Fastest man in Australia

James Boyd meets Sean Langman, skipper, owner and incessant modifier of the tabooed Open 60 Grundig Xena.

Having a boatyard was ideal for someone who shows no fear of radically butchering his boat, turning it from being a single-handed round the worlder into as close an approximation to a 60ft fully crewed offshore skiff as he feels he can with this boat. To make matters all the more exciting he has few pretensions of sailing the boat as an Open 60 and so wisely or unwisely has taken the boat beyond the Open 60 class rules. "We're much faster than a standard Open 60", he says.

When he purchased the boat, Langman says she had been built down to a price, but the carbon fibre mast, built by McConaghy's was top quality. At the time the boat would nose dive wherever he speed reached 24.4 knots, so he moved the rig 300mm forward, made it keel rather than deck-stepped and gave it considerably more rake. He also lengthened the spar by 1.5m and added a longer bowsprit. Below the waterline he made the boat's twin rudders smaller and modified the keels. But these were only the minor mods.

Since he has owned her Langman has also chopped the deck and cabin top off and changed the cockpit from the small, deep arrangement designed for shorthanded sailing to a larger shallower open-ended one, better suited to crewed racing. The steering was replaced by a twin wheel set up and coffee grinder pedestal winch system. The roller furlers were removed and replaced with a conventional luff foils on the forestay. The result Langman says is a boat which in true Aussie tradition he can "take 30 mates sailing" and is very easy to steer with its twin rudders and easy to handle because of the fixed backstay he added.

Part of the development process of the boat has been trying to improve her performance on all points of sail and in differing conditions. "The thing that has astonished people is how well it can perform upwind," he says.

Grundig came on board as sponsor prior to the last Sydney-Hobart. They now have a three year sponsorship deal and this has prompted Langman recently to add the shark and flames, which he admits isn't corporate Grundig, but appeals to a wide range of his guests on board.