General Interest Yachting News:
29 December 2018:
Protest lodged against Wild Oats XI for Sydney-Hobart rules
infringement.
Details
2007
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
Click on the above link to get the latest news for this race on
this site
The Full Size Boats - The Start of the America's Cup Story
References:
The Twelve-Metre Yacht, Its Evolution & Design 1906-1987, Chris
Freer ISBN: 0 85177 398 2
The Triumph of Australia II, Bruce Stannard, ISBN: 0 7018 1800 x
Winning & Defending The Cup, ISBN: 0 207 15421 X
America's Cup '83, The Complete Story, ISBN: 0 909558 36 1
12-Metre, The New Breed, Rik Dovey/Sally Samins, ISBN: 0 949290
03 3
The America's Cup Challenge: There is No Second, Tony Fairchild
In association with the
Daily Telegraph, ISBN: 0 333 32527 3
Born To Win, John Bertrand. as told to Patrick Robertson, ISBN:
0-553-17249-2
The America's Cup, The History of Sailing's Greatest Competition
in the Twentieth Century, Dennis Conner & Michael Levitt, ISBN:
0-312-18567-7
The Twelve Meter Challenges for the America's Cup, Norris D.
Hoyt, ISBN: 0-525-22450-5
From Newport To Perth, The New Challenge for the America's Cup,
ISBN: 0 85177 410 5
Article Coming soon
The New Breed - The IACC Class Boats
The 1987 America's Cup competition in Fremantle Australia was
the last time the America's Cup races were sailed by the
12-Metres.
In 2007 the races are being sailed by the International
America's Cup Class boats.
In fact, in the early hours (Australian EST time) of Sunday June
23rd 2007, Alinghi (SUI 100) raced home to win the first race of
the 32nd America's Cup match by 35 seconds from the Emirates
Team New Zealand (NZL 92) entry.
The second race is scheduled to start late tonight (Sunday June
24th, Australian EST).
Not a 12-metre race. Just simply an Internationally recognised
Classic!!
Click on the above link to get the latest Regatta
News for
the full size boats. All Classes, All Races.
Read below for Sydney-Hobart only.

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Rolex Sydney Hobart Race
winners collect their trophies
January 1, 2008
The official prizegiving took place today, New Year's
Day, at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in Sandy Bay
where the His Excellency, the Honourable William Cox,
Governor of Tasmania, and RYCT Commodore Alastair
Douglas among other dignitaries, presented numerous
trophies and awards to the race competitors in this
628-nautical mile ocean classic.
Bill Ratcliff, from Sydney, became the seventh member of
an exclusive group of sailors who have competed in 40
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Races, the achievement
recognised with the presentation of his 40-year
medallion.
He recounted his first Hobart race in 1963 aboard Don
Mickleborough's yacht Southerly in quite different
weather then this year's more temperate conditions. "It
was a tough one," he said. "We spent a day and a half in
sight of Tasman light but could not get around it. It
was blowing 86 knots from the south."
Ratcliff skippered his own yacht, Marara, in ten Sydney
Hobart races, finishing third on handicap in 1993. He
sailed this race aboard a brand-new C&C 11.5m owned by
Andrew Dally, who used to crew for him on Marara. "It
was an easy race," he said. "In Bass Strait there wasn't
a ripple. You could have sailed a Laser across it."
Medallions marking 25 Hobart races were awarded to
Kinglsey Piesse, who sailed aboard Chutzpah; George
Snow, the former owner of Brindabella, aboard Geoff
Hill's Swan 48 Swan Song, John Williams aboard the Farr
53 Georgia, and Colin Tipney, who was aboard the
radio-relay vessel JBW.
Ten-year medallions were presented to two women sailors:
Julie Hodder, who navigated DHL-The Daily Telegraph and
Sue Crafer, who sailed aboard Skandia.
The Goat, skippered by Bruce Foye, was lucky to not only
win the ten-boat Sydney 38 one-design division, but to
survive a collision with a submerged rock while tacking
close inshore only 50 metres off the forbidding 900ft
(276m) high cliffs of Tasman Island, 41 miles from the
finish in Hobart.
The impact sheered the lead ballast bulb clean off the
keel stem. Luckily The Goat was able to tack off to
avoid being certainly wrecked. Her crew did not realise
the bulb had gone until The Goat docked in Hobart,
although a serious loss of speed indicated that the keel
had suffered some damage.
Foye says: "Going around Tasman, 12 o'clock at night,
black, in a 20-knot southerly and we were nearly around
the corner. We were just starting to see the lights of
Hobart opening up and started bearing away.
"Our satellite had gone out, so we didn't have a plotter
and we weren't aware that a rock juts out on the
southern side. We hit that. We thought it was a
relatively soft hit, immediately tacked off and
continued to sail.
"We didn't expect that there would be any of the keel
missing but it was very hard to get our speed and with a
whole bunch of lights starting to close behind us, it
was a very anxious time."
Close indeed, the second Sydney 38, Gordon Ketelbey's
Zen, narrowed the lead from a mile and-a half to about
50 metres by the finish.
The race's overall IRC handicap winner was Roger
Sturgeon's STP65 Rosebud. Sturgeon had to leave before
today's formal prizegiving at the yacht club. But at
yesterday's dockside ceremony where the divisional
winners were formally announced, Sturgeon was awarded a
Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece, the keepsake to the
Tattersall's Cup perpetual trophy for the overall
handicap win and promptly handed it to his bowman,
Justin Clougher.
Hobart-born Clougher - known as "Juggy" in the sailing
community -- now based in Newport, Rhode Island, has
built an international reputation sailing on
around-the-world races and in the America's Cup. But he
remains very much a Tasmanian boy.
Clougher has sailed in eight previous Sydney Hobart
races with the best result aboard Larry Ellison's
Sayonara for her line honours win in 1998.
Local family members and his American wife Kerry,
children Zoe and Graeme, were in the crowd of several
hundred at Constitution Dock, when Sturgeon passed on
the watch to a completely surprised Juggy, with the
acknowledgement that he had been the most valuable
crewman on his STP65's Australian campaign.
Juggy's role as a wind spotter, high up the mast -- as
the boat negotiated the calm that slowed her for two
hours just outside the mouth of the Derwent River --
contributed to her win.
"This is a huge shock to me," said Juggy. "I love
sailing, I love Hobart and being able to race home is
fantastic, I just love it. And to bring the boat home in
a strong position is just such a good feeling. I was so
excited."
"I have no idea what the watch is worth, but to me you
couldn't put a price on it and I think every other
sailor in this whole fleet would be the same. You can
take the watch off the front but you leave me that back
plate with the words on it (2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart
Yacht Race)."
>From weather reports Rosebud knew there was a
northwesterly breeze blowing in Hobart. "We just had to
hope it would fill in down the river. We wanted to keep
the boat moving towards the Iron Pot in any way, shape
or form so we could get into that new breeze. We got
it.just."
The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race marked the end of
Rosebud's Australian campaign's unbeaten record. Earlier
in December, Rosebud won the IRC handicap division of
the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge on Sydney Harbour and IRC
Division 1 in the Rolex Trophy Rating Series.
Next most successful overseas yacht was British sailor
Chris Bull's J/145 Jazz, which finished 15th overall in
IRC handicap and fifth in Division C.
The race's first Mexican entry, the Beneteau 40.7 Iataia
owned by Marcos Rodriguez from the Acapulco Yacht Club,
placed 54th in IRC but would have won any popularity
contest during its stay in Sydney, where she spent
several weeks before the race after a six-month cruise
across the Pacific.
