SYDNEY SLOOP LOKI LEADS IRC CLASS.

by Ian Grant on 28 Dec 2000 Stephen Ainsworth and his Loki crew relished the rugged sailing conditions off the north east coast of Tasmania today to lead the IRC class fleet on corrected time.

On statistics based from the two position reports today Loki was the only yacht to improve on her corrected time average speed which was rated 6.57 knots in the pre-dawn report to 7.11knots this afternoon.

There is little doubt about the potential of the German Frers designed Swan 48 Loki to record the performance in rugged headwind sailing but to improve her speed so dramatically may suggest there may have been an error on one of her position reports.

However the Sydney sloop which finished sixth overall in the Swan World Cup in Sardinia has been provisionally placed as the overall IRC class leader.

Loki’s calculated handicap average speed allowed her to claim a narrow lead over the South Australian Farr 42 class sloop Liberator (Geoff Catt) while the John Quinn skippered Cole 43 Polaris of Belmont held third just ahead of the line honours leader Nicorette.

Surprisingly Nicorette which led the handicap division overall this morning is struggling to hold the top handicap place in the big boat battle despite extending her line honours lead over the fleet.

At this afternoons fleet report Nicorette and the Hong Kong registered Volvo 60 Assa Abloy held identical 6.65 knot corrected boat speeds to lead Division 1 from another Volvo 60 Tyco skippered by Michael Castania of Bermuda averaging 6.50 knots.