After fourteen attempts, Stephen Ainsworth is happy to have won the historic Tattersall’s Cup with his McConaghy built Reichel/Pugh 63′ Loki yacht, adding the Rolex-Sydney-Hobart handicap victory to a brimming trophy cabinet.
LOKI yacht - Photo By Rolex Daniel Forster
“We are elated, it is a fantastic feeling, a huge thrill to win this race,” said a jubilant Ainsworth. “I know how hard it is to win this race. I have been trying for a long time!”
Critical to Loki’s victory in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart yacht race was the crew’s ability to push the yacht through the first night’s thirty-knot Southerly front – and then work through the light patches closer to the finish: Ainsworth’s crew taking sixty miles out of the leading Maxis in one morning.
Launched in Sydney in 2008, Loki yacht has been the standout IRC yacht in Australia – in 2010 taking both line honours and IRC Division 1 overall victory in the Audi Sydney Harbour regatta, plus the overall win in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.
Crowned the 2010-2011 Bluewater Pointscore Champion – winning four of the seven-race series and taking line honours and the IRC 0/1 divisional win in this year’s Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race, in September Loki added the Bird Island Race to its list of successes, breaking the 15 year-old record held by the 80ft super yacht Brindabella.
Congratulations to Loki’s owner and crew on beating an international fleet of eighty seven yachts and winning such a challenging and complex Rolex Sydney-Hobart race. Ainsworth describing the victory as “Pure joy!”
