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Sail-World.com : Sydney Hobart: Winners and Losers in Charge of the Light Brigade
Sydney Hobart: Winners and Losers in Charge of the Light Brigade
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Never mind the mere two feet you are now allowed to add to your 98 foot maxi for the first time in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race –what’s 2% between rivals? – all the talk at this morning’s media launch for the annual bash south was about who could be the biggest loser in the weight-loss stakes.
And the kilos are not just being shed in tonnes from the hardware either; there will be a good deal of ‘bioware’ (in the form of erstwhile crew) left on the dock as the fleet turns south at the Heads on Boxing Day it would seem.
Grant Wharington‘s yacht Skandia has usually sailed to Hobart with a skeleton sail inventory and a lean crew (200kgs saved per person left behind, when you account for liferafts, food and the likes according to Wharington), so the option this year to save yet more weight is to extend the boat’s canting keel to a monster seven metres (20ft) in length.
That piece of surgery allows him to reduce the bulb weight from 11.7 to 8.3 tonnes; so there’s no cosy dockside berth for Skandia in Sydney any more, she’ll berth in the harbour like an ocean liner and the crew will be ferried ashore from there. Sunfish are on a Skandia collision warning too.
Bob Oatley and his team know they are up against it this year in their attempt for a five-in-a-row line honours win and are seeming to defy physics in all directions; Wild Oats XI now has two feet more length, more sail area and a new keel bulb; all this but weight loss too?
That’s where the bioware comes in - or rather goes out; six less crew (that’s 1.2 tonnes shed straight off according to the Wharington Formula) leaving 16 yachtsmen working just that bit harder.
Nor in these days of equal opportunity and push button winches should we assume that the crew cuts come simply from the muscle department; 'We’re losing some of the afterguard as well as some of the guys in the middle' said skipper Mark Richards today 'the foredeck crew will all still be there' he added; reassuring news it seems for Tim Wiseman and Sven Runow who run a tight show forward of the mast.
Sean Langman, whose 100 foot maxi Loyal (ex Maximus) is yet to get on the water (a pesky keel testing problem being sorted out) has brought in the sporting heavyweights to trim down his crew weight through rigorous training it appears.
Waratahs Rugby Captain Phil Waugh and boxer Danny Green are putting Langman’s skiffy mates from the Xena days through their paces. Former Wallaby Phil Kearns will pack down with a crew that also includes Olympic Gold medallist swimmer Grant Hackett.
TV show host Larry Emdur has ensured the price is right for Loyal’s trip to Hobart by teaming up with the top accountant Anthony Bell to raise money through the Loyal Foundation; their weight saving strategy is focused on lightening our pockets a little in their goal for $1 million for a range of smaller charities.
Of course the simplest way to save weight is to buy a very small yacht.
The Farr 1020 ‘Zephyr’ will be the shortest – and presumably the lightest - yacht in this year’s race and owners James Connell and Alex Brandon planned it that way when they bought the boat in 2006.
Sounding every bit as convincing as the skippers at the big end of the fleet James Connell said today 'we did the numbers and we reckon this boat can take the Tattersall’s Cup for the handicap winner; so that’s why we bought it.
All we need is the weather to give the fleet a slow start and a fast finish and we’re in there with a very good chance' said the owner of the Division 4 IRC winner in the 2007 race.
Zephyr may have been built in the IOR era of the 1980s, but she was not designed specifically to exploit the rule nor did she suit IMS rule that superseded IOR. Twenty five years after she was built it seems the IRC rule suits her like a glove, with a very favourable rating in the right weather conditions.
With a crew of seven from the Balmain Yacht Club, life will be cosy aboard Zephyr but there is no plan to shed any crew weight here; five of the seven crew are Laser sailors and for that class thinking light is second nature.
Role the weather dice and lightness may not prove the final decider in the race to Hobart but one thing’s for sure this year’s fleet is looking lean, mean and hungry.
by Crosbie Lorimer
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5:04 PM Tue 24 Nov 2009 GMT
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