Favourites Leave Rivals In Their Wake

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday December 27, 2006

Tim Colquhoun

WILD Oats XI has laid down the gauntlet from the outset of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race with a formidable performance in the opening stanza, leading the fleet out of Sydney Harbour and down the NSW coast.

Last night, Wild Oats XI was ahead of its maxi rivals with a two nautical mile lead on Maximus and Skandia, ABN AMRO and Ichi Ban a further four miles behind.

At the start, hundreds of spectator craft - tall ships and tiny - lined the exclusion zone and thousands of spectators filled every vantage point, enjoying the spectacle on a stunning Boxing Day in Sydney, while at least a dozen helicopters buzzed overhead.

Blue skies and a 15 to 20 knot south to south-easterly wind set the stage for a quick run to the heads but onlookers missed out on a full-fleet spinnaker start, with the big boats choosing to keep their kites stowed. The fleet of 78 yachts enjoyed a clean getaway with no one jumping the starters gun, but BSG 'On Tap' somehow missed rounding the seaward mark at the Heads and was forced to loop back - by which point it was last out to sea.

Quantum Racing was one yacht to throw up its chute; speaking via Globalstar satellite phone, navigator Brian Northcote said a blistering start was lost when the larger Ichi Ban took some of the wind out of Quantum's sails.

"It was pretty exciting coming out of the start; we were one of only a couple of boats to carry a chute and if Ichi Ban hadn't blanketed us we would have probably been the fifth boat out of the heads," he said.

"We were absolutely flying at the start ... [Ichi Ban] is a bigger boat and they didn't put a chute up and they weren't going fast enough, so we got stuck in the lee of their mainsail.

"We came out of the heads and the whole fleet went about 15 to 20 miles offshore, and then we got a big shift in the breeze and then everyone tacked."

Two-and-a-half hours into the race, a leading group of five had already passed Port Hacking and established a handy lead over the chasing pack, with Wild Oats a little over one nautical mile ahead of a neck and neck Maximus and ABN AMRO, with Skandia and Ichi Ban in hot pursuit. DHL, Getaway-CMC Markets and Loki were at the head of the main bunch, slightly ahead of Yendys, Wot Yot and Quantum Racing.

Late yesterday, ABN AMRO skipper Mike Sanderson said he was pleased with the race start and enjoying the balmy weather out at sea, but said conditions favoured the maxis and not his Volvo 70.

"[I'm] really happy how we got out of the Heads; at one stage we were second behind Wild Oats," he said. "It was good fun, we were right down in the action - we were pretty keen on getting a tow down the harbour from Skandia and Wild Oats so it meant we had to mix it up with them but it worked pretty well.

"I think it was the good end to be for us, we were all pretty conservative not putting chutes on at the end but it was good fun."

Four hours into the race, Sanderson still had his main rivals for line honours in his sights. "We've got the three maxis out to leeward and Ichi Ban just aft of the beam ... we're really happy how we're hanging on," he said. "It's a lovely, sunny Sydney day, so that's not a bad thing ... the boat's good, the guys are good.

"It's pretty nice maxi conditions; bow down a little bit, not too lumpy and 15-20 knots so they should be flying."

On board Skandia, skipper Grant Wharington said he was also enjoying the conditions and was keeping a close eye on the competition. "ABN AMRO has set itself up as the most easterly boat and basically the other four are all in a line now," he said.

"Maximus is a little low, we're straight on the course so we're starting to work a little seaward of them. They're about 200 metres off our starboard bow and Wild Oats XI is two-and-a-half miles straight ahead."

Wharington, who won line honours in 2003 and led the race in 2004 before having to abandon ship in Bass Strait, said he did not expect conditions to get too bad overnight and was confident Skandia would continue to mix it with the front-runners.

"We'll stay in touch with the others and wait for the next opportunity," he said.

Almost five hours into the race, Quantum Racing was 21 miles off Wollongong and sitting among a bunch of fellow handicap favourites, with Northcote anticipating a wind shift at about 10pm and waves building as the night progressed.

"The breeze has settled back into the south-east and blowing about 13 knots; Yendys has made a bit of a jump on everybody, she's about a mile-and-a-half in front of us," Northcote said. "Loki is abeam of us probably 500 metres and Wot Yot is probably 250-300 metres in front of us.

"Overnight is going to be interesting, we're all out here in a one-and-a-half to two knot southerly set which is why everyone came offshore, because we wanted get into the current.

"It's very funny, we're all like peas in a pod - all doing about the same boat speed and in the same direction - so there's no-one making any real, major tactical manoeuvres because you can't.

"When the sun goes down and we get a wind shift, which we know will happen ... it will force everyone to make a decision either to go into the land or tack on that and head back out to sea," he said.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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