By Ian Grant at Airlie Beach Tuesday August 16 2011
Team Vodafone lived up to her name as the fastest sailing yacht in the Southern Hemisphere when she set another race record in the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week earlier today.
The New Zealand crewed super trimaran steered by Simon Hull reached a peak speed of 31 knots when they again romped around the 27 n/ml Molle Island race course in 1 hour 39 minutes 6 seconds and an average speed of 16.3 knots.
After four races and 111 nautical miles of racing over the tactically demanding Whitsunday Sailing Club courses Team Vodafone has become the stand out for the Gun Boat of the series with a collective boat speed average of 14.7knots recorded in a trade wind which has rarely gusted above 20 knots.
Her thrill seeking crew of experienced fast lane sailors were again pressing Team Vodafone to her maximum hull speed shortly after the race started.
They held a commanding lead at the first rounding mark off Mandalay Point then produced an unmatched performance on the tight two sail reach when skipper Simon Hull pointed the bows of the speed sailing 18.48 m speedster towards Hannah Pt marking the rounding of the Molle Islands.
At that point less than an hour into the race Team Vodafone had presented a bold bid to outsail her penalty plus 1.491 handicap rating.
In spite of sailing to a soft patch close to White Rock where the speed fell dramatically away the crew were reported to let out a cheer when Team Vodafone hit her peak of 31 knots as she left her wave skipping wake on the Whitsunday Passage.
Their target was to win a rare line honours and handicap double which the Team Vodafone achieved with a runaway victory from the smaller Mal Richardson helmed Port Douglas catamaran Malice while the Victorian trimaran Bare Essentials (Tim Pepperell) filled third place.
The winning margin also favoured Team Vodafone rating 1.491 to win the race on corrected time by 8 minutes 45 seconds clear of the championship leader Trilogy (Keith Glover) .937 with another 2 minutes 41 seconds to Malice rating 1.085.