Michele Colenso's Capriccio of Rhu, was the winner of
the Cruising Division. The Oyster 55, skippered by Andy
Poole, lost several hours on the night after the start
when they put into Wollongong to have crewman David
Durham treated for an injury to his hand.
The race was fast and safe for the whole fleet with
following winds for most of the 628nm course. Unusually,
the 79 finishers were tied up in Hobart in time to rest
before the New Year's Eve celebrations.
David Pescud's Lyons 54 Sailors with disABILITIES won
PHS (performance handicap) Division A, and Namadgi won
PHS Division B.
Aboard the yacht Phillips Foote Witchdoctor was Tony
Cable, sailing his 44th Hobart race to equal the record
for most Hobarts set by the late John Bennetto and
equaled also this year by 80-year-old Melbourne skipper
Lou Abrahams.
Fun-loving Cable, who has lifted crew morale through
many long hours on the rail and off watch with his jokes
and songs, sailed his first Hobart in 1961. He has raced
aboard 19 different boats and was aboard Bernard Lewis'
Sovereign when she took the handicap/line honours double
in 1987.
He truly enjoys being at sea, regardless of results and
is a valuable hand when the going gets rough and will
keep racing to Hobart. "Numbers don't mean a great deal
to me," he said. "I've sailed to Hobart with
approximately 250 guys from gold medalists on down and
that makes me appreciate what an ordinary sailor I am."
The Swan 56 Noonmark VI was awarded the Polish Trophy
for the yacht traveling from the furthest point to
compete. Skipper Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy and his yacht hail
from from the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the Royal
Southern Yacht Club, both in the UK.
Handicap division winners:
Division A: Quantum Racing, Ray Roberts, Farr Cookson 50
Division B: Rosebud, Roger Sturgeon, STP65
Division C: Chutzpah, Bruce Taylor, Reichel-Pugh 40
Division D: Mr. Beak's Ribs, David Beak, Beneteau 44.7
Division E: Zephyr, James Connell, Farr 1020
PHS A: Sailors with Disabilities, David Pescud, Lyons 54
PHS B: Namadgi, Rick Scott-Murphy, Bavaria 44
Sydney 38: The Goat, Bruce Foye & Mitchell Gordon
Cruising: Capriccio of Rhu, Michele Colenso, Oyster 55
Line Honours winner:
Wild Oats XI, Mark Richards, Reichel-Pugh 98 maxi
Full results are available on the official race website
at:www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
For media information or interview please contact Rolex
Sydney Hobart Media Team:
International Press Information:
Key Partners (KPMS)
Susan Maffei Plowden
Ph: + 1 401 855 0234
suma@regattanews.com
www.regattanews.com
www.kpms.com
Australian Media Information:
Lisa Ratcliff
Media Director
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
Ph: +61 2 9363 9731
Mob: +61 (0) 418 428 511
Email: lisa.ratcliff@cyca.com.au
Nicole Browne
Ph: + 61 2 9954 7677
Mob: +61 (0) 414 673 762
nicole@mediaopps.com.au
For copyright free, hi-res photographs of the 2007 Rolex
Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, visit www.regattanews.com
For more information about this event, go to the Event
Page.
To see event photos and download high-resolution image
files, go to the Event
Photo Page.
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Race fleet enjoys downwind
ride to Hobart -- last to arrive overnight
December 30, 2007
With the US entry Rosebud declared the Rolex Sydney
Hobart Yacht Race overall IRC handicap winner yesterday,
divisional places within the fleet are being decided
today with yachts finishing in Hobart under spinnakers
before a gentle southeast breeze.
Ray Roberts' Cookson 50, Quantum Racing has won IRC
Division A for canting-keeled yachts over Matt Allen's
Jones-designed Volvo 70 Ichi Ban with the Farr 98 maxi
City Index Leopard (Mike Slade) in third.
Rosebud, a Farr-designed STP65 owned by American Roger
Sturgeon, won IRC Division B over Ragamuffin (Syd
Fischer), a Farr TP52 with Yendys (Geoff Ross), a
Reichel/Pugh 55, in third.
The hot new Reichel/Pugh 40 Chutzpah (Bruce Taylor),
showing extraordinary downwind qualities in placing
fourth overall behind Rosebud, Ragamuffin and Quantum
Racing, has won IRC Division C over Bill Wild's Welbourn
42 Wedgetail, with the Rogers 46 Shogun (Rob Hanna)
third.
David Beak's Mr Beaks Ribs, a Beneteau First 44.7, has
won IRC Division D over the modified Farr 40 AFR
Midnight Rambler, which is jointly owned by Ed Psaltis
and Bob Thomas. They won the storm-ripped 1998 Sydney
Hobart race with the little Hick 35 Midnight Rambler and
had three crewmembers from that race sailing with them
this year.
Mr Beaks Ribs, with a campaign managed by Ian Short, is
lying second in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's
Blue Water Pointscore (after Graeme Wood's TP52 Wot Yot
which placed fourth in IRC Division 1 in the Rolex
Sydney Hobart Yacht Race). The downwind conditions that
predominated for the race did not suit Mr Beaks Ribs,
which is at her best upwind.
The ten-boat Sydney 38 one-design division is still to
be decided.
IRC Division E is still being decided among the 11
yachts in that division still at sea.
Sailors With disABILITIES, David Pescud's Lyons 54, has
won PHS (performance handicap) Division A over Toyota
Aurion V6, the former Brindabella (Andrew Short), with
the Volvo 60 DHL - the Daily Telegraph, skippered by
Tornado silver and bronze Olympic gold medalist Mitch
Booth, third. PHS Division B is still being decided
among the eight division yachts still racing.
The sole Cruising Division yacht, Michele Colenso's
Capriccio of Rhu is currently due across the line in the
early hours of Dec 31.
Eighty-year-old Lou Abrahams, owner/skipper of the
Sydney 38 Challenge, sailing his 44th Sydney Hobart race
to equal the record of the late John Bennetto, said on
his dockside arrival that this would be his last.
Abrahams, who has had health issues to deal with in
recent years, truly loves being at sea. He skippers his
boat on delivery voyages up and down the east coast of
Australia from his homeport in Melbourne to contest all
the major races, from Hobart to Hamilton Island in far
north Queensland. He has twice won the Sydney Hobart, in
1983 and 1989.
He has remained competitive in the Sydney 38, the
smallest yacht he has owned, with the help of a strong
young crew. Last year Challenge finished third overall
and won the Sydney 38 class (and in 2005 as well). This
year he had a disappointing 34th place finish overall
and was fifth in the Sydney 38 division.
On arrival, he said he had spent much of the time below
navigating and had been more of a passenger than a
participant and he would not compete again: "I'll miss
it; a lot of sailing, a lot of friends and a lot of
enjoyment."
In this most benign Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in
recent years, only three yachts retired: Andrew
Buckland's Mr Kite with a broken rudder, Alex
Whitworth's Berrimilla with a spinnaker wrapped around
the forestay, and Alan Whiteley's TP52 with a broken
chainplate. From the fleet of 79 left, 53 had finished
by midday and 26 were still racing.
Cruise-like conditions have continued today with
sunshine and light winds, between east to south,
allowing the yachts to finish under spinnakers. The wind
is forecast to move further east and freshen to 10-20
knots later in the day.
