Australia Wins 2003 Admiral’s Cup

by Di Pearson on 21 Jul 2003 Against all odds, the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club team of Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats and Colin O’Neil’s Aftershock, have stunned the yachting fraternity this morning (3.00am BST) winning the Admirals Cup, one of the world’s most prestigious sailing events.

With the final race of the series worth quadruple points, and Aftershock’s 3rd place in that race, Australia’s chances were not looking good. Bob Oatley and his crew literally had to pull off a miracle to win the IRC class of the race to beat the Telefonica Movistar team, and they did.

Speaking from Cowes in the early hours of the morning, Aftershock’s helmsman, Colin Beashel, said, ‘it feels bloody good – we pulled off a miracle – everyone in the team is over the moon. We are celebrating, drinking, cheering, laughing and some are crying.’

‘We had a great start in the Wolf Rock race, we picked good shifts going up the Solent, beating for the first 10 miles, then it went light and funny and other two caught up (RORC’s Sailability and Telefonica Movistar), then the English got in front, then it was a chase between the three of us – all Rodman 40’s.’

‘The wind went to 20-25 knots on the tight reach home, the English boat blew up its kite, so we got through them, then Spain caught up to us, then the Poms rolled us again. The three of us raced neck and neck the whole race, it was hard mentally and just as hard physically, we had to execute a lot of sail changes. ‘

‘The team spirit is just fabulous, Bob Oatley and Colin O’Neil put this whole thing together – you couldn’t have picked two better blokes. Once we finished, we just had to wait to see what would happen to the big boats. I knew the conditions would suit Wild Oats coming home, and quietly, I felt pretty confident,’ Beashel added.

Bob Oatley, arriving back at the crew house in Cowes said of their win, ‘we can’t believe it, it’s beyond our dreams, the guys are fantastic and the boat just flew home. We did 20 knots at times coming home, the boat was on fire and we were lucky that the two Farr 52’s finished between us and Bribon.’

‘We got top boat of the regatta, and Aftershock won best boat in the class, you couldn’t ask for more, could you?’

‘Colin (O’Neil) and I are good pals, we have sister ships at home (Sydney) and have had a lot of success with those, so we thought we’d keep going and come to the Admiral’s Cup. It’s a really good feeling here because we have so many mates between the two crews – I have known Iain Murray, for instance, for 40 years. It’s great mates and sailors and good boats that won us the Cup, and a fantastic boat, Wild Oats is the way yacht design is going,’ an ecstatic Oatley added.

Iain Murray, sailing with Oatley, described the race, ‘it was 360 nautical miles for the big boats, and effectively the breeze was at 210 degrees, and we beat up on port tack and reached on the way home using a jib-top and Code Zero in 15 to 25 knots.’

‘At the halfway mark we were a little behind on handicap, we got stuck in a bit of a hole until about 60 miles into the race. Wild Oats is by far more superior compared to the others when reaching. We increased our lead at Portland Bill, it went from 8 to 40 nautical miles, and we knew then we were in good shape to win the race. We just had to wait for the other finishers.’

’We managed to hang in for all the races here, we minimised the damage by winning the double and quadruple point races, the long races, which traditionally we haven’t done that well in’ he added.

Bob Oatley’s principle helmsman, Mark ‘Richo’ Richards, was, like the rest, over the moon with their result saying, ‘we are here in the crew house, drinking, cheering, crying, winning is massive!’

‘This is a wonderful bunch of guys, and two great owners. To win top boat in both classes is a huge deal – we kicked ‘a****e ‘ in the long race – we averaged 18 knots coming home and carrying bigger gear that we should have and now we’ve won – it is very hard to take in. We wouldn’t be here without Bob (Oatley) and Colin (O’Neil), they are just the best, they gave all of us such a wonderful opportunity.’

Australia has won the Admiral’s Cup on two prior occasions, the last time being the infamous 1979 race in which 16 lives were lost. They did come close in 1993, losing by a quarter of a point to Germany in the final race, the Fastnet.


AUS5342 Aftershock Colin O’Neil/Colin Beashel Royal Prince Alfred Team 30 2 2 2 1 6 1 3 1 12

ESP6746 Telefonica Movistar Pedro Campos Telefonica Movistar Sailing Team 32 1 5 10 3 2 3 2 2 4

ITA155 Chernikeeff 4 Peter Harrison/Ian Walker Sailability RORC Team 32 3 1 1 2 4 7 1 5 8

FRA29040 Paprec Recyclage Stephane Neve Team Paprec Recyclage - UNCL 60 7 3 3 4 8 6 6 7 16

GBR66R Dickies Yacht Sales Nigel Biggs Team Royal Southern 65 5 6 5 7 10 4 4 4 20

ESP6681 Estrella Galicia Dos Antonio Viejo Puga/Alberto Viejo Puga Estrella Galicia Sailing Team 71 6 4 4 8 12 2 8 3 24

ESP5878 Chernikeeff 3 Peter Harrison/Andy Green Sailability CCYC Team 84 4 7 6 5 14 5 7 8 28

GBR4907R Dancing Bear David Scanlan Team Bear - RTYC 96 8 8 7 6 16 8 5 6 32


In the IRC Class Wild Oats has won from Bribon Telefonica Movistar

AUS7001 Wild Oats Robert Oatley Royal Prince Alfred Team 26 2 2 2 3 2 2 6 3 4

ESP55 Bribon Telefonica Movistar Jose Cusi/HM Juan Carlos I Telefonica Movistar Sailing Team 47 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 36

GBR552R Volvo for Life Team Tonic Nick Hewson Team Royal Southern 69

GBR521 Bear of Britain Kit Hobday/Tim Louis Team Bear - RTYC 71 3 5 5 4 8 4 2 4 36

GBR52R Chernikeeff 2 Peter Harrison/Marcus Fitzgerald Sailability RORC Team 72 4 3 4 2 10 5 3 5 36

GBR9210R Chernikeeff Peter Harrison/Andy Cassell Sailability CCYC Team 95 7 6 8 5 12 6 8 7 36

FRA19450 Groupe Paprec Gery Trenteseaux Team Paprec Recyclage - UNCL 97 6 7 7 7 14 7 5 8 36

ESP6680 Estrella Galicia Uno Antonio Viejo Puga/Javier Aguado Bianco Estrella Galicia Sailing Team 103 8 8 6 8 16 8 7 6 36