Wedgetail finding her wings

by Jim Gale on 16 Dec 2005 For Queenslander Bill Wild and the crew of Wedgetail the Rolex Trophy has represented a last, vital opportunity to get their new 40 footer sorted before the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

Launched just two weeks before the Southport to Mackay race, Wedgetail showed she has real potential when she finished 2nd on corrected time. But this Rolex Trophy -Rating Series is the first time she has been able to race in the bumpy waters of New South Wales against similar yachts.

‘Tuning the rig is what we have had to concentrate on this series,’ sailing master Kevin Costin explains.

‘The boat has seemed lopsided.’

After a difficult first day’s racing in Thursday’s light conditions, Costin made some changes to the rig and they seem to have paid off.

‘We sailed much better today,’ he said.

‘The boat is getting easier to sail. We are probably now where we were towards the end of the Mackay race. There is still a bit to do and while windy races are better for our egos we are actually hoping for slightly lighter conditions over the next two days to get it all fully sorted out.’

For Wild and Costin, getting Wedgetail to this point has been a huge project.

‘The price of a new 40 foot racing yacht is ridiculous,’ Costin says.

‘So we decided to build her in-house. We set up our own factory to build one boat, but we had a budget and we’ve done it within that budget with full carbon hull and the best of everything.’

At the helm of Wedgetail in the Rolex Trophy – Rating Series is former world champion and round the world sailor Vanessa Dudley, the only woman steerer in the Rolex Trophy Ratings Series. Dudley will be one of four steerers on Wedgetail in the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

For Dudley it’s a happy return to top level ocean racing. Though this will be her 10th Hobart, for the last four years her association with the race has been strictly land bound, covering the race for Australian Yachting, the magazine she now edits.

‘You work hard as a journalist but you really want to be on the water. I feel a bit torn but I love steering these boats,’ she said.

‘You don’t go just for the sake of going though, you have to think you can win and with people you enjoy sailing with and trust. Wedgetail has a core group who have been sailing together for eight or nine years on a Mumm 36, Corum. (Watch captain) Daren Senogles has done 15 Hobart’s and we have a really good young guy in Ben Lamb who has been a top sailor in J24s and Lasers.’

Dudley and Costin say that in their division the boat they will really have to watch is Ray Robert’s DK46 Quantum Racing.

‘Ray is the benchmark, very consistent and a very good crew,’ said Dudley.

‘We should be racing them all the way to Hobart.’