/Fiji/latest.php

Photo: Konica Minolta hits her straps heading down the Waitemata

More shots from the start in the Suva Race photo gallery Suva Race Start

KS 060605