70 T H T E A K L E C L AS S I C A DE
Nick George recently purchased a TP52 and called it Another Hooligan. Together with Geoff Boettcher’s SMB and Keith Finch’s Pirate plus two others from interstate, Another Hooligan competed in the Adelaide to Port Lincoln Yacht Race. Nick has had quite a spell from what might be called serious yacht racing but it seems he has caught the bug again. Together with his crew they had a very successful first long-distance race and Regatta Week and this is his story of the race.
ANOTHER HOOLIGAN’S Adelaide to Lincoln Race The Teakle Classic Adelaide to Lincoln Yacht Race 2020 had five TP52s (including Another Hooligan) and two big 60 footers entered for the race. With a record breeze, our challenge began at the start line. No instruments and just hand held navigation added to the challenge but we got off to a great start with the strong breeze on the nose practically all the way to the first mark and keeping pace with the head of the fleet. Once we were around the foot of Yorke Peninsula we saw the extra sail power of our competitors make distance across to the next mark at Cape Spencer. Nonetheless, we were all very excited and the crew worked hard to keep the boat at full pace and our reward was to see Cape Spencer in daylight. The challenges continued as with our first spinnaker up we found the breeze too strong and had to change to a smaller spinnaker. This is where things went a little pear shaped: the A2 blew out, we went up with the A4 spinnaker and we made a tactical decision without navigational instruments to go the safer course behind Wedge Island which some modelling showed to be a faster option than to navigate the reefs in the dark. Unfortunately we chose the first option which cost us a good 40 minutes in race time but brought its own small reward as the results showed that we were the winners of the fourth section of the race from Dangerous Reef to the finish. Normally a time of 12 hours 33 minutes would be a top two finisher but it was not to be with a massive fleet of six boats ahead all qualifying for the previous race record but it set us up for a rewarding regatta during the following week. My reward was to be in the company of an exciting young team who will surely be race winners in the near future. Nick George
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Photos by Traci Ayris | Vislex
