SYDNEY -- New U.S. maxi-yacht Cassiopeia became one of the early favorites for the 1993 Sydney-Hobart yacht race when it won the first race of the Kodak Asia Pacific Championships Wednesday.
Cassiopeia, owned and skippered by Seattle businesman Charles P. Burnett 111, won on corrected time.
The race was sailed in light breezes over a 90 nautical mile course from Sydney, south to Flinders Islet off the New South Wales coast and return.
Canberra maxi Brindabella won line honors, but the race went to Cassiopeia on corrected time.
Skipper and owner Burnett, known to his crew and friends as 'Bunk' was overjoyed at the result.
'This is a new yacht and this was her first competetive outing,' Burnett said Thursday. 'To win first time up was beyond my wildest dreams.
'It's nice to become one of the favorites for the Sydney-Hobart but we have a great deal of hard work to be done yet before the race which starts on Boxing Day (Dec 26).'
Burnett, the President of the Joshua Green Investment Corporation in Seattle, disclosed his new yacht had cost him more than $1 million.
It was built in Lyttelton, New Zealand and is crewed by 10 Americans, eight New Zealanders and two Australians. Burnett's daughter Leslie 25, is one of the crew.
Burnett, 59, said he has been sailing since he was 12 and always dreamed about skippering a yacht in the Syndy-Hobart race.
'I took 20 years off to raise a family then I came back to sailing 10 years ago,' he said. 'Since then I've been planning for this and now it's arrived, we could not have got off to a better start.
'You need a good bit of luck in this sport and we seem to be getting our fair share and I hope it continues.'
Cassiopeia will race again Friday in the second round of the Asia Pacific Championships.