To track the fleet go to the official race website:www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
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An overall winner emerges
at Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
December 29, 2007
The Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia,
Matt Allen this afternoon formally announced the US
STP65 Rosebud, owned by Roger Sturgeon (Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida), as the provisional overall IRC winner of the
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
The win is only the third by an American yacht, with the
previous winners being Ted Turner's American Eagle in
1972 and Kialoa III (Jim Kilroy) in 1977.
Sturgeon described his feelings at winning: "Ecstatic,
beyond belief. We know how hard we have worked for a
couple of years on this project...we had a plan and we
stuck to it. It's just unimaginable, the odds against
this were huge. We're tickled to death."
Meanwhile, the skippers of the yachts denied their
chances of winning the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race's
major prize, the Tattersall's Cup for the overall IRC
winner, due to overnight calms, and variable and
transitional winds in Storm Bay, were reflective but
getting on with life at crew lunches today.
While the eventual winner, Roger Sturgeon's STP65
Rosebud from the USA, with an early evening finish was
tied up at Elizabeth St Pier, Syd Fischer's TP52
Ragamuffin, which placed second, Ray Roberts' Cookson 50
Quantum, placed third, and Geoff Ross' Reichel/Pugh 55
Yendys were rounding Tasman Island into a wall of
uncertainty.
Quantum Racing was leading the IRC standings from
Ragamuffin and Yendys approaching the island, running
hard before a strong nor'westerly. The soft winds and
calms over the final 41 nautical miles to the finish
scrambled that order and handed the win to Rosebud.
The three finished closely under spinnakers before a
wafting south-easterly just after 3:00am, with Quantum
Racing beating Yendys across the line by two seconds and
Ragamuffin another 6min 42sec behind, beating them both
on corrected time.
In the end, Rosebud won on IRC corrected time by 1hr
21min 33sec from Ragamuffin with another 36 minutes to
Quantum Racing.
Ray Roberts said: "The Cookson was really suited for
this style of Rolex Sydney Hobart race because there
were two periods of really hard running, particularly
the last part down the Tassie coast where we were
surfing at about 22 - 24 knots, which was really
fantastic and that's where we made up our time on
Rosebud.
"We gained seven miles on Ragamuffin and a similar
amount on Yendys so we were looking really good at
Tasman light. Unfortunately we were pretty much becalmed
there and spent an hour flopping around; and then at the
Raoul again another period of doing about two knots.
"Then we got halfway up the Derwent and there was a
transition from the south-easterly to a northerly sector
breeze and then it was really slow going.
"At Tasman light we had 14 miles on Syd (Fischer) and
Syd took the 14 miles out of us from Tasman light going
north. So it was a gut-busting experience.
"At Tasman I thought, 'you beauty, this is my year'.
I've been trying since 1984 and I thought here's my big
chance. And I must admit I had to go and sit by myself
most of this morning to get my head back into gear.
"You go from expectation to absolute despair so you've
got to say at the end of the day it's a boat race;
refocus on life and just move on."
Syd Fischer, rather than sadness over the outcome, was
excited by the performance of his latest Ragamuffin. He
strengthened the Farr-designed TP52 he bought from Roy
Disney and gave her a new keel which has added upwind
stability and power.
"We were on the plane at times, nearly up to 30 knots,"
he said. "It's quite different to the other boats I've
had. You have to get everyone up on the back of the
boat. It planes like hell and when it goes through a
wave, it doesn't bury itself. As long as you've got the
weight in the right place it lifts straight away. You
get a lot of water over the deck but it doesn't bury
itself like a submarine.
Second a good effort? "Yeah, I've had a few of them,"
said the man of few words.
He said Ragamuffin had hurt most in the calm around
Tasman Island. "In fact the current took us around the
island. We were right in against the rocks. We inched
our way around the island and finally got some wind."
Bruce Taylor, owner of the brand new Reichel/Pugh 40
Chutzpah, which had also been in the running for the
Tattersall's Cup, was similarly more enthused by his
boat's performance than the fourth-place result.
In the hard running it twice hit a top speed of 25.4
knots and sat on 20s for minutes at a time. "The boat is
a rocket off the wind; a mini Volvo 70," Taylor said.
"We asked Reichel/Pugh for something that would run and
reach well on the ocean and that's what they've given
me. We struggle a bit around the cans but running and
reaching out on the ocean it's a great boat, albeit a
bit wet."
Taylor said Chutzpah lost her winning chance not in
Storm Bay but in Bass Strait on the race's second night
when she was becalmed for two hours and down-speed,
doing only four knots, for six hours.
At 6pm, 21 boats had finished and 58 were still racing.
To track the fleet go to the official race website:www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
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Clock is ticking on
handicap winners
December 29, 2007
The US STP65 Rosebud, owned by Florida-based Roger
Sturgeon, has almost certainly won the Rolex Sydney
Hobart Yacht Race's major trophy, the Tattersall's Cup
for the overall winner on IRC handicap.
Only Zephyr (James Connell), a Farr 1020 stock
production yacht, still had a chance of bettering
Rosebud's corrected time and that was steadily slipping
away. At 11am she was 149 nautical miles from the
finish, doing 6.5 knots, with an ETA increasing from two
hours earlier to five hours beyond the time she needed
to win.
Meantime Sturgeon in his trademark floppy-brimmed canvas
hat was watching a delivery crew load stores aboard
Rosebud for the voyage back to Sydney, in time for the
yacht to line up for the 268nm Pittwater to Coffs
Harbour Race which starts on January 2.
The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race win would complete a
hat trick for his Australian racing campaign. Rosebud
also won the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge IRC handicap
division and the Rolex Rating Series warm-up regatta for
the Rolex Sydney Hobart.
He would not be engaged in discussion about his probable
win: "Well, I always wait for the last boat, so maybe
tomorrow I'll say.
"I am pleased with the boat, the crew, the team. We got
what we came here for, to better ourselves, better our
boat, better our team.
"We are miles further down the road than we ever dreamed
at this point of time and that was the whole point of
being here (in Australia)."
Rosebud is the first launched of the new STP65 class.
Inspired by the success of the TP52 class, the two
leading American offshore racing clubs, the Storm
Trysail Club and the Transpacific Yacht Club, combined
to develop the STP65 rule.
The clubs identify it as a box-rule class for a
high-performance, light-displacement, fixed keel yacht
within fixed parameters for both inshore and offshore
sailing that are tight enough to minimise obsolescence.
It sets an overall length of 20m (65.6ft), displacement
range of 13,000 - 13,400kg and a generous sail plan for
good light-air performance.
Farr Yacht Design gave Sturgeon a good all-round
performer for his planned program of world-wide inshore
and offshore events, including in the coming year,
Newport Bermuda Race, Cork Week, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup,
and Rolex Middle Sea Race. Westerly Marine, Santa Ana,
California, built her. Sturgeon, who previously owned a
TP52, also called Rosebud, shipped her to Australia
after completing the Transpac Race where they finished
third in division and registered the third fastest time.
He believed Australia offered the best competition in
the world at this time of year. "We thought we would
learn a lot."
As many as five STP65s could be racing in the Onion
Patch series in June. Sturgeon said he would try to
encourage other STP65 owners to enter the Rolex Sydney
Hobart Yacht Race. "I will tell them the whole truth
about being here and how wonderful you are treated in
the whole country, that the sailing is awesome."
He added with a chuckle: "And if you are intimidated
about a Hobart, choose a milder year. How do you know
which it is, I don't know. I got lucky this time."
He enjoyed the race: "I wouldn't have been anywhere else
in the world. It was just awesome and coming into
Tasmania was just beautiful. It was like a long voyage
at sea, as if you had been out six months and finally
saw land. It felt just great."
