SYDNEY TO HOBART 2008 BOXING DAY
Wild Oats look to sew it up again ICONIC RACE: Cracking pace forecast but record run uncertain
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HIS year’s Sydney to Hobart will be sailed at a cracking pace — but a record time is anything but a given for Wild Oats XI, according to weather forecasters. The official long-range weather forecast, delivered on Monday, presented mixed news for the leading maxis — including Wild Oats XI, which is gunning for a fourth straight line honours win. The fleet is expected to get a sleigh ride down the NSW coast on the back of 20 to 25 knot northerly winds on Friday and Saturday. But it is a forecast westerly change in Bass Strait on Sunday that is likely to determine whether Wild Oats XI’s 2005 record time of 1 day 18hr 40min 10s can be lowered. The change is expected to weaken conditions for a short time, meaning Wild Oats XI and rivals including Skandia and Ichi Ban would need to be already through the strait to have any chance of a record time. ‘‘I think there’s a pretty reasonable chance they’ll get past there,’’ NSW Bureau of Meteorology’s Barry Hanstrum said. ‘‘But it’s still early days . . . and if that change is six or 12 hours out it will have a big impact on that. We don’t know at this point — but there’s a reasonable chance that northerly would hang in long enough and the leading boats will be through there before lighter winds arrive.’’ Early forecasts indicated
WELCOME HOME: A flotilla of small craft greets Wild Oats XI (also above) as she heads towards the finish line in Hobart last year.
Disabled crew can inspire — and win A crew of disabled sailors ranging from a double amputee to dyslexics hope to inspire people when they tackles the Sydney to Hobart. The seriously competitive team from Sailors With Disabilities (SWD) also aims to win — after taking out a race division last year. This Wild Oats XI could smash its own record but the predicted change now has many tipping the record will be safe for another year. ‘‘Personally, I don’t think it will be broken,’’ said Conrad Humphreys, navigator of Ichi Ban, and a qualified meteorologist. ‘‘I think that little system that comes through may well cause a bit of a shutdown. ‘‘Quite possibly as the boats are turning to go up the Derwent, there might be a quiet patch at that point and any boats inside the record may suffer.’’ Forecasters believe a second change shortly after the first could see winds along the coast of Tasmania build to more than 35 knots. That would make for challenging conditions for the smaller boats at the back of the fleet but not dangerous ones, according to officials. ‘‘I think the boats are pretty well set up for those sorts of
year’s crew includes dyslexic skipper David Pescud, who says he was inspired to take up sailing to prove nothing was impossible. ‘‘I could never accept being ‘written off’ because of my disability. I was always more interested in what you can do rather than what you can’t do.’’ conditions,’’ said Matt Allen, commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and skipper of Ichi Ban. ‘‘Each and every year the race presents it challenges. ‘‘There might be few broken spinnakers and a few broken egos out there but I think everything else out there will be fine.’’ Ichi Ban was confirmed as a certain starter after suffering damage during the Rolex Trophy Passage race last Saturday. But skipper Matt Allen said repairs had been a success so far and the yacht was due to return to the water ahead of Friday’s start in Sydney Harbour. ‘‘The repairs have gone really well,’’ Allen said of the boat, which suffered damage around its two daggerboards. ‘‘We’re just waiting for some things to dry and everything will be fixed. ‘‘We’re ready to go and 100 per cent confident. With this
weather it looks like it’s going to be some fun sailing.’’ Ichi Ban, which reached Hobart second in 2006 and third last year, is again likely to be in the mix for line honours in what forecasters say will be a fastpaced race. Rob and Sally Fisher used to fight on Christmas Day, like many siblings. Decades on, Rob, 47, and Sally, 45, now both living in Hobart, are to renew their Christmas Day rivalry — with a bottle of Bollinger at stake for the winner of this year’s family contest. The twist is they will be racing each other in the Sydney to Hobart. Rob is sailing in his 16th Hobart, Sally in her first. He has upgraded to the Helsal III, a 26-year-old, 20m Adams 20 that has been completely refurbished with a fixed bulb keel and bigger rig. Sally has the job of skippering Helsal IV, an 18.65m Dynamique 62 that is 50 per cent heavier and nearly twice as slow as her brother’s boat. ‘‘We have been arguing about the length of time he needs to give me as a handicap,’’ said Sally, who admitted not much had changed in the sibling rivalry stakes. ‘‘But Rob sailed this boat [Helsal IV] in the Sydney to Hobart, and his fastest time is four days, five hours and 29 minutes, so if he doesn’t get in just over two days [in the faster Helsal III], I reckon I have won.’’ — Agencies
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Cruel sea holds trump card The Sydney to Hobart race organisers will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the fateful 1998 event in which six sailors lost their lives. A minute’s silence will be observed at a number of preand post-race functions — and there will also be a wreathlaying service at Hobart at the dockside public announcement of the overall winner. Commodore Matt Allen said: ‘‘We will acknowledge the loss of five yachts that sank and the support of the rescue services that assisted 55 sailors to safety in one of the biggest maritime rescue operations ever in Australian waters.’’ John Stanley, helmsman aboard the ill-fated Winston Churchill, likened the storm that hit the fleet in Bass Strait 10 years ago to a cyclone. Stanley lost three crewmates — Jim Lawler, Michael Bannister and John Dean — as rogue waves of more than 10m, whipped up by a winds of more than 90 knots (170km/h) sunk their boat and others. Others to die were Phil Skeggs and Bruce Guy on Business Post Naiad and Glyn Charles on the Sword of Orion. Commodore Allen reflected: ‘‘The 1998 race was a poignant reminder that the sea always holds the trump card. But the
DANGER: Stranded Stand Aside was dismasted in the 1998 race. sport has seen a positive impact across the world since then. ‘‘There have been broad changes to safety introduced all because of the savage storm cell that formed in Bass Strait and hit the fleet on December 27, 1998.’’ Of the 115 yachts that year, just 44 made it to the finish of the 628 nautical-mile race, which has been held on Boxing Day since 1945. Yachting weather expert Roger Badham said it wasn’t the winds in 1998 that posed the biggest danger, but the rogue waves. Sailors call them ‘‘superimposing wave trains’’.
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And he warned it could all turn ugly this year if a predicted low changes its behaviour and moves into the fleet’s path in Bass Strait. Badham said the long-range forecast was still ‘‘vague’’. A replay of the shocking conditions that decimated the fleet in 1998 appears, at this stage, unlikely, with talk of a fast and furious race south. He said the long-range forecast of strong downwind sailing conditions held the potential for the Australian 98-footer Wild Oats to break her own race record. ‘‘She’s fast enough to break her own record,’’ he said.