Prang!

Wild Oats collision in big boat fleet at Hahn Premium Race Week

There was a dramatic collision during the pre-start to the final race of the 2006 Hahn Premium Race Week Big Boat class championship off Hamilton Island today.

All seemed normal when the defending champion Bob Oatley and his Wild Oats X crew joined in the usual tactical jousting with the smaller sloops Loki (Stephen Ainsworth) and Wild Joe (Steven David) for the vital clear wind advantage.

All three sloops were running the line in the pre start in a bid to control the best start when Wild Oats X on port tack collided with Loki.

Fortunately their rigs did not lock up but both yachts suffered slight hull damage while Wild Oats X was forced to retire with damage to a shroud.

Skipper Stephen Ainsworth took the precaution and hoisted a crew member aloft to make sure there was no damage to their rigging.

“Both boats slammed together and there was a lot of noise and shouting, you are never sure so we were pleased that there was no damage to the rig,” Stephen Ainsworth said.

The Loki crew placed the incident behind them when they became engaged in a boat on boat drag race with Wild Joe as both crews sailed smart into the variable sea breeze.

It was difficult to determine which of the Reichel Pugh designed 60s the canting keeled Wild Joe or the fixed keel Loki was leading when spinnaker were set when they weather North Molle Island.

They were equally impressive on the shy spinnaker reach down the Whitsunday Passage where Wild Joe seemed to have stretched her margin but at the finish the course times confirmed Loki rating 1.404 was too classy winning by 2 minutes 36 seconds over Wild Joe with another 7 minutes 32 seconds to Vanguard (Richard Cawse).

However the Wild Joe crew including owner skipper Steven David, principal helmsman Chris Links and tactician Cameron Miles although outpaced over the 22 n/ml course claimed a deserved overall win with their consistent 2-1-3-1-2-1-1-2-2 defeating Loki 3-2-1-3-1-4-2-1-1 by 2 points while the defending champion Wild Oats X which was fast in the stronger winds failed in the light wind races to fill third overall with her 1-3-4-2-4-2-3-3-6