Battered Skandia finishes Audi Sydney Gold Coast

by Bindy Lockhart on 25 Mar 2007 At 17.53 today (the race website is still in summer time (I think!)), Sunday March 25 2007, nearly 30 hours after leaving Sydney Harbour Grant Wharington and his crew aboard super maxi Skandia crossed the line at Southport YC to finish in second position in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race 2007.

The 2007 race was a race with no shortage of drama for Wharington and his crew. Leaving the Heads in first place, they soon encountered their first spate of bad luck – bad luck which was to haunt them throughout this unusually grueling race. Just out of the Heads, their number 2 jib split – costing them no less than 5 places and valuable ground on their main line honours rival Ichi Ban. On arrival in Southport many of the yachts staunchions were bent almost in two and the pulpit was completely wrecked – the main sail had an 8 meter rip in it and Wharington’s precious laminate spinnaker lay below split in two too.

Wharington has never been under any illusions about Ichi Ban and her potential since he was heavily involved in her design, build and development during her previous life as a Volvo Open 70 racer. Indeed Wharington skippered the boat when she exceeded an impressive 500-mile day during leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005 – 2006 – the only Australian yacht and one of approximately 6 in the world to achieve such a feat.

With winds in excess of 35 knots, and a number of sail failures in difficult conditions, Wharington, clearly relieved to be finished explained:

'This was a tough race. It reminded me a bit of the last night in Rolex Sydney Hobart 2005. It was a really black night, pitch black, very low cloud cover with plenty of lightening and lots of heavy rain. With squalls coming in and 35 knots of wind steering the boat downwind was extremely testing – our safety limit was about 5 degrees either side, and the concentration levels required were huge. Very draining – and with our new stern (attached for the Rolex Sydney Hobart 2007) the boat tends to nose-dive more too – all in all it was quite a night. With all the damage we sustained nobody got much rest – let alone sleep. We are glad to be in that’s for sure.'

About 100 miles from the finish, Wharington expected that he might well be beaten by friend Matt Allen and the Ichi Ban crew, after Skandia’s sail damage prevented him from gaining an extensive lead on her before conditions changed to Ichi Ban’s advantage.

'We can see Ichi Ban now, we have just crossed behind them and can see them scooting along two sail reaching. I am wondering whether they have blown some sails up too – its been pretty tough, and there is no doubt that these conditions are the best and fastest for that boat, so I would have expected them to be further over the horizon than they are. I think we would have our work cut out to go faster than her now even without our damaged sails – 30 knots of wind, pressed at 140 true is what that boat was designed for – she loves it and they will be having quite a ride.'

The giant super maxi Skandia cannot enter Southport Yacht Club so Wharington and some his crew hopped off in bumpy conditions, hoping to get the last flight back to their native Melbourne.

As always Wharington was effusive in his praise for his crew and plans for the future:

'The guys did an awesome job in very tricky conditions – as I said before its far from easy sailing and controlling a yacht of this size and power in the conditions that we had. They should be commended for their never say die attitude and seemingly endless energy. A great bunch of guys.

From now we are heading to Brisbane where we will patch the boat up and complete some sponsor sailing – the guys will have plenty of war stories to tell to the guests from this trip that’s for sure – and then after a brief stop in Newcastle we will take Skandia home and pull her apart for a well deserved overhaul. We are planning to take a little more weight out of her again – we still think that she has too much righting moment – and of course having ruined almost every sail we have I guess we will be buying some more sails!'