"Parked" in the river
Rosebud finished at 7:02pm last evening after her own
struggle with calm and variable winds just beyond the
Iron Pot light 11nm from the finish up the Derwent
River.
The three yachts best positioned to beat her - Syd
Fischer's TP52 Ragamuffin, Ray Roberts' Cookson 50
Quantum Racing, and Geoff Ross' Reichel/Pugh 55 Yendys -
all "parked" in lengthier calms in Storm Bay and in the
river where a strong outgoing tidal flow stopped them
cold at times.
Eventually they finished under spinnakers before a
wafting southeasterly, just after 3:00am, with Quantum
Racing beating Yendys across the line by two seconds and
Ragamuffin another 6min 42sec behind, beating them both
on corrected time.
Time ran out for the remaining yacht in the running,
Bruce Taylor's new Reichel/Pugh 40 Chutzpah, when she
slowed in lighter air after rounding Tasman Island, 41nm
from the finish.
Dockside, after learning Rosebud was handicap leader,
Roger Sturgeon exclaimed: "Wow, there were a lot of
things going on out there; it was touch and go for a
long time, it builds character."
Grant Wharington's maxi Skandia, which broke the top two
metres off her mast in a broach off the Tasmanian coast,
struggled across the line in near calm this morning
under jury rig. She was third and in touch with the
race-leading maxis Wild Oats XI and City Index Leopard,
when the mishap occurred, 150 miles from the finish of
the 628nm course.
After securing the broken topmast to the rig,
Wharington's crew hoisted the J4 jib on the baby stay to
keep racing, and had the trysail up for a while. Then
Casey Smith, who had earlier gone up the mast four times
to secure the broken tip, free-climbed again, using the
trysail lugs as ladder rings, to fasten a block at the
middle spreader.
"We were able to get the mainsail back up to a second
reef position," said Wharington. "We were a bit cautious
about not wanting to load the thing up too much anyway.
But we were still well down on sail area."
The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race IRC handicap overall
leaders are: 1, Rosebud by 1hr 21min 33sec from
Ragamuffin with another 36min to Quantum Racing,
followed by Chutzpah and Matt Allen's, Ichi Ban.
Quantum Racing has provisionally won Division A, Rosebud
Division B and Chutzpah Division C; Divisions D and E
are still to be determined.
Sixteen yachts have finished, 63 are still racing.
To track the fleet go to the official race website:www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
For media information or interview please contact Rolex
Sydney Hobart Media Team:
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Line honours winner, Wild
Oats XI, makes it three in a row
December 28, 2007
Wild Oats XI, which led all the way from the start but
under pressure from the British maxi City Index Leopard
right to the finish line in the River Derwent, took line
honours this morning in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht
Race.
The Reichel/Pugh 98, skippered by Mark Richards for
owner Bob Oatley, "parked" in light air in the final few
miles of the 628 nautical mile course allowing Leopard,
which sailed a smart tactical race across Storm Bay and
up to the finish line off Battery Point, to close down a
lead of 21 miles at Tasman Island (41 miles from the
finish) to three miles in the river.
Wild Oats XI eventually finished 27min 23sec ahead of
Leopard at 10:24am local time, before a crowd of
hundreds assembled on the Hobart waterfront.
While Wild Oats XI finished two hours and 44 minutes
outside the record time of one day, 18 hours, 40
minutes, and ten seconds she set in 2005, her third
consecutive win equaled the record set in the race's
very early days, by Claude Plowman's Fife-designed and
built cutter Morna in 1946, 1947 and 1948.
Mark Richards, who has skippered and helmed Wild Oats XI
for owner Bob Oatley in all three of her line honours
wins, said he was conscious of the historical
importance. "Three in a row? I am over the moon. The
result was sensational."
Bob Oatley, asked what his feelings were, said: "One of
joy; one of 'I can't believe it'; wonderful, I don't
know what we are going to do next."
Richards said Wild Oats had been under constant pressure
from Leopard, which was sailed very well. "It was a
really tough race, tactically very tough. There were a
lot of sail changes throughout the two days and the boys
haven't had much sleep. It was a challenging race and
whoever got here first was going to have a well-deserved
win.
"Mentally it was pretty hard. We parked three times -
they were very nerve wracking times - and after all that
hard work to get to the Derwent and park there, there
was a lot of feeling to it. We had to work our butts off
and it's all good, it makes the win even better."
At a dockside presentation, Bob Oatley and Mark Richards
were presented with the J.H. Illingworth Trophy and a
Rolex Yachtmaster timepiece for their line honours win.
Mike Slade of Leopard said that at one stage Wild Oats
XI had been 23 miles ahead. "For some extraordinary
reason, we pulled them back to three miles at the very
end. It's swings and roundabouts in racing. You've got
to take it as it comes, enjoy it as it is and we are all
thrilled that we have done so well."
Slade continued, "Wild Oats in terms of modern
technology is clear of the pack now. They have jumboed
it up and that obviously worked as well."
He said Oatley's team had used the Auckland wind tunnel,
with Mike Sanderson, to develop the square-topped
mainsail on the new Southern Spars mast, which replaced
the one Wild Oats broke in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup
series at Porto Cervo in September. "With that new rig
they had the opportunity to do it. Gosh it worked."
Skandia, the third canting-keeled maxi in the line
honours equation, broke the top third off her mast at
2:30am while running hard before the freshening
nor'wester, doing 20 knots under asymmetric spinnaker,
150 miles from the finish.
Grant Wharington, owner/skipper of the Jones-designed
maxi that took line honours in the 2003 Rolex Sydney
Hobart, said: "We just did a little broach; the
spinnaker flogged twice and the mast snapped between the
third spreader and the forestay attachment."
Wharington said Skandia had been leading the
calculations for an overall win on IRC corrected time,
which would have earned her the Tattersall's Cup, the
race's most prized trophy. "That's all history now. We
are determined to finish the race", he said.
Skandia's crew dropped the mainsail to retrieve the
spinnaker that had wrapped around the keel. Crewman
Casey Smith went up the mast four times to secure the
damaged mast tip and Skandia resumed racing, with just
the storm jib set, doing only 5.9 knots.
Four hours earlier Skandia had hit a large sunfish at
speed, impaled it on her keel so badly that the sails
had to be dropped and the boat reversed to clear the
keel fin.
The American Farr-designed STP65 Rosebud moved to the
top of the IRC overall handicap standings, ahead of Matt
Allen's modified Volvo 70 Ichi Ban, followed by Leopard,
Ray Roberts' Cookson 50 Quantum Racing, the Reichel/Pugh
55 Yendys (Geoff Ross), TP 52 Ragamuffin (Syd Fischer)
and Wild Oats XI.
This morning the group of boats behind the maxis was
having a rough, wet ride under small reaching spinnakers
and reefed mainsails for some as the nor'wester
freshened to 24 knots plus. Ichi Ban and Rosebud were
doing speeds exceeding 22 knots.
Rosebud crewman Malcolm Park reported from the boat: "It
is a wet and wild day out here. The transition to the NW
breeze (early Thursday morning) was quick and painless
other than it required a number of sail changes. The
crew on Rosebud has now put up and taken down every sail
we brought on board for the race.
"We have 24-plus knots of wind, the A7 fractional
reaching kite, a genoa staysail, and a reefed main. We
are able to just lay the turning point (Tasman Island)
at 194 magnetic. It is a bit intense.
"We have seven guys on deck with three guys in full wet
weather gear on standby down below... needless to say it
is wet down below."
