| Battle for Sydney Hobart line honours glory. |
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Photos By Carlo Borlenghi for Rolex and Peter Andrews.
Story edited from press release by Peter Andrews. |
August 13, 2009. |
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The 2009 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will see an unprecedented gladiatorial contest for line honours as a result of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s decision to increase the overall length limit (LOA) of competing yachts from 98 to 100ft (30 to 30.48 metres).
This 0.48 metre increase announced by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia 12 months ago might not seem like much, but it has attracted the likes of Mike Slade’s UK based Farr designed 100 foot maxi ICAP Leopard and Neville Crichton’s New Zealand registered Reichel Pugh 100 footer Alfa Romeo. |
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Mike Slade's Farr 100 ICAP Leopard at dusk, heading to the Fastnet Rock during the recent Fastnet Race 2009.
Photo © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
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Alfa Romeo was one of the first yachts to undergo modifications to extend its LOA to 100ft, which made it ineligible to race under the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race’s previous overall length limit.
Garry Linacre, Rear Commodore and chairman of the CYCA sailing committee, said "Last year the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia consulted with its members and yacht owners regarding the change to the overall length limit and the decision was taken to extend the LOA, thereby providing owners sufficient notice to modify their yachts in time for the 2009 race. This decision brought the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race LOA into line with the Fastnet and Transpac yacht races." |
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Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2007.
Photo © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
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The 2002 Sydney Hobart line honours winner Neville Crichton with his previous Alfa Romeo, has been campaigning his 100 foot Alfa Romeo overseas with great success, and he describes the move as "very positive".
"The competition at the front of the fleet is going to be like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Potentially six 100 and 98 footers lining up is a damn good effort," said Crichton, who recently won the Transpac Race and set a new course record with his 100 foot maxi.
In Crichton’s sights is Bob Oatley’s Sydney based Reichel Pugh designed Wild Oats XI, the four-time consecutive line honours winner. Wild Oats XI has dominated Australia’s best known blue water classic since 2005, when it scored the triple of the overall and line honours win and set the current race record of 1 day 18 hours 40 minutes 10 seconds. |
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Wild Oats XI under spinnaker on Hobart's Derwent River near the end of its 2006 Sydney Hobart.
Photo © Peter Andrews.
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Since finishing runner up to Wild Oats XI in 2005, Alfa Romeo has enjoyed a sublime run of victories in the northern hemisphere, including beating Wild Oats XI over the line each time the pair has met. Continuing on from last month’s Transpac Race win, the crew of Alfa Romeo is delivering the boat across the Pacific Ocean for the Boxing Day showdown.
"Alfa Romeo will arrive in Sydney later in the year fully prepared to smash the record for the run from Sydney to Hobart," said Crichton.
The Oatley camp is once again tight lipped with the boat undergoing a number of top secret modifications according to skipper Mark Richards, who is less enthusiastic about the increase to the overall length limit but equally is looking forward to the toughest line honours contest in the event’s 64 year history. |
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Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo, finished first in Race 1 in the Racing Division of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2008.
Photo © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
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Mike Slade, owner and skipper of ICAP Leopard, which finished runner up to Wild Oats XI in the 2007 race said "I applaud the CYCA’s decision to extend the overall length limit to 30.48m or 100 feet in my age group."
From when it was built at McConaghy’s Boat Yard in Sydney in late 2006 and when it raced to Hobart in 2007, Leopard was 29.9 metres LOA. Then at the end of the northern hemispehere’s summer racing season in 2008, ICAP Leopard underwent a 10 week refit in Southampton, and it was during this refit that boat’s length was increased to 100 feet. |
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Mike Slade, owner of ICAP Leopard, after winning line honours in the Fastnet Race 2009.
Photo © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
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"We have achieved this by adding a stern scoop, increasing aft buoyancy and maximizing waterline length," said Slade. "It also helped us to retro-fit twin splayed rudders to work more efficiently with our forward asymmetric dagger boards," Slade continued.
"Overall we now see much better boat speed all round and the lighter helm has allowed us to build a larger main, specifically designed for the Sydney Hobart," concluded Slade, who has just secured a second consecutive line honours victory with ICAP Leopard in the Fastnet Race.
Sydney yachtsman Sean Langman is moving from classic timber boats back to the thrill of big boat sailing with plans to charter and extend the Greg Elliott designed New Zealand maxi, Maximus, to 100 feet; and finally break the boat’s Hobart Race hoodoo. |
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Out on the rail on Charles St Clair Brown and Bill Buckley's Elliott 30m maxi Maximus at the heads after the start of the 2006 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
Photo © Peter Andrews.
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Maximus was dismasted during the 2006 Sydney Hobart and failed to make the start of the 2007 race, after cracking its keel on route to Sydney from Auckland.
Langman’s lean and mean approach will see him once again push the boundaries of the sport by reducing crew numbers to a minimum. "It’s going to be the most difficult race for line honours ever," he agrees. |
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Peter Millard's Lahana when it was Zana, working up the Derwent River towards the Hobart finishing line at the end of the 2005 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
Photo © Peter Andrews.
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Grant Wharington’s Victorian IRC 30m maxi and 2003 line honours winner, Skandia, has the design capability to go to 100 feet. However at this stage, Wharington is not planning to lengthen the boat prior to this year’s race.
Peter Millard and John Honan’s Bakewell-White designed 30m maxi Lahana, formerly Zana - Konica Minolta will round out the top end of the fleet, staying at her current length of 98 feet. Damage to Lahana’s deck sustained in the recent Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race has been repaired and Millard is looking forward to testing the boat’s mettle heading south in December. |
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Peter Millard's Lahana after the start of the 2009 Sydney Gold Goast Yacht Race.
Photo © Peter Andrews.
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The CYCA is predicting an international fleet of around 90 yachts will make the start line on Boxing Day, December 26, with the biggest display of maxi muscle ever seen in Sydney leading the charge out of the harbour for the 65th edition of the 628 nautical mile dash to Hobart, Tasmania.
Applications for entry for the Rolex Sydney Hobart 2009 close on 2 November 2009 at 17:00hrs AEST.
For further information about the Sydney Hobart, go to the official race website at: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com |
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| Outimage and Rolex © 2009 |
