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Smuggler's first out of the heads and into Southport

Home 2023 Smuggler's first out of the heads and into Southport

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Smuggler was the first TP52 out of the harbour on 29 July in the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Race, and is proud to be one of the first to make it to the Southport Yacht Club. Finishing with a time of 2 days 10 hours and 34 minutes, the crew crossed the finish line at 11:34pm, and were still coherent 12 hours later when we chatted to them.

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“We did really well out of the harbour, we were the first TP out and we kept going up the coast with the other TPs and then we broke apart and decided to go offshore,” said Bradley Madders.

According to some of the team, the race was 'wild and free'. Or perhaps the team just “felt” wild and free as they heeded the models, and went 60 miles offshore.

“That is a looooong way. But we committed to it as our tactic, and we kept going up the coast and we decided to stay out wide,” Smuggler’s crew said after the race.

Smuggler's navigator David Van Der Wende, who his crewmates insist was barefoot for the entire race, explained a little more about their strategy.

“We got to Seal Rocks, and we played a little bit of an outside game, with the two options of gong inshore or offshore. “We were outside, and we decided to just keep going and there were routings showing inside and outside. We saw that the boats inside had stopped a little bit, so we decided to commit because some of the bigger boats were going outside,” said David.

“We beat a 60-footer, so I am happy about that,” said David Van Der Wende.

Fresh from winning in the 4th act of the Pallas Gold Cup on Pittwate,  Smuggler is a beautiful Judle Vrolijk designed TP52 with 14 crew onboard.

After the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, Smuggler has lots of big plans, next they'll do all the races in the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore and  Noumea in June 2024.

Follow all Smuggler’s fun here

For more information on the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race click here.