"We are pleased with the way we have sailed so far. It
would have been nice if we did not sail into the hole
yesterday morning but there was really no way we could
have avoided it. We knew the hole would be there before
the start and that it would give an advantage to the
smaller boats.
"Now that we have some wind we are able to open up some
distance on the smaller boats but whether it is enough
will only be determined by how much the 40 footers are
blown in on this NW breeze."
Ichi Ban's handicap chances suffered when she broke the
port blade of her twin rudder system at 10.30am when
they were 28 miles from Tasman Island. Matt Allen said:
"We have re-balanced the boat to try and dig the
starboard rudder in so we can steer. We've had a couple
of broaches and we've had to slow the boat down."
At press time, Ichi Ban and Rosebud were less than 40
miles from the finish and expected to cross the line by
5pm; Skandia was 65 nm, and then the next group of boats
- Yendys, Quantum Racing, and Ragamuffin - were
approximately 60nm behind Skandia.
To track the fleet go to the official race website:www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
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Wild Oats XI takes 2007
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honours for third
time in a row
December 28, 2007
Bob Oatley's 98-foot super-maxi Wild Oats XI, with Mark
Richards as skipper, crossed the finish this morning in
Hobart at 10:24am local time to take the line honours
win for the third consecutive year.
The yacht's elapsed time was 1 day, 21 hrs, 24 mins,
which was only just over 3 hours off their record pace
set in 2005.
City Index Leopard crossed the finish line 27 minutes
later, to take second place.
A more detailed statement will be issued shortly.
To track the fleet go to the official race website: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
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A roller coaster stop and
start for the Rolex Sydney Hobart race fleet
December 27, 2007
The pace slowed at the head of the Rolex Sydney Hobart
Yacht Race as the three leading maxis sailed into
southerly headwinds crossing Bass Strait on the approach
to the northeast coast of Tasmania.
At 8pm Thursday (Dec 27) Wild Oats XI was still leading
City Index Leopard by approximately 19 nautical miles
with another 13nm to Skandia.
This morning's moderate to fresh sou'wester which put
the three 98ft canting-keeled maxis on a fast and wet
"firehose" close reach under large specialist reaching
headsails eased and slowly headed them. The speeds of
12-15 knots they were hitting in the morning eased back
to 8.5-12 by lunch time.
The close reaching in a moderate wave pattern suited the
beamy Farr-designed Leopard. She has a chine in the aft
third of her topsides when the boat is two-sail power
reaching.
Owner/skipper Mike Slade from the UK explains: "If the
boat is balanced properly she will heel a little bit and
sit on the chine which gives you a much cleaner wake on
the leeward side. It makes the boat think that it is
longer than it actually is."
However throughout the morning Leopard was unable to
make any gain on the 11nm lead that Wild Oats
established in the straight downwind VMG running
conditions overnight after the Boxing Day start.
But Leopard did hang in with Wild Oats, sailing a
similar track and within distance and could be a real
threat tonight in the light winds expected along the
Tasmanian coast. During the day Leopard steadily
stretched her lead over Grant Wharington's four-year-old
Don Jones-designed Skandia to 11nm. By evening, with
winds lightening and shifting southeast, Wild Oats drew
away again.
While Bob Oatley's Reichel/Pugh designed Wild Oats XI,
skippered by Mark Richards, is well-positioned to be
first to finish for the third year in a row, her chance
of breaking the race record she set in 2005 looks to
have slipped away with the heading winds.
To beat the record time of one day 18 hours 40 minutes
and ten seconds she would have to finish before 0740
tomorrow morning (Dec 28). Throughout today Wild Oat's
estimated finish time blew out from two hours outside
the record to five hours.
Forecasts and weather observations from Tasmanian
coastal stations were not promising for the leaders
closing in on Tasmania in the last critical miles of the
628nm course. Variable 5-15 knot winds were forecast for
the waters east of Flinders Island in Bass Strait and
the upper east coast of Tasmania.
Eddystone Point at the northeastern tip of Tasmania
reported 15-19 knots from the southeast and St Helens, a
third of the way down the east coast, had a
south-sou'easter of 9-14 knots. A light southeaster is
blowing in Hobart this evening.
IRC handicap overall leader was reckoned to be
Huckleberry, a 25-year-old S&S 34 owned by Steve
Humphries of Perth and one of the smallest boats in the
race, followed by the maxis Wild Oats XI, Skandia,
Leopard and then Rosebud, American Roger Sturgeon's
Farr-designed STP 65.
Alan Whiteley's TP52 Cougar II retired from the race
with chain plate damage and headed to Eden on the New
South Wales south coast, bringing the total number of
retirements to three in this unusually benign Hobart
race. Seventy-nine boats are still racing.
Full list of nominated yachts available from: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
To track the fleet go to the official race website:www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
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Race fleet shifts into
reaching mode heading into Bass Strait
December 27, 2007
The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet passed through
light transitional winds early this morning between the
strong overnight northerly, of up to 22 knots and into a
weak southwest change.
The three maxis leading the fleet were close reaching in
the sou'wester at good speeds between 12.4 - 15.1 knots
across Bass Strait.
Still leading the race, as she had done from the start,
was Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI, skippered by Mark
Richards. Sixteen hours after the start, the
Reichel/Pugh 98 was 11 miles ahead of City Index Leopard
(Mike Slade) with another 6.7 miles to Skandia (Grant
Wharington).
The three canting-keeled 98ft maxis were about 80 miles
southeast of Gabo Island, well into Bass Strait. Wild
Oats had covered 263 miles of the 628 nautical mile
course. The American STP65 Rosebud (Roger Sturgeon) was
next, 22 miles behind Skandia.
Leopard's owner/skipper Mike Slade said from the boat
this morning that the new wind angle, putting the
leaders on a close reaching course towards Tasman
Island, suited his beamier and heavier Farr-design,
which had been unable to run angles as deep as Wild Oats
before the northerly.
"Now we have the wind on the nose we are happy," he
said. "We have the R2, a large reaching sail up and we
are seeing 14 knots (of boat speed) in only ten knots of
breeze. We have all of Bass Strait to haul Wild Oats
back. These are conditions we like and we must make the
most of it."
Yachts further back in the fleet slowed badly after the
fresh northerly died ahead of the southwest change.
Between 5am and 6am the TP52s Wot Yot (Graeme Wood) and
Cougar II (Alan Whiteley) were doing 3.8 and 2.7 knots
respectively and the British Volvo 70 Hugo Boss II (Ross
Daniel) 2.7 knots.
But the mid-fleet group got going again with respectable
speeds as the southwest change moved up the south coast
of New South Wales. At 8am the overall leader on IRC
corrected time was reckoned to be Bruce Taylor's new
Reichel/Pugh 40 Chutzpah, with the 39-year-old S&S
designed Spirit of Koomooloo (Mike Freebairn) in 2nd
place. Freebairn purchased the boat, which was Syd
Fischer's original Ragamuffin, last March, to replace
his previous boat, Koomooloo, which sank on the second
day of the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart race.
Third on the handicap calculations was Bill Wild's
Welbourn 42 Wedgetail, which enjoyed the hard running
conditions of the race's earlier stages.
Only two yachts have retired, bringing the fleet to 80:
Andrew Buckland's unorthodox Andrew Cape-designed Mr
Kite, with a broken rudder and the Brolga 33 Berrimilla,
after its only spinnaker wrapped itself irretrievably
around the forestay.
After competing in the 2004 Rolex Sydney Hobart race
owner Alex Whitworth and Peter Crozier sailed Berrimilla
to England, competed in the 2005 Rolex Fastnet Race and
then sailed back to Australia just in time to start in
the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart race.
Michelle Colenso's Oyster 55 Cappricio of Rhu diverted
into Wollongong to get hospital treatment for an injured
crewman. The yacht rejoined the race this morning.
At current speeds, the first of the maxis are expected
at the finish in Hobart on Friday morning.
Full list of nominated yachts available from: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
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Wild Oats XI, first out of
Sydney Heads, as fleet revels in the breeze to Hobart
December 26, 2007
The Sydney maxi Wild Oats XI took round one in the
battle of the maxis at the start of the Rolex Sydney
Hobart Yacht Race today. From a good start, and with
smart tactics, she was able to slow her British rival
City Index Leopard on the short beat to windward to the
first turning mark inside Sydney Heads and then extend
that lead on the leg out to the second turning mark.
As the yachts rounded the second mark, about 2.5
nautical miles from the start, to set reaching headsails
and spinnakers on track for Hobart, Wild Oats XI led by
a morale-boosting 40 seconds from City Index Leopard
with another 50 seconds to Skandia, the third 98 foot
canting-keeled maxi in the race.
Next came the American fixed-keel 65-footer Rosebud,
another good starter, two minutes 20 seconds behind
Skandia. Rosebud is the first of the new "box rule"
Storm Trysail Transpac (STP) 65 class to be launched.
The 82-yacht fleet started simultaneously from two
starting lines set 0.2 nautical miles apart about 1.5 nm
inside Sydney Harbour.
Mark Richards, who skippers the Reichel/Pugh 98 for
owner Bob Oatley, steered Wild Oats XI into one of his
trademark winning starts at the pin end of the line.
The forward line was biased to slightly favour the
leeward end in the 8-10 knot northeasterly breeze. Mike
Slade's Farr-designed City Index Leopard started well a
third of the way up the line and was able to lay the
first turning mark on one starboard tack.
But Wild Oats XI had enough leverage to leeward to tack
over onto port and cross ahead of Leopard. Wild Oats XI
then tacked back onto starboard, ahead and to windward
of Leopard, then bore down to slow Leopard with
disturbed air.
At the first turning mark, Wild Oats XI delayed her tack
onto port and out to sea to again, and planted herself
firmly in Leopard's air and accelerated away cleanly to
a handy lead at the seaward mark.
Grant Wharington's older maxi Skandia was obviously
underpowered after a cautious mid-line start.
Wharington, realising that with the forecast weather
pattern his four-year boat would have trouble matching
the newer Wild Oats XI and Leopard for speed in lighter
air, has chosen to concentrate on winning the race's
major handicap trophy, the Tattersall's Cup. To this
end, he is racing with his smaller "pin-headed" mainsail
instead of his latest square-topped main of the type
carried by both Oats and Leopard.
American Roger Sturgeon's Farr-designed STP 65 Rosebud
re-affirmed her credentials as a favourite for the
Tattersall's Cup with a clean fast start that left her
hanging in with the maxis and well clear of the
converted Jones-designed Volvo 70 Ichi Ban (Matt Allen).
Ichi Ban hurt in the Harbour by working the eastern
shore where there was lighter wind and less push from
the outgoing tidal flow.
One of the Tattersall's Cup favorites, Alan Brierty's
Corby 49 Limit, was about 18 minutes late for the start,
waiting for owner Brierty, who is also the tactician,
who had a hiccup in travel arrangements from his home in
Perth where he spent Christmas Day.
When Corby's scheduled midnight flight across Australia
was cancelled, the next available one got him into
Sydney airport only 20 minutes before the start. A dash
by cab and speedboat got him aboard late, but Limit
still managed to be within the fleet leaving Sydney
Harbour and in distant touch with the boats she has to
beat.
The fleet of smaller boats starting from the second line
was severely scrambled when 12 boats were recalled for
being premature starters. Two of them, the Jutson 43
Another Fiasco (Damian Suckling) and the West Australian
Beneteau 34.7 Palandri Wines Minds Eye (Brad Skeggs),
lost significant time before realising they had been
recalled and returned to re-start. Another yacht, Jim
Holley's one-off Farr 40 Aurora, did not return and will
be protested by the race committee.
An estimated 300,00 spectators, on boats and Harbour
headlands, saw the fleet on its way on a perfect, warm,
sunny summer day. Public interest in the race is
exceptionally high this year with quite intense local
media coverage for the past two weeks.
A traffic jam formed this morning on the New Beach Road
approach to the race's host club, the Cruising Yacht
Club of Australia, as spectators joined the sailors'
families and friends to bid farewell to the yachts and
board spectator boats.
After three and a-half hours of fast sailing in the
freshening nor'easter, Wild Oats XI had covered 55nm and
was 20nm offshore, east of Kiama on the New South Wales
south coast, doing 19.4 knots and virtually on the
rhumb-line course to Tasman Island, last turning point
of the course before the Hobart finish of the 628nm
course.
The northeaster at Kiama had freshened to 15-20 knots
which propelled Wild Oats XI to a 2.3nm lead over
Skandia and City Index Leopard. Skandia slightly ahead,
doing 16.7 knots and Leopard 18.4 knots; Rosebud was
another eight miles behind, doing 16.2 knots.
Full list of nominated yachts available from: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
To track the fleet go to the official race website: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
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Handicap hotshots for 2007
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
December 20, 2007
American Roger Sturgeon's new Farr-designed Rosebud,
with a close win over top Australian contender Yendys
(Geoff Ross) in the Rolex Rating Series, firmed as a
strong prospect to win the Tattersall's Cup, the major
trophy of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, awarded to the
top yacht on IRC corrected time handicap.
Rosebud is the first launched of the new STP65 "box
rule" class of high-performance fixed-keel yachts
intended, like the successful TP52 class which inspired
it, to provide both close class racing and competitive
performance in mixed offshore fleets racing under IRC
handicap.
Rosebud also won an earlier warm-up event on Sydney
Harbour, the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge's IRC handicap
division.
Sturgeon, who raced his previous Rosebud in the TP52
class, is a well-organised campaigner with a crew that
has sailed many miles together. Principal helmsman is
Jack Halterman. Bowman Justin Clougher, a Tasmanian with
eight Hobart races on his CV who now lives in Newport,
Rhode Island, is familiar with the fastest route by sea
to his family's home in Hobart.
Rosebud beat the well-sailed local Reichel/Pugh 55
Yendys by just two points in the Rolex Trophy rating
series of short windward-leeward races off the Sydney
coastline, sailed in a good mix of wind conditions.
The two boats went into the last race tied on points. In
a light and tricky south-east breeze, Rosebud placed
second to Yendys' fifth to win overall.
Yendys, now in her second season, has proven to be an
excellent all-rounder. Although she was designed and
built for reliability in rough conditions as well as
speed in long offshore races like the Rolex Sydney
Hobart and the Rolex Fastnet Race, earlier this year she
won the strong IRC division at the Audi Hamilton Island
Race Week, including three race wins in light air.
Her crew is strong in experience, again including Sean
Kirkjian, Greg Johnston, Richie Allanson and Danny
McConville, with Will Oxley navigating.
The Corby 49 Flirt, owned by Alan Brierty, won division
two of the Rolex Trophy rating series, including five
wins in her scoreline for the eight race series. The
boat is helmed and organised by Roger Hickman, who was
sailing master for Kevan Pearce aboard Ausmaid in her
1996 Sydney Hobart race win.
Tasmanian born Hickman, who is a master mariner, has
sailed in 30 Hobart races and certainly knows his way
south, particularly over the often difficult last 200
miles of the 628 nautical mile course down the Tasmanian
coast.
