"It was like a Caribbean cruise"

The Daily Sail caught up with Hobart winner Neville Crichton and Canon navigator Hugh Agnew

After two unsuccessful attempts to take line honours in the Sydney-Hobart race aboard his old maxi Shockwave, Neville Crichton did what the bookies expected and came good this time aboard his new maxi Alfa Romeo. He has still to break the course record of one day 19 hours and 48 minutes set by the former Whitbread 60 Nokia in 1999, but this can wait until another day.

The old Shockwave, now Dr Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory, Crichton says was too light for the Hobart race, although ironically given the uncharacteristic moderate conditions experienced in this year's race, it may well have been third time lucky for her.

The Sydney-Hobart win was clearly important to Crichton, who is the Australian importer for Citroen, Alfa Romeo and Kia cars, although he denies that his new Reichel-Pugh maxi was built solely for the purpose of a Hobart win. "That wasn’t the only reason but certainly when the boat was designed we had the Hobart in mind," he told The Daily Sail. "But we also had the possibility of doing the Daimler Chrysler transatlantic race as well and we can do that in water ballast mode." (For more explanation about how this boat can be modified see our interviews with designer Jim Pugh and boat captain Tim Dengate).

The Hobart race this year did not provide a 'Southerly Buster' - the powerful weather 'bombs' has made it one of the all time classics alongside the Bermuda Race and the Fastnet and has claimed several lives. Instead the boats experienced southeasterly or northeasterly winds averaging around 15 knots. "It was a very very easy race," commented Crichton, although he added that there were places to come unstuck potentially where there was very little breeze. "Sailing-wise it was simple. It was a drag race."

For Alfa Romeo the wind was southeasterly most of the way and they were the last to get the favourable shift to the northeast. Crichton says that the boats behind got it five or six hours before they did, so most of the way they sailed with the sheets just cracked.

Crossing the mouth of Bass Strait, Alfa Romeo went offshore in order to pick up a forecast 3 knots of favourable current. However Crichton says the current boost never materialised, "the satellite photos showed there was current and when we got out there there wasn’t, so we probably sailed an extra 15 miles chasing the current that wasn’t there."

For the Alfa Romeo crew there was no drama whatsoever, said Crichton. "We only launched the boat in August, but we’ve done 26 events since we put the boat in the water and we’ve won every one so the boat has done all the miles already." Saying this, she has not done a great of offshore sailing aside from a delivery across the Tasman after she was rigged in Auckland.

For the race Alfa Romeo had on board 26 crew, most of whom were regulars. Brought in talent included helmsman Andy Beadsworth, Noel Drennan (ex Stars & Stripes/illbruck) and Barney Walker. Navigator on board was Murray Spence.



Video on the official website shows Alfa Romeo screaming down the Derwent river under masthead kite. Crichton was impressed by the reception they received upon their arrival. "It was unbelievable. It was like you just won the America’s Cup when you came in. It was fantastic," he said.

The Canon story

Brookes & Gatehouse boss Hugh Agnew, navigator on Mike Slade's Canon ( Leopard of London) was recovering from a severe 'debriefing' at Hobart's famous Customs House when we spoke to him.

"It was the easiest Hobart in living memory," he said. "We were in T-shirts yesterday sailing down the side of Tasmania. It was like a Caribbean cruise not a Sydney-Hobart. It was extraordinary."

Canon, although longer than Alfa Romeo and from the same design house, is more of a racer cruiser than Crichton's boat. "We needed one of three things - a lot of waterline length white sail reaching or some serious upwind or some boat breaking-type weather and there was none of that," said Agnew of what they hoped for in order to take line honours.

"But the boat is in fantastic condition after its ups and downs. After two full days of sailing against Alfa which is a much much lighter tuned boat we were still only 12 miles behind. Mