Rolex Sydney Hobart Race – Shock Retirement in drag race
by John Curnow on 26 Dec 2016
That's why they get paid the big bucks - pointy end specialists get a bath on Giacomo. - 2016 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race Andrea Francolini
Wild Oats XI has retired at sea with hydraulic ram issues, which actuate the canting keel. Commiserations to them, they’ll be devastated. They will be taking no further part in this race to Hobart. They report that the keel has been centred and stabilised. All the crew are safe. Now pause to think what Comanche would be doing in these conditions. So now with the weather window turned the 72nd Rolex Sydney Hobart into a drag race, quite possibly one chart is the most intriguing of them all.
Jim Delegat’s Volvo 70 Giacomo, formerly Groupama 4, the winner of the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race is leading the race overall on corrected time under IRC. Inside the chart you have a supermaxi, maxi, two TPs, the oldest and smallest, a pair of Cookson 50s, two hard charging Volvos, and an IOR heavy displacement craft by Sparkman and Stephens. It almost covers a century of yachting.
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The down wind flier is in impressive third place, 87 nautical miles south of Gabo Island, just 14nm astern of Anthony Bell’s Perpetual Loyal. Delegat bought her in 2013 and has campaigned her hard in New Zealand and this season in Australia.
On corrected time, Giacomo is more than three hours ahead of U-Box, the Charles Caudrelier skippered Cookson 50 for Chinese owner, Bin Wang, and the mostly Chinese crew. The closest yachts are Matt Allen’s TP52 Ichi Ban, and the 2015 overall winner, Paul Clitheroe’s Balance, just 5nm further back.
With thanks to PredictWind.com, we can now see that there is no light pressure anymore, even hovering around Hobart, where it had been, but is now out in the Tasman. We also see that the ridge of fresher breeze starts closer to Flinders Island, which explains why Black Jack is out there. She will chase the most breeze and could come screaming back down the East coast of Tasmania. Only Alive is positioned more Westerly than they.
Ichi Ban is again stretching her legs, which she needs to to have any chance of nailing the overall win. The now solid breeze in tonights image, above, will see them smiling, but only quickly, for they will be right on the job and changing helmets often, as fatigue with that tiller could be an issue. UBOX has taken a small lead over Balance, but one just has to mention Varuna VI again. The Ker 56 has an almost 11nm lead over Ichi Ban.
Final words - from the yacht, Challenge - 'We have a bit on!'
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