TP52s Wot Yot and Ragamuffin, bought from American
owners, have shown startling downwind performances in
the opening coastal races of the Sydney racing season
that would make them strong Tattersall's Cup contenders
if the Rolex Sydney Hobart has predominantly hard
running conditions.
Graeme Wood's Wot Yot, a Nelson/Marek design built in
2000, after a promising debut in the 2006 Rolex Sydney
Hobart Race, in which she finished fifth over the line,
is leading the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's
Bluewater Pointscore.
Her sailing master Michael Green, a veteran of 29 Hobart
races who filled the same role in Quest's win in 2002
leads a crew with Quest veterans Hugh Brodie and Simon
Reffold joined by some large, young newcomers.
Green says the total crew weight has been increased by
100 - 105kg, the new base to swing down the lightweight
TP52. "It has been a conscious effort to make the boat
younger and stronger," he says. "You can't afford to
carry the older guys on this type of boat."
Wot Yot hit speeds of 25 knots running home before a 20
knot southerly in winning the Flinders Island race
earlier this season.
Syd Fischer, aged 80, is enjoying racing aboard his
TP52, his tenth ocean racer bearing his trademark
Ragamuffin name. She is a Farr design, originally owned
by Californian Philippe Khan and called Pegasus.
Roy Disney bought her and organised a crew of 15
youngsters with an average age of 22 to race her to
third placing in division two in this year's Transpac
Race.
Fischer has beefed her up for the Rolex Sydney Hobart
race, replacing the Transpac keel with a heavier one
designed by Farr, to increase upwind stability,
reinforcing the internal structure to carry the heavier
keel and adding another ring frame between the mast and
the bow.
He has also fitted a bowsprit in place of the spinnaker
pole and replaced the mainsail, which originally had
only one reef, with a new one with three reefs to handle
the almost inevitable southerly blow on the way to
Hobart.
The greater downwind speed of the TP52 has had Fischer
and his crew reviewing their downwind sailing angles in
the VMG trade-off between running deeper close to course
or higher and faster but over more distance.
"If you are not planing, you are going too slow," says
crewman Tony Ellis who has sailed 40 Hobart races, most
of them with Fischer. "It's certainly a lot of fun to
sail."
Fischer, always spare with words, says: "It's quick,
different and a bit of fun." He says the boat is also
fast to windward, achieving nine knots. "We could not do
that in the last boat (a Farr 50)."
The CYCA in its annual Ocean Racer of the Year Awards
named Fischer, Ocean Racing Veteran of the Year. He is
in his 45th season of ocean racing, sailing his 39th
Hobart race. He won the Tattersall's Cup in 1992 and has
taken line honours twice, in 1988 and 1990. Ragamuffin
is lying second on CYCA's Bluewater Pointscore for this
season.
The third TP52 entered Cougar II, a Farr design built in
2005, purchased recently by Alan Whitely of Melbourne,
won the last race of the Rolex Trophy rating series.
Whiteley sailed his first Cougar, a Beneteau First 44.7,
to second place in IRC division D in the 2005 Rolex
Sydney Hobart Race.
Two Farr-designed Cookson 50s, Ray Roberts' Quantum
Racing from Sydney and Michael Hiatt's Living Doll from
Melbourne, must also enter handicap win calculations.
Roberts' strong team has been campaigning intensely in
Asia with his DK46, winning the inaugural China Cup in
October and placing second in the Kings Cup at Phuket,
Thailand, in December.
Since last year's Hobart race, Roberts has had Cookson
Boats in Auckland fit a forward canard on Quantum Racing
to contribute side force resistance when the keel is
canted, making the boat more efficient when sailing to
windward.
Quantum Racing will race with substantially the same
crew as last year, including tactician/helmsman Steve
McConaghy, Scott Hinton and Don Buckley helming plus
Carl Crafoord as navigator. Crafoord has sailed 21
Hobart races and been on three winning boats: Sagacious
(1990), Raptor (1994), Quest (2004).
The 40-50 footers
In the 40-50ft size range, watch out for Mr Beak's Ribs,
Shogun and Chutzpah.
David Beak's Beneteau 44.7 Mr Beak's Ribs, sitting in
third place on the CYCA's Bluewater Pointscore, will do
well if the Hobart has a good share of working to
windward.
The boat, carefully optimised for IRC racing by Michael
Spies, placed ninth overall and second in IRC division C
in the 2004 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, then won the 2005
Sailing South Race Week in Hobart, Skandia Race Week in
Geelong and the IRC Cruising Class at Hamilton Island.
She withdrew from the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart with a
broken spreader.
Sailmaker Ian Short has been running her campaign this
season with a "works team" that includes former Moth
class world champion and Australian 16ft skiff champion
David McKay.
Shogun, owned by Rob Hanna from Melbourne, is a new
Rogers 46 lightweight. She showed great downwind speed
to place second overall and win division C in the Audi
Sydney-Gold Coast Race.
Then she had to withdraw from Audi Hamilton Island Race
Week after suffering mast damage in the first race. A
further setback came on the delivery voyage back to
Melbourne with damage to the internal structure when a
40-knot southerly front hit her in Bass Strait.
The mast maker, King Composites in Argentina, has fixed
the spar and the structure around the keel has been
strengthened with extra carbon fibre.
Chutzpah is a new, quite radical, 40-footer from the
Reichel/Pugh design team owned by Bruce Taylor from
Melbourne. Taylor, who will be sailing his 26th Hobart
race, has been a regular campaigner in the Hobart race.
He has had seven divisional wins; a second (1990) and
third (2003) overall in previous, smaller Chutzpahs.
This Chutzpah is his sixth and he says it will be his
last.
The boat is similar in shape to Yendys, very beamy aft
but also with a distinct chine in the topsides aft for
cleaner water flow at high speeds. Taylor says: "The
boat is extraordinarily fast off the wind, something
like the 14ft skiff I sail with my geriatric brother
from time to time; the feelings are similar. With
asymmetric chutes we are starting again..it's a fun
boat."
Joining Taylor in the experienced crew of weekend
sailors are his son Andrew, who flies in from Hong Kong
each year for the race and 20-year Hobart veteran and
round-the-world race sailor Ian ("Barney") Walker.
But also..
While the Tattersall's Cup winner has mostly come from
the 40 - 65ft overall length range in recent years, the
unpredictable nature of the weather patterns over the
race course - which spans ten degrees of latitude - can
roll out winners from opposite ends of the size
spectrum.
A 35-footer, AFR Midnight Rambler, designed by Robert
Hick 35 and owned by Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas, won the
storm-ravaged 1998 race. The 98ft Reichel/Pugh
canting-keeled maxi Wild Oats XI owned by Bob Oatley and
skippered by Mark Richards won the 2005 race in strong
following winds.
And age does not matter if your boat gets her favoured
weather pattern and/or a lucky break. So the 33-year-old
Sparkman & Stephens design Love and War, owned by Simon
Kurts and skippered by Lindsay May won the Tattersall's
Cup last year.
Recent withdrawals, including the New Zealand
canting-keeled super maxi Maximus (Bill Buckley) with
irreparable damage to her keel fin on the delivery
voyage from Auckland, left a fleet of 82 committed to
lining up for the start on Boxing Day, December 26.
