Handicap waiting game as Rosebud moves to the top

by Rolex Event Media on 28 Dec 2007
With the line honours trophy again going to Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI after her close, race-long duel with Mike Slade's UK-based City Index Leopard, the focus in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race shifts to an intriguing contest for the sailors' most prized trophy, the Tattersall's Cup for the top yacht on IRC corrected time.

At 7pm today local time, five yachts were positioned to win the Cup, according to computer calculations by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, as a hot nor'west wind, which has sent the temperatures soaring to more than 34 degrees Celsius, swept the next group of yachts at high speeds under spinnakers down the Tasmanian coast.

The American yacht Rosebud (Roger Sturgeon), first of the new STP65 box-rule class to be launched, currently sits in first place overall on corrected time. But her position wasn't guaranteed until the boat crossed the finish line. Less than two hours earlier, Rosebud dropped from the first place she held earlier in the day, as she slowed in light patches in the nor'wester in Storm Bay.

At 5:30pm, one mile south of the Iron Pot light marking the entrance to the Derwent River, she was almost stopped in a glassy calm patch with a crewman up the mast looking out for wind. Then a 10-12kt nor'wester filled in again, to move Rosebud up the Derwent and across the finish at 7:02 pm; she now stands as the boat to beat.

Next in line for handicap contention is Ray Roberts' canting-keeled Cookson 50 Quantum Racing, which was 48.5 nautical miles from the finish, doing 11.9 knots and expected to finish at 10:21pm this evening.

With the hard running ideal for the Transpac 52 class yachts, Syd Fischer's Ragamuffin was next on the list, 57.9nm from the finish, running at 11.3 knots with an estimated finishing time of 11:02pm and needing to finish before 2:18am tomorrow to beat Quantum Racing on corrected time.

Geoff Ross' Reichel/Pugh 55 all-rounder Yendys was fourth, 50.3nm from the finish, hitting 17.3 knots and expected to finish at 10:40pm.

However the race's notoriously difficult last 41nm of the 628nm course, from Tasman Island across Storm Bay and up the Derwent River to finish off Hobart's waterfront, handed the usual goal-achievement anxiety to the handicap hopefuls list.

Fifth was Bruce Taylor's brand new Reichel/Pugh 40 Chutzpah, a boat that has confirmed her promise of great downwind speed. She was 158.9 miles out, doing 12 knots and is due to finish at 7:22am tomorrow, inside her winning target time of 8:26am.

Matt Allen's Jones-designed Volvo 70 Ichi Ban, already hampered by a broken blade in her twin rudder system, was slowed sailing up the Derwent and finally finished at 6:01pm.

Grant Wharington's maxi Skandia, which snapped her mast at the third spreader was still 37 miles from the finish sailing at less than 2 kts under jury-rig with a storm trysail and small jib; she was estimated to arrive during the night.

The strong nor'wester was still blowing 21-27 knots at Eddystone Point on Tasmania's northeastern tip, 19-22 knots at Maria Island, and 18-22 knots at Tasman Island, the last rounding mark before the finish.

Of the 82 yachts that started on Boxing Day, three have retired (Berrimilla, Mr Kite, Cougar II), four have finished (Wild Oats XI, City Index Leopard, Ichi Ban, Rosebud) and 75 are still racing.