Alfa by 13 seconds

Peter Campbell reports on the Reichel-Pugh maxi boat show down at the Big Boat Challenge

The start - a mini-version of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on 26 December. The finish - to Alfa Romeo by 13 seconds from Wild Oats XI; and it could be just as close at the finish of the 628 nautical mile race to Hobart.

The concept of such a close finish to the battle for line honours to Hobart was the view of rival owner/skippers Neville Crichton ( Alfa Romeo) and Bob Oatley ( Wild Oats XI) after this first encounter of the world’s two fastest 30m maxi boats in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Big Boat Challenge on Sydney Harbour.

More than 150 spectator boats, plus a Navy ship, a Customs chase boat and the arrival of the Spirit of Tasmania and helicopters overhead added to a colourful and aggressive start by the 17 boat fleet.

Today’s race was a mere 12 nautical miles in the flat water of the Harbour in a 8-12 knot sea breeze; the Rolex Sydney Hobart is an ocean race where winds can frequently gust to 50 knots and much more, the seas very rough.

The Big Boat Challenge has always been a good pointer to who will be the front runners in the Hobart Race but after today’s inaugural encounter of these near identical leviathans of ocean racing, it is too close to call.

“It could have gone either way - either Alfa Romeo or Wild Oats XI could have got the gun,” said Neville Crichton after a heart-stopping finish off the Sydney Opera House.

Bob Oatley agreed. “He [Neville] did a better job that we did, but he’d better watch out. For a first race, we were more than satisfied…we will do better next time.”

“My gut feeling is it will be boat for boat going to Hobart,” added Crichton, although he pointed out that today’s race had “nothing to do with Hobart.”

In fact, Wild Oats XI closed the gap to within half a boat length at the finish when Alfa Romeo’s forestay furler jammed on the final gybe, restricting the sail area of the Code O reaching sail to 70% of its normal size.

The two 30m, state-of-the-art, carbon fibre, canting keel maxi yachts from the design board of American naval architects Reichel/Pugh totally dominated the Big Boat Challenge.

Alfa Romeo got the gun by 13 seconds from Wild Oats with Stewart Thwaites’ three-year-old Konica Minolta a distant 12 minutes 40 seconds further astern in third place. An incident just after rounding the first windward mark cost the New Zealand boat any hope of catching the leaders.

America’s Cup helmsman Gavin Brady, steering Konica Minolta, explained that after rounding the first mark they hoisted their spinnaker but it got tangled in the rigging of a spectator yacht, ripping the spinnaker in half. “This took us out of the game, we became spectators,” Brady said.

On IRC handicap Alfa Romeo also finished first, beating Wild Oats XI by 1 minute 37 seconds on corrected time, third place going to Stephen Ainsworth’s 60-footer Loki, another Reichel/Pugh design but without a canting keel.

CYCA Immediate Past Commodore Martin James steered his Farr 65 Infinity III to first place in the PHS division, beating the two former Volvo Ocean 60s DHL and Ericsson, both owned by the Kookaburra syndicate. The three boats crossed the finish line only 20 seconds apart, with Infinity III having the handicap edge.

Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats XI swapped the lead three times during the race, which finally got under way off Steele Point after being delayed by Navy maneouvres and then by a general recall.

With Alfa Romeo forced to luff up and slow down to avoid a collision with the British Open 60 Hugo Boss, Wild Oats XI burst out of the 17 boat pack to open up a commanding lead at the end of the one tack first windward leg down Sydney Harbour to the Junction Bell buoy near Sydney Heads.

With Alfa Romeo in hot pursuit, Wild Oats XI held her lead all the way up the Harbour to Fort Denison, the rocky outcrop with its historic Martello tower once called 'Pinchgut' by the recalcitrant convicts locked up there.

A smart tactical move by Crichton and his crew saw Alfa Romeo gain an overlap just outside the two-boat length limit and the two maxis rounding side by side, but with Alfa Romeo holding the windward advantage.

Five covering tacks later to the Point Piper buoy saw Alfa Romeo 1 minute and 10 seconds in front. By the time the boats had sailed on a tight reach and back to round Bradley’s Head, her lead was nearer two minutes.

It looked like an easy line honours win for the 98-footer launched last July from the even newer Wild Oats XI which hit the water on 10 days ago.

But as the former NZ America’s Cup skipper Chris Dickson often said “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.” With 200 metres to sail, Wild Oats XI came sweeping from astern under her huge Code 0 white sail, getting to within a boat length of Alfa Romeo at the gun.

The Big Boat Challenge 2005 was yet another great event on a magnificent Sydney Harbour.

More photos by Christophe Launay/ www.sealaunay.com on the following pages...