Round the world in 80 days - then Hobart?

by Rob Kothe on 6 Jun 2005 The Rolex Sydney to Hobart race, a 630 nautical mile sprint into the southern ocean, has had a major affect on the super maxi scene, with a 98 foot (30 metre) length limit providing a temporary respite from the ‘mine is bigger than yours’ battle.

The ‘30 metre building boom’ started with Grant Wharington’s Skandia and Stuart Thwaites' Konica Minolta in 2003 and continues on.

Charles St.Clair Brown and Bill Buckley’s Maximus, Neville Crichton’s Shockwave, Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats and Sean Langman’s new super skiff are all expected to line up on Dec 26th 2005 for the 61st Rolex Sydney to Hobart.

Lots of big boats, but less really big boats are being built and this rule may be having taking effect in other areas.

The outright round the world record belongs to Bruno Peyron’s Orange II - at an amazing 50 days, 16 hours, but with no encouragement by way of a race or a challenge for unlimited length monohulls, the much slower monohull record was set by Vincent Riou sailing solo in 87 days 10 hours in the recent Vendee Globe.

Mari-Cha IV has proven she is the fastest monohull in the world after her recent win in the 2005 Rolex Transatlantic Challenge.

Now Hong Kong’s Robert Miller and his team are studying the logistics of taking the 140-foot (42.6 metre) schooner Mari Cha IV and her crew of 25 on a chase to set a new monohull record.

Miller has been sailing big boats since the 1980’s.

Mari-Cha II was a luxurious 92 foot German Frers and in 1999 another of his luxury schooners, the 146 foot Maria-Cha III, became the fastest yacht ever to sail from Sydney to Hobart (unofficially).

She started 10 minutes ahead of the fleet and arrived in Hobart 86 minutes ahead of Nokia, the water-ballasted VO60 yacht, which to this day holds the official race record at an amazing 43 hours and 48 minutes.

Miller, a billionaire from Hong Kong, who built his fortune with the DFS duty free group, commissioned the fourth Mari-Cha to go faster again.

She was built by JMV Industries in Cherbourg, France. Her design team included naval architects Philippe Briand, Greg Elliot and Clay Oliver, project manager Jef d'Etiveaud and racing helmsman Mike Sanderson.

Mari-Cha IV is a unique schooner with two masts of equal height and she’s carbon fibre with a Nomex honeycomb core, her mast and boom made from carbon fibre and her sails North 3DL, with roller furling headsails.

While some of the 30 metre boats now have electric winches, Mari-Cha IV is, surprisingly, still muscle driven, a pre-requisite for some of the records she is chasing.

Specialists, Harken, developed massive winches which are reliable, simple and low weight and allow all sail handling systems to be man-powered for racing. The project was the largest Harken had undertaken, with the exception of the trimaran Geronimo.

There is no need for crew to hike on the rail, as Mari-Cha IV has both a canting ballast system and 10 tonnes of water ballast.

A month after she was launched, she shattered the West to East Transatlantic speed record in October 2003.

During this crossing she smashed the 24 hour distance record, which has since been beaten by Telefonica Movistar, the Volvo 70.

The latter completed the 2,925-mile crossing in a little less than 6 days and 18 hours, beating (by more than 52 hours) the 2001 record held by Switzerland's Bernard Stamm in his Open 60 Armor-Lux.

Mari-Cha IV continues to etch her name in the history books. Competing in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge last week, she broke the 100-year old west-to-east race record across the North Atlantic between New York and the Lizard.

She crossed the finish line with an elapsed time of 9 days 15 hours 55 minutes and 23 seconds, beating the long held record set by America's Cup veteran Charlie Barr, in the race for the Kaiser's Cup in 1905, on board Wilson Marshall's Atlantic.

Her official time awaits ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.

Mari-Cha IV went on to win the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, crossing the second finishing line at Needle Point, the most western end of the Isle of Wight.

Robert Miller talked about the race.

‘The toughest crossing I’ve ever done of the Atlantic. We had wind on the nose from about eight hours after the start in New York. On the nose for six days, very steep seas, winds gusting to 35 knots, we had to maintain as much speed as we could, without destroying the boat.

‘It was really rough... the whole crew did very well to maintain the speed and performance in the conditions.

‘We enjoyed it a lot, especially breaking the record, it was actually a lot of fun.’

Just two days into the race, Mari-Cha IV launched off an enormous wave and damaged a critical fitting holding the mainsail at the top of the mast, 45 metres above the deck.

This problem allowed Maximus, the 30 metre New Zealand super maxi, to sail around the slowing Mari-Cha IV, but after two sailors had worked at the top of the pitching mast for hours to repair the damaged sail fittings, the giant schooner finally regained her speed to fight back into the lead.

Number IV is a pure bread racer. Her interior is stripped bare and as Robert Miller describes her, ‘she’s very spartan below decks - pipe-cots and sleeping bags provide the accomodation.

'She is very empty, two heads (toilets), two showers. Her galley is very basic, it has two gimballed gas bottles with burners on top to boil water that is about all, for freeze dried food which is terrible, or Chinese noodles.’

‘We have a very technical nav station where we do all our navigational and tactical work, the communication station is state of the art and lots and lots of empty space for sails.’

‘The two seats are like Formula 1 type seats which lock you in. You are strapped in because you get thrown all over the place at the speeds of 25 knots with all the banging and slamming.

‘It’s a formidable ride, the empty space below decks resonates like a giant drum at speeds over 25 knots and the noise increases a great deal as the boat surges down waves.'

Despite her size, Mari-Cha IV has proved to be a strong and simple boat from her launch. There have been very few changes, despite some very testing sea miles.

Miller again explains, ‘after our 2003 Transatlantic, we put in two daggerboards so we can raise or lower them when we hard on the wind, to keep the bow up, for more speed.

‘Now I think we might put in some composite rigging to reduce the weight a bit more, probably the only thing.’

Despite celebrating his 72nd birthday in the mid-Atlantic, Miller has no plans to slow down. ‘I will probably keep going as long as I can. At a certain level, it’s a young man’s sport, but if your legs hold out I think you are OK.

‘We are seriously studying a round the world attempt program.

‘The round the world monohull record is 89 days and so we are looking to break 80 days - getting into the 70's would be terrific.’

The likely window is November 2006-January 2007 for an attempt on the monohull round the world record.

The following year the floodgates for the Hobart race could open with many commentators believing the absolute size limit is likely to disappear.

As Miller comments, ‘we would love to come down for another Hobart, when the 30-metre limit lifts.

'In 1999 we broke the Hobart record, but they only let us race unofficially and it’s hard to find us in the books.’

So it could be 2008, on the Rolex Sydney Hobart start line, before the sailing world will know if the giant 42.6 metre schooner is really the fastest yacht in the world.