WINNING DEBUT FOR NEW LOCO

by Peter Campbell on 15 Oct 2000 David Coe and David Lowe's new ocean racing yacht, Loco, scored
a winning
race debut in Australian waters yesterday, winning the Cruising
Yacht Club
of Australia's Ocean Pointscore race from Sydney Harbour to Lion
Island and
back.

With Michael Coxon on the helm and Andrienne Cahalan as
tactician/navigator,
Loco, a Farr 52 One Design, took line honours and won the IMS
Division
comfortably from Dick Cawse's Vanguard and another new boat,
Warwick
Sherman's whimsically-named Occasional Coarse Language.

Coe and Lowe's previous Loco was a Sydney 40 in which they won
the Telstra
Cup and Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Race in December 1998, as
well as other
major events.

The new Loco, designed by Farr International, was built in the
USA and
raced briefly on the circuit there before being bought by the
Australian
owners.

Occasional Course Language is a Cookson 12, a Farr-designed,
New
Zealand-built IMS/IRC cruiser/racer. Yesterday's short ocean
race was her
firstever race and, apart from a brief sail on Friday afternoon,
was the
first sail for this more cruising-orientated version of former
Hamilton
Island Race Week winner No Fearr.

Her a third under IMS and IRC second, to Vanguard, in
yesterday's short
offshore race underlines her prospects for the Leasecorp
Australia Gosford
to Lord Howe Island Race which starts on Saturday week, October
28.

"She certainly showed excellent pace to windward and off the
wind in the
race to Lion Island and return, and we finished well clear of
the other
40-footers in the fleet in the moderate east to south-easterly
breeze, "
owner/skipper Sherman said today.

"We have fitted out the boat more with the IRC rule in mind,
and with
sweptback spreaders and no runners, she is a user-friendly
boat," added
Sherman who will be contesting his fifth race across the Tasman
Sea to Lord
Howe Island, four with his previous boat, a Cavalier 250SL.

The CYCA's first race of the 2000-2001 Bluewater Pointscore,
the overnight
race from Sydney north to Bird Island and return, saw a double
for Adelaide
yachtsman Kevan Pearce and his Sydney-based Farr 47, Ausmaid.

With CYCA Rear Commodore Roger Hickman as sailing master,
Ausmaid, beat
Syd Fischer's Farr 50, Ragamuffin, and George Snow's Jutson 76,
Brindabella
on corrected time in the Bluewater Pointscore (IMS) division,
also taking
top honours in the Cape Byron Series (IRC).

In this series, second place went to Brindabella, third to
Kingtide (Colin
Boyle) and fourth to Zurich (Nigel Holman) who is also preparing
for the
Lord Howe Island Race.


Further information: Peter Campbell - 0419 385 028 or email -
peter_campbell@bigpond.com