SUPER MAXI SHOCKWAVE WINS CANON BIG BOAT CHALLENGE

by Ian Grant on 15 Dec 2000 Neville Crichton's super maxi Shockwave retained her undefeated line honours record on Sydney Harbour today when she powered to a convincing win in the Canon Big Boat Challenge.

There was limited space on the starting line when the 15 yacht fleet including the Telstra Sydney to Hobart race record holder Nokia lined up for the 15 nautical mile race in ideal 8-14 knot south east winds.

Grant Wharington's Wild Thing won the start in clear air just ahead of Colin O'Neill's After Shock and the Michael Castania helmed Volvo 60 Tyco.

Wild Thing took advantage of having first use of the pressure breeze on the tight two sail reach to clear the Shark Island mark but Shockwave was right on her stern when the crews scrambled to achieve the fastest spinnaker set.

A similar wind shadowing duel evolved between Tyco and After Shock as they fought to hold third place from the improving Brindabella.

As expected it only become a matter of time before the Telstra Sydney Hobart race favourite Shockwave produced unmatched boatspeed to seal control of the race.

The fully powered up Shockwave reached hull speeds to 14 knots in the 15 knot breeze to outpace her rivals leaving the early race leader Wild Thing to safely sail to protect her second place.

Wild Thing was similarly impressive but it was the consistent all angle sailing speed which allowed Shockwave to draw away for a 3 minute 51 second win.

Grant Wharington has to be happy with the recent modifications of Wild Thing which were tried for the first time under serious racing conditions.

Particularly when Wild Thing again matched Brindabella for speed as both of the Australian big boats staged another interesting battle to fill the minor places with Wild Thing holding a 1 minute 15 second advantage after 1 hour 17 minutes of intense racing.

However despite the impressive line honours win Shockwave failed to outsail her 1.600 rating and had to contend with the third fastest corrected course time behind the match racing harbour racers After Shock and Bob Oatley's Another Duchess.

RESULTS: 2000 CANON BIG BOAT CHALLENGE.

Corrected Handicap : After Shock (Colin O'Neill) 1-49-29 1, Another Duchess (Bob Oatley) 1-50-07 2, Shockwave (Neville Crichton) 2-04-14 3, Xena (Sean Langman) 2-06-54 4, Wild Thing 2-07-08 5, Brindabella (George Snow) 2-07-31 6, Bumblebee 5 (John Karlbetzer) 2-11-35 7, Infinity 111 (Martin James) 2-13-50 8. Line Honours: Shockwave 1-17-39 1, Wild Thing 1-21-30 2, Brindabella 1-22-45 3, Xena 1-24-36 4, Tyco (Michael Harvey) 1-30-21 5, Spirit (Steffan Jacob) 1-30-23 6, After Shock 1-31-14 7, Another Duchess 1-31-46 8.