Yachting: Nicorette in lead as Konica Minolta, Skandia retire

UPDATE - Nicorette has opened a massive lead in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race after a dramatic morning in which leader Konica Minolta retired and the crew of defending champion Skandia was rescued by a police boat.


The NSW 90-footer had a 50-mile lead over persistent 66-footer AAPT, with Brindabella seven miles further astern in third place.


Police launch Van Dieman picked up Skandia's 16 crew members from liferafts in seven metre seas at about 10am, leaving the 98-footer drifting about 60 miles off Tasmania's north-east tip.


Chairman of the Race Committee Tim Cox said Skandia had not technically been abandoned and its position was being monitored.


The decision to leave the yacht came seven hours after skipper Grant Wharington sent out radio distress call after a snapped hydraulic ram left the keel jammed to starboard.


It is unclear whether the damage to Skandia was related to its collision with a 300-kg sunfish while powering into Bass Strait early yesterday.


Fellow super maxi Konica Minolta lasted six hours longer before skipper Stewart Thwaites officially retired the yacht about 8am after a massive wave damaged the keel tower and the top of the cabin.


The New Zealand yacht, which finished second to Skandia last year, was tacking down the Tasmanian east coast near St Helens 12 miles ahead of Nicorette when it pulled out.


It is now moored at Binalong Bay, its crew waiting for a bus ride to Hobart.


The yacht's skipper Stewart Thwaites said the decision to pull out was made in the interests of crew safety.


"We came off a huge wave and then slammed through the back of it," he told NZPA today.


"We ended up with a crease across the top of the cabin between the mast and the keel tower. It was about five foot across and opening up like a big slit."


Thwaites said the damage was on the structure that supported the keel.


"If we had let it go it would create something major and that is why we pulled out because it would have become something major pretty easily."


He said the conditions were horrific and as big as he had ever seen.


"There were waves washing over the boat when the helmsman had to let go the wheel and grab the lifeline. It was very awkward for him."


Thwaites said in spite of the conditions they were coping comfortably and he was confident they would have taken line honours although the decision to pull out was the right one.


"There was no way we could have kept going without a strong possibility of things (geting worse) and the keel dropping out," Thwaites said.


The demise of the super maxis in the face of thunderstorms, freezing temperatures and 35 knot south-westerlies carrying squalls of up to 50 knots takes the total number of retired boats to 42.


In the worst conditions since the 1998 race that claimed six lives, several other yachts were forced to shelter at Eden, on the NSW south coast, where they are assessing whether to head into the teeth of the storm.


Ludde Ingvall, skipper of debutant Nicorette, said the conditions meant he was just "trying to take it easy and not break anything".


"Just one bad wave can finish the race for anyone, whether the boat is old or new," he said.


"It's not the way you want to win a yacht race."


Signalling things were unlikely to get any easier for the fleet, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a gale warning for eastern Bass Strait and the entire Tasmanian east coast early today, predicting south-westerlies of up to 50 knots.


The bureau said seas would rise to 4-6 metres offshore before possibly reaching seven metres later in the day.


Nicorette, which led the 116-strong fleet out of Sydney Harbour on Sunday, has 150 miles of the race's 628 nautical miles to go.


- AAP and NZPA