New Sydney Hobart IRC racer Limit - sneak peek

by Rob Kothe on 19 Nov 2008 Alan Brierty and Roger Hickman are listed as owner and skipper of two boats on the 2008 Rolex Sydney to Hobart entry list. Alan Brierty’s Limit, a Corby 49 and the new Limit, a sixty three footer which is still being built.

Sail-World spoke to ‘Hicko’, a veteran of 32 trips south, about the dual entry.

‘Well as you know, good preparation is the key to life. We have a new boat in the final build stages, but there are a lot of things still to be done.

‘We are due to be sailing on it on the first-second of December. We are going to do a bit of sailing in Melbourne and then we are going to sail it up from Melbourne on the seventh of December. So if suddenly there was a major issue and we needed to have the other boat in, because as you can see from the CYCA website and their media outlets, there will be NO late entries, which I thought was said very convincingly.

‘So what we did, in order to hedge our bets in case we had a problem, was to apply to enter the 49. We were granted entry so we’ve entered the 49 and the 63, but the intention is to just take one boat.

‘The new Limit is a Reichel-Pugh 63. It’s a nice new broad stern style boat. It is very conventional; fixed keel, single-rudder, swept-back spreader mast, triple spreaders, and running back stays. We will have a square head mainsail on it because they are quite powerful on the wind and quite powerful reaching.

‘It’s got a nice central galley. It’s got a metho-oven. (Methylated spirits)

‘On the 49 footer Limit, we’ve got a microwave, but if we were having a meal of warm pies or baked dinner or whatever we needed to run the engine for 3-4 hours to put enough battery power to get the microwave running. So we will do the metho-oven.

‘We also have a central galley, which very few boats have. We found that on these big boats, when you are sailing at high speeds, trying to boil the kettle on the high side you need your full wet weather gear and boots so that you don’t get scalded.

‘So by having a central galley, we consider that a safety issue for us, not for anybody else. It is part of the Limit culture; we like our herbal teas and so on. It keeps the crew active and alert in the Hobart race. So the central galley is quite good.

‘It’s got beautiful bunks; 10 bunks down each side. It’s quite innovative in the sense that we want all the crew in the bunks on the side of the boat. So many boats now are short on bunks, especially ocean racing boats.

‘As you know from my boat the early Wild Oats, it had six good bunks on either side, which was half the crew. So if we race with 20 we certainly want to be able to put them downstairs with their bunks. So that’s a good initiative.

‘A narrow bow? Yes, but not as narrow as you would expect because they need a little bit of lift.

‘These boats are quite capable of doing wind speed, a bit like the Volvo 70s. In 25 knots of breeze you can be running at speeds in the mid 20s. So fairly fine entry, broad stern, fairly flat, not much rocker, quite a broad fin though.

‘And a long bow sprit. I think the bow sprit finishes a couple of seconds before the bow and the bow finishes another couple of seconds before the helmsmen. Very long. That’s the trend in IRC at the moment.

‘We spend most of our time in IRC going upwind, or the rule assumes we do, so you can go downwind pretty fast.

‘So it has a long bowsprit with big spinnakers, very big spinnakers. Nice big forward hatch, so you can get the spinnakers down. It’s a storm type dodger with twin wheels, which are nice.

‘We’ve got internet connection. We’ve got nice auto-pilot for when we are cruising home.

‘We’ve got a fairly standard three pedestals, so the six guys can get on the pumps. We haven’t gone for the stored power at all. We like the old fashion style of sailing where people get tough and wind like crazy and tag somebody.
‘It’s good for morale and gives them something to do.

‘The off-watch doesn’t have the engine roaring. Not that we are old fashioned, we just like to be able to rest when we rest and sail hard when we sail.
‘So it’s going to be an exciting boat.

‘I think the other exciting thing is that Stephen Answorth is building a Reichel Pugh 63 too, the new Loki, that is, let’s say, very similar if not the same, so we will have some great competition.

‘Originally they weren’t going to Hobart because the timetable was fairly tight. But now they’ve entered for the Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race. I think we will probably be in the water a couple of weeks earlier in Melbourne.

‘Mal Hart, from Hart Marine in Melbourne, is building our boat. He is doing a magnificent job. I’ve been down there a few times and I’ve got to say the boat is sensational. It takes your breath away.

‘Our owner Alan Brierty, who is heavily involved in the Australian mining industry, was absolutely definite that we had to build Australian. However, we did go to Italy for the keel and we did go to New Zealand’s Southern Spa’s for the rigging and mast.

‘The boat has Quantum sails. We got involved with the world wide Quantum development program.

‘We are using all Ronstan hardware completely on deck because they are Australian, and as you know Alan Brierty is a patron of the Australian sailing team, and Ronstan are a large sponsor of yachting Australia, yachting in Australia, and the Australian Olympic team.

‘So Alan wanted to keep it in the family and we are very happy with Ronstan. So all of our deck is Australian. We have gone with a Lewmar winch package.

‘We are going with the B&G 3000 Hercules. We’ve got Deckman and Expedition for the weather routing, and Fleet 77 for comms. We have a nice comfortable navigation station where two people can sit and keep out of the weather.

‘I will be driving, as will Barney Walker, (Ian Walker), who is part of our team and has been with us for awhile, Dave Prescott, from Tasmania and also Alan.

‘What’s interesting is the crew that we have will probably go; we are 99% sure of that. Between the crew is 187 Sydney to Hobarts, but interestingly we’ve got one first tripper and three second trippers. So yes, the rest of us are old.

Total crew number? ‘That’s interesting. We aren’t sure what the IRC handicap will be, but if you multiple 20 crew by 85kg, which is the weight requirement andwhich is really good, we will probably get 18-22.

‘We like to have lots of people that way they can do things like cooking, navigation, trimming, and grinding. We’ve got quite a few of the girls and they weigh half what some of the boys weigh.

‘So you can guess from the enthusiasm, we really want to take the new Limit south.’