Ribs broken in stormy Noumea Race - fleet reduced to 10 yachts

2:47 AM Mon 29 Jun 2009 GMT

The 13 strong fleet in the Auckland to Noumea race have been hit hard by strong winds as they reached North Cape, during the night, with 30kt+ knot winds and big seas being encountered.

Bare Essentials was the first to seek shelter yesterday afternoon, under the Karikari Peninsula, followed by Bird on the Wing who sailed into Mangonui Harbour. They both intend to continue on racing this afternoon as the weather settles.

Mustang Sally has completed their repairs to the boat's steering, and will also rejoin the race after clearing Customs again..

Unfortunately the fleet has been reduced to 10, after Bullrush lost their rig during the night, all crew on board are fine and they are heading back to Opua to refuel bitterly disappointed as they were doing so well, before heading down
the coast. REVS has also suffered mast damage, and will return to Opua.

Antaeus is the Third to pull out with damage to the boat, and the skipper Charles St Clair Brown has also reportedly suffered damage, with possible broken ribs and will head to hospital as soon as they hit land.

All other boats are still racing, with Limit reporting 30knot westerlies, Lagoon Ozone and Route 66 a little further back reporting 30 knot North Westerlies.

Due to the current atmospheric conditions, the GPS unit's have not been sending positions as regularly as the normally would in better conditions. However, the twice daily radio schedules have positions and these will be manually entered into the Live Tracking system.

Further updates will continue on www.rayc.org.nzas well as tonight's radio sched with updated positions.

by Richard Gladwell and RAYC Media