Full list of nominated yachts available from: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
Download the Notice of Race from www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
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2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race strong on overseas entries
December 13, 2007
The strong 85-boat fleet gathering in Sydney for the 2007 Rolex
Sydney Hobart Yacht Race includes nine overseas entries; six
from the UK and one each from the USA, Mexico and New Zealand.
Two of the visitors, Mike Slade's Cityindex Leopard from Great
Britain and Bill Buckley's Maximus from New Zealand, are
expected to strongly challenge Australian entries Wild Oats XI
(Bob Oatley) and Grant Wharington's Skandia in the battle of the
canting-keeled maxis (98ft, 30m overall length) at the head of
the fleet for line honours in the 628-nautical mile race to
start on Boxing Day, December 26.
The Reichel/Pugh-designed Wild Oats XI, which set a new race
record in 2005 taking line honours as well as winning on IRC
handicap, and again took line honours in the 2006 race, has been
fitted with a new stiffer carbon mast by Southern Spars to
replace the one she broke at the Rolex Maxi World Cup at Porto
Cervo, Sardinia in September.
And with new carbon rigging in place of PBO used on the previous
mast, the complete rig is 100kg lighter than the old. Wild Oats
XI will also be carrying more sail area: a square-topped
mainsail adds 15 per cent upwind, as well as larger gennakers
flown from the longer bowsprit that add 20 per cent to her
downwind sail area.
She has sacrificed some of her IRC rating and the chance of
another handicap win to concentrate on a line honours win
against the tougher competition at the head of the fleet.
Skandia, the 2003 line honours winner, with a longer waterline
and fuller hull shape aft, was only three miles behind Wild Oats
XI, two-thirds of the way down the course in Bass Strait in last
year's race when her forward canard fin broke off, ending her
chances.
She has been fitted with a new re-configured keel for this
year's race with the fin shaved down for a more efficient shape
and a reduction of 1200kg in weight. Wharington says the boat in
total is one and-a-half tonnes lighter than last year.
Both Cityindex Leopard and Maximus were designed and built
primarily for long offshore passage races, capable of surviving
the roughest conditions, while Wild Oats XI is aimed at inshore
regatta sailing as well as offshore racing.
Wild Oats XI's sailing master Mark Richards says: "Leopard will
be hard to beat -- she is much bigger, carries more sail area.
Maximus has a deeper keel and a taller mast; she is going to be
an absolute weapon." He says the four maxis are very different
boats: "It will come down to who gets their favoured
conditions."
Leopard, designed by Farr and built by McConaghy Boats in
Sydney, showed her ability to handle rough conditions in
smashing the Rolex Fastnet Race record in August by eight hours
and 50 minutes. At 36.5 tonnes displacement, she is more than 10
tonnes heavier than Wild Oats XI. Her hull is wide and powerful,
has a distinct chine running aft for about two-thirds of her
length to improve water flow off the hull and is especially
suited for high-speed downwind sailing offshore.
Maximus, designed by Greg Elliott, has had a thorough refit
since her broke her rotating wing mast in the 2006 Rolex Sydney
Hobart Race. She now has a fixed mast that is five metres taller
and a deeper forward canard. Structural changes inside the boat
have given her a greater power-to-weight ratio as well as making
her stronger. Her project manager Ross Field says the boat is
carrying a lot more sail area and has a lot more stability.
One of the race's most interesting entries is American Roger
Sturgeon's Rosebud, first launched of the ST65s built under the
new "box" rule formulated by the USA's leading offshore racing
clubs, the Storm Trysail Club and the Transpacific Yacht Club.
The rule, following the example of the TP52 rule, intends to
encourage high-performance light-displacement fixed keel yachts
within set parameters for both inshore and offshore racing.
Florida-based Sturgeon, who previously owned a TP52 called
Rosebud, has planned a program of world-wide inshore and
offshore events including the Onion Patch series and the Newport
Bermuda Race in June and later, England's Cowes Week. Rosebud
finished third in class and had the third fastest time in this
year's Transpac Race, from Los Angeles - Honolulu.
Sturgeon opened his Australian campaign by winning the IRC
handicap section of the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge - a spectacular
warm-up event for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - on Sydney
Harbour. He says the level of competition was the main reason
for bringing Rosebud to Australia. "It's the best competition in
the world; this time of year especially. We thought it would do
the most for our program to be here. We thought we would learn a
lot. One of our primary things is to try to go to new places and
do new things; not just stay in the same little patch."
Also among the overseas entries is the 2001 line honours winner,
then named Assa Abloy, now named Hugo Boss II. This Volvo 60
from the UK is campaigning under the banner of Alex Thomson
Racing, alongside the British short-handed sailor's Open 60
campaign. Thomson is currently sailing in the two-handed,
non-stop Barcelona World Race around the world with Australian
Andrew Cape.
Meanwhile, Hugo Boss II is in Sydney on the last stage of a
world tour that has kept the sponsor's flag flying on a passage
from Portsmouth to New York, the Transpac Race and passages
through Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, to Sydney for the Rolex
Sydney Hobart Race, where she will be skippered by Ross Daniel.
Alex Thomson Racing gave her a three-month refit before she
sailed from New York in May.
Hugo Boss II, a Farr design, as Assa Abloy skippered by Neil
McDonald for the Swedish sponsor, finished second in the
2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race and took line honours in the 2001
Rolex Sydney Hobart, which was a leg of the course.
Also among the nine overseas entries is British skipper Chris
Bull's J/145 Jazz, which placed second on the CYCA's Bluewater
Pointscore last season and placed third in Division C of the
2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. Australian legend Hugh Treharne,
who has sailed 27 Hobart races, will add tactical strength and
local knowledge.
The race's first Mexican entry is the Beneteau 40.7 Iataia,
owned by Marcos Rodriguez which, skippered by Mark Rosenfeld,
arrived in Sydney after a six-month cruise from Acapulco. Iataia
raced in the 2005 Transpac Race.
The British Beneteau First 47.7, Decosol Marine Sailplane
finished sixth in division and 14th overall in this year's Rolex
Fastnet Race. She will be skippered by John Danby and Robert
Bottomley.
The Frers-designed Swan 57 Noonmark VI from Great Britain, owned
by Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy and skippered by Mike Gilburt is on an
around-the-world cruise interspersed with some racing. Since her
launching in 1998, she has raced in the Caribbean and the
Mediterranean; placed fifth overall and won IRC Division B in
the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race last year.
Michelle Colenso, with Andrew Poole as skipper, will again race
her Oyster 55 Capriccio of Rhu. A brush with breast cancer
halted an around the world cruise in Sydney in 2006 but she
raced in the Rolex Sydney Hobart last year, winning the Cruising
Division and now, much fitter, is looking forward to doing it
again.
Full list of nominated yachts available from: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
Download the Notice of Race from www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
For media information or interview please contact Rolex Sydney
Hobart Media Team:
International Press Information:
Key Partners (KPMS)
Susan Maffei Plowden
Ph: + 1 401 855 0234
suma@regattanews.com
www.regattanews.com
www.kpms.com
Australian Media Information:
Lisa Ratcliff
Media Director
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
Ph: +61 2 9363 9731
Mob: +61 (0) 418 428 511
Email: lisa.ratcliff@cyca.com.au
Nicole Browne
Ph: + 61 2 9954 7677
Mob: +61 (0) 414 673 762
nicole@mediaopps.com.au
For copyright free, hi-res photographs of last year's Rolex
Sydney Hobart Yacht Race (2006), visit www.regattanews.com
For more information about this event, go to the Event
Page.
To see event photos and download high-resolution image files, go
to the Event
Photo Page.
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