Seven seconds separation

Maxi-boat match racing continues at the Rolex Trophy Rating Series, reports Andy Rice

Just seven seconds separated the rival supermaxis at the finish of a windy, wavy race 4 in the Rolex Trophy Ratings Series today. Alfa Romeo just closed out arch rival Wild Oats XI to take the win at the end of a thrilling match race around the windward/leeward course. Both yachts charged across the finish line at 24 knots - in 22 knots of breeze.

Still recovering from illness, Neville Crichton again had to pass over the wheel of his Reichel/Pugh 98-footer to one of his afterguard, and today it was tactician Michael Coxon's turn to steer Alfa Romeo. Yesterday's temporary helmsman, the British America's Cup sailor Adrian Stead, was today calling tactics for Coxon. Stead said Wild Oats was improving by the day, and again he acknowledged his rival's superior starting strategy.

“ Wild Oats made an awesome start to the second race,” said Stead, “and they also chose the right jib for the first beat. We'd gone for a No.4 but they chose a No.3 and it was the right choice because the wind dropped a little lighter than we'd expected.” This handed a minute's advantage to Bob Oatley's Wild Oats team by the first turning mark. “The thing is in these boats, a minute's advantage can vanish with one tiny mistake,” Stead commented.

True enough, a messy gennaker drop at the leeward gate saw Wild Oats give away nearly all of that one minute advantage as Alfa Romeo gained an inside overlap giving them the vital edge for the second beat to windward. By the next windward mark Alfa Romeo had pulled out a 25 second lead, but Wild Oats weren't out of it yet, and they surged back towards the new leader under a bigger spinnaker. Even in the wind and the waves, Coxon and the Alfa crew applied some match racing tactics in an fierce defence of their lead, and carried Wild Oats past the final layline to the finish before executing their gybe. “We were coming into the line fully pressed,” said Stead, “and Wild Oats even more so because they had to gybe a little bit further. We crossed the line at 24 knots.” The winning margin was just seven seconds. On corrected time, Alfa Romeo, with a lower IRC rating handicap, also won by 1 minute 25 seconds, her third line and corrected time victory in the three races she has so far sailed.

Despite throwing the boats around like dinghies at times, Stead insists they are treating these super maxis with huge respect. “These are awesome beasts. Even under mainsail alone we were travelling around at 15 knots before the start.” Stead and his team mates were reminded of their reliance on external power when the engine packed up before the morning race. This left them without electronics and hydraulics and they had to sit out the race while the crew set about getting it back up and running.

Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI won the first race in this morning, but it was a hollow victory as Neville Crichton’s Alfa Romeo missed the start after a plastic bag jammed the water intake, overheating the engine which also powers the hydraulics that control the canting keel and the primary and mainsail winches. “The boys had to manually bring the canting keel into a fixed vertical position - itself a good safety exercise - and then replace the impeller,” explained tactician Michael Coxon. “It took us 35 minutes and we were too late for the start.”

With no Super Maxi playmate for the first race, Wild Oats helmsman Mark Richards decided to practise his pre-start match racing on conventional-keeled Maxi Konica Minolta. Gavin Brady, Konica's helmsman and no mean match racing talent himself, was surprised at Wild Oats' aggression. “I guess they see us as a threat, but I don't really know why they did it. They just ended up forcing us off the right way up the course, and they sort of stuffed it up for themselves.”

While the split into separate Divisions for the canting-keeled and fixed-keel boats meant that Konica and Wild Oats are not actually competing directly with each other, the IRC handicap calculations reveal that Konica beat Wild Oats by 42 seconds around the track on corrected time. The Kiwi Maxi also beat her smaller rivals in Division 1, beating second-placed Yendys by a minute on handicap. However, a spectacularly exploding spinnaker in the afternoon race relegated Konica to 4th place, and almost 10 minutes behind handicap winner Richard Cawse's 60-footer, Vanguard.

In Division 2, race three saw Leslie Green's Swan 45 Ginger manage to break the string of victories notched up by Ray Roberts's DK46 Quantum Racing. Aided by the skill and experience of round-the-world-race veteran Gordon Maguire, Green drove his Swan 45 to finish almost a minute ahead of Quantum on corrected time in the fourth race.

Quantum Racing, owned and skippered by Sydney and international yachtsman Ray Roberts, has been the class act this week, winning three of the four races in IRC Division 2 and, with Steven Ainsworth’s Loki in Division O, has given the Australian team a handy lead in the Rolex Challenge.

Quantum Racing has looked every bit a winner in every race, winning the starts and outsailing her rivals to windwind in the light to moderate winds yesterday and again in today’s 15-16 knot nor’easter and lumpy seas on a rising swell. Off the wind, she looks just as fast and efficient.

Results:

IRC Division O:
1. Wild Oats XI, Reichel/Pugh 98 (Bob Oatley, RPAYC) 3-2-1-2, 8 pts
2. Alfa Romeo, Reichel/Pugh 98 (Neville Crichton, RNZYS) 1-1-DNC-1, 9 pts
3. Loki, Reichel/Pugh 98 (Stephen Ainsworth, CYCA) 2-3-2-3, 10 pts

IRC Division 1:
1. Yendys, Judel/Vrolijk 52 (Geoff Ross, CYCA) 1-2-2-2, 7 pts
2. Vanguard, Cawse/Lyons 60 (Dick Cawse, CYCA) 2-3-3-1, 9pts
3. Konica Minolta, Bakewell-White 98 (Stewart Thwaites, RNZYS) 5-1-1-4, 11 pts

IRC Division 2:
1. Quantum Racing, DK 46 (Ray Roberts, CYCA) 1-1-1-2, 5 pts
2. Ginger, Swan 45 (Leslie Green, CYCA) 2-2-2-1, 7 pts
3. Wedgetail, HW 42 (Bill Wild, RQYS) 5-3-3-3, 14 pts

Click here to see Carlo Borlenghi's photo gallery of today's action