Overall honours wide open in Rolex Sydney Hobart

by Peter Campbell on 28 Dec 2006
Wild Oats XI looks set to take line honours this evening, but former Media Director for the event, Peter Campbell, believes any one of 20 boats could be the real winner and collect the Tattersalls Trophy.

In between watching the Fourth Cricket Test on television and some gardening in the deepest wilds of Cheltenham,Sydney it’s been fascinating to follow the fortunes of the fleet in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race through the satellite sources of Yacht Tracker on the official race website.

Such more relaxing pastimes have only been possible since my retirement as media director after the 60th Hobart. No longer do I have that 4am shift in the Rolex Media Centre at the CYCA and then at chilly Constitution Dock. That is now the role of Lisa Ratcliff whom, I must mention, did an outstanding job of media liaison yesterday as masts fell down, crew got injured and famous boats sank.

But then, Lisa was with me in the media team during the far more dramatic and tragic 1998 Sydney Hobart. She did a great job then, too, whilst expecting her first child - and with her husband and father-in-law in the storm battered race.

Back to the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart. I recall Mark Richards, skipper of Wild Oats XI, commenting before the start than any one of 60 boats could be the overall IRC winner. Winds and waves have probably reduced that number as the fleet this evening sails down the East Coast of Tasmania, but the overall IRC rest is wide open.

By this time last year Wild Oats XI had taken line honours in record time and looked almost certain to win the Tattersalls Cup. She did, to be the first boat since Rani in the inaugural race in 1945 to win line and handicap honours and set an initial elapsed time record.

Now she looks likely to be the first boat in 38 years to win line honours for the second year in succession. The beautiful schooner Astor last did that in 1963 and 1964 – and I’m happy to report that she is still cruising the world under her now American ownership.

However, the chances of Wild Oats XI, Bob Oatley’s 30 metre supermaxi repeating her overall IRC victory of last year are remote. At 1900 hours this evening her IRC Overall position was 23rd and at least other 20 boats had a strong chance of winning the Tattersalls Trophy.

During today Yacht Tracker has computed the following yachts at the top of the IRC Overall leader board:

Challenge, the Sydney 38 skippered by 79-year-old Victorian Lou Abrahams, sailing in his record-equalling 44th Hobart Race

Bacardi, the 28-year-old Doug Peterson-designed 44-footer which is sailing in its 24th Hobart. Co-owners John Williams and Graeme Ainley (immediate past president of Yachting Australia) are each sailing their 23rd race.

Wot Yot, Graeme Wood’s TransPac 52, making its first ocean racing appearance in Australian waters.

DSK Comifin, the Italian owned Swan 45 being sailed by Danilo Salsi and a very experienced crew from the Yacht Club Cortina.

Yendys, the newest boat in the fleet, a Reichel/Pugh 55 built in China for Sydney yachtsman Geoff Ross, who won this race in 1999 with an earlier boat also named Yendsy (Sydney spelled backwards)

Love & War, a classic Sparkman & Stephens designed 47-footer which is a two-times Overall winner (1974 and 1978) and multiple division winner. Owner Simon Kurts has loaned the boat Lindsay May and a crew mainly from the famous Brindabella, including the owner of that great maxi, George Snow.

Impeccable, the Peterson 34 whose owner/skipper John Walker, aged 84, is the oldest skipper ever to compete in the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

Ichi Ban, CYCA Vice Commodore Matt Allen’s high-tech 70-footer designed by Don Jones, which competed as Brunel in the last Volvo Ocean Race.

Also up there in the running to snatch an Overall IRC win are the sole South Australian entrant Hardy’s Secret Men’s Business, skippered by Geoff Boettcher, Loki, Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki (both are state-of-the-art Reichel/Pugh designs), Quantum Racing, the Farr-designed Cookson 50 skippered by 2006 Ocean Racer of the Year Ray Roberts, Jazz, the J145 from the UK skippered by Chris Bull, a past Vice-Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, and Merlin, the Kaiko 50 skippered by Olympic gold medallist David Forbes which recently won the Gosford to Lord Howe Island Race.

Whilst Wild Oats XI is having a clear run to the finish at Hobart’s Castray Esplande (she was 7nm north-west of Cape Raoul at 2030 hours this evening), the fickle winds of the River Derwent will have a significant bearing on the boats astern of her and who will be Overall winner.

Ichi Ban, Skandia, Yendys and Wot Yot may suffer the notorious shutdown wind in the Derwent after midnight tonight, while others being predicted as finishers early tomorrow, such as Quantum Racing and Challenge, may also suffer from entering Storm Bay and the Derwent at the wrong time of day.

Everyone has their stories of how they lost the Sydney Hobart in past races. There will be many a tale of woe this year!

But whoever is the Overall IRC winner of the 2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will have an even better story to tell at Constitution Dock. And a well-deserved one victory story!

As we upload this story, at 2030 hours on 28 December, remarkably four boats are sharing top place on the IRC leader board - two-times past winner Love & War, Italy’s DSK Comifin, another veteran in Barcardi, and the TransPac 54 Wot Yot.

It is anybody’s race!