Super maxi Skandia’s debut in JPMorgan Regatta

by Peter Campbell on 21 Nov 2003 The 30 metre super maxi Skandia, the largest racing yacht ever built in Australia, will make its offshore racing debut in the JPMorgan Regatta over the weekend of 29-30 November.

Skandia, owned and skippered by Victorian yachtsman Grant Wharington, will use the four-race short ocean racing championship conducted by Middle Harbour Yacht Club to begin its lead-up to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in late December.

Skandia, which features a state-of-the-art canting keel and innovative sail handling features, was launched at Mornington at the end of October and has since undergone extensive sail testing and crew training on Port Phillip and in Bass Strait.

She will set sail from Melbourne next Tuesday evening and is due in Sydney early on Friday morning, the day before the start of the JPMorgan Regatta, the voyage also being Skandia’s qualifier for the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

“This is a serious sail and crew testing exercise, a full-on trip under ocean racing conditions”, a spokesperson for Wild Thing Racing said in Melbourne today.

“The racing crew of 17 will all be aboard, with skipper Grant Wharington, sailmaster Ian ‘Barney’ Walker, and Graeme Taylor the three watch captains, and Will Oxley as navigator.

“We are looking for some bad weather for the trip to give the boat a really hard ocean work-out after three weeks of intensive testing of sails and gear.

“Then we will have four days of hard racing around the buoys in the JPMorgan Regatta, up against local flyers such as Grundig”, the spokesperson added.

A fleet of 60 yachts has entered the JPMorgan, with divisions for IMS, IRC and PHS handicap divisions, JOGs and Sydney 38, Sydney 32 and Farr 40 One Design divisions.

Skandia will remain in Sydney to compete in the Canon Big Boat Challenge and the Rolex Trophy Series in mid-December before skipper Wharington’s all-out bid for line honours in the 627 nautical mile Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, starting 26 December.