Brian Petersen described it as “horrible” at times as his team battled terrible weather and sea conditions but Ran Tan II did enough to take out line honours in this year's Auckland Noumea Yacht Race.
The Elliott 50 completed the 998 nautical mile event in 4 days, 4 hours, 13 minutes and 29 seconds, more than two hours ahead of Miss Scarlett in second with Equilibrium third.
Ran Tan II also won on PHRF ahead of Blink and Miss Scarlett but Miss Scarlett took out IRC honours ahead of Ran Tan II and Blink.
Birdie Furax took line honours in the multihull division but Ave Gitana won on handicap.
The start of the Auckland Noumea Yacht Race, which was the first in six years, was delayed by 24 hours due to inclement weather in Auckland but they still departed in torrential rain and then sailed into big seas as they headed north.
“The first 24 hours were horrible,” Petersen told aucklandnoumea.com. “It was pretty tough. Out of nine of us on board, six of us were sick. We were very grateful the race was postponed by 24 hours otherwise we would have gone through two lots of bad weather.”
Ran Tan II and Miss Scarlett were expected to battle for line honours in the small field of eight boats and they jostled for the lead at times.
“We closed on them but they pulled away again,” Miss Scarlett skipper William Goodfellow said. “They must have sailed an awesome race. It was great to be chasing – it would have been nice to be in front – but that's the way it goes.”
Many of the boats have remained in Noumea to take part in the Groupama Race starting on June 15.
Results from the Auckland Noumea Yacht Race:
Line Honours
1st: Ran Tan II – Brian Petersen (skipper)
2nd: Miss Scarlett – William Goodfellow & Graeme Wilson
3rd: Equilibrium – Graham Matthews
IRC
1st: Miss Scarlet
2nd: Ran Tan II
3rd: Blink – Tony & Vesna Wells
PHRF
1st: Ran Tan II
2nd: Blink
3rd: Miss Scarlet –
Multihull Line Honours
Birdie Furax – Alain Villas
Multihull Handicap
Ave Gitana – Antonio Pasquale
Cruising
Moody Blue – Hamish Milne
