OCEAN RACE IN FINAL STAGES

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5290, 31 December 1946, Page 5

OCEAN RACE IN FINAL STAGES

(Press Assn.-

MISTRA'L LEADS FIELD ILEX ENCOUNTERS HEAVY GALE

-Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

SYDNEY, Dec. 30. Early this afternoon, a searching Liberator identified two of the 19 yachts in the SydneyHobart race off the north-east-ern tip of Tasmania. The big Sydney schooner, . Mistral, was reported 40 miles east of Eddystone light and the Tasmanian steel-hulled cutter, Southern M'aid, a similar distance off Cape Barren Island, about 45 miles behind. The Mistral still has nearly 200 miles to go before she reaches the finish line. The scratch boat, Morna, conceded four hours to the Mistral and 14 to the Southern Maid'. The yachts were running* into a moderate swell, but the wind was westerly with a strength of 18 knots. The gaff ketch Connella was forceH to turn back and seek shelter in

Twofold Bay, on the Smthern New South Wales coast. Slex Battlinif A yacht iocated earler by plane was the New Zealander, Ilex, which was battling agair.st the gale north-east of Flinders Isiand. In a radio talk-wiih the Liberator, Nornian Thomas, skipper of the Ilex, said conditions for small craft were "terrific" — wct. e than anything met during the yachf's voyage across the Tasman. The Ilex was st', 11 able to sail but only under very reduced canvas. Ho reported passing the Tasmanian ketch Matthew Flinders, which has hove to under bare poles. During the exchange the Ilex's radio "went dead" owing to the batteries being thrown out of the gimbals by a heavy sea.