Skandia breaks record and finishes in 4th

Monday, 14 June 2004

Nick Moloney`s Skandia, always pushing, pushing, pushing !

Australian sailor Nick Moloney sailed his Open 60 Skandia into Boston at the finish of the Transat yesterday evening to gain fourth place in a time of 13d 9h 13 minutes. Along with the three boats before him, Nick comfortably beat the old monohull record by over a day. In sailing a more southerly route Skandia was able to avoid getting into some of the more difficult and slower conditions that caused a degree of carnage in the rest of the fleet. The race was not without its problems and difficulties however as on his arrival he was clearly happy to be in Boston. Skandia, designed in 1998/99 by Owen Clarke Design and Rob Humphreys finished this race in 2000 in first place as Kingfisher and looked in perfect condition to turn right around and sail back. However, Moloney commented: "Very relieved to be here. One of the toughest Transat’s ever – I don’t think I underestimated it but I didn’t think it would be as hard as it was. For me, it was colder than the south (southern ocean…ed) and colder than I have ever been in the south before – freezing cold, and just the pushing of the boats, the tempo of where this class is at is pretty extreme. What everyone is putting themselves and their boats through is pretty full on. And looking at Vendee year you think are they going to back off because it’s just too fast! Everyone treated this like a sprint, everyone went hard – I couldn’t even dig myself out of 10th. Unbelievable, I just couldn’t believe how fast everyone was going but I was just relieved to find some avenues and find some ways to get back into the pack and into the hunt." Meanwhile Owen Clarke’s Open 50 Artforms continues to lead the Open 50 class stretching out her lead to 230 miles ahead of her closest competitor Okami and 285 miles ahead of fellow American Joe Harris on the Group Finot designed Wells Fargo. Skipper Kip Stone has now with only 259 miles to go merely to keep the pace at a reasonable level and guard against any catastrophic mistakes or damage. It’s not over until it’s over though and Kip will still be working hard however to see if he can break the present 50’ record held by Giovanni Soldini. Kip and Artforms should be arriving some time Tuesday and providing they arrive before late in the evening the record and that icing on the cake will be within his grasp. To keep updated of Kip’s position and estimated time of arrival go to: www.ksopen50.com

Email this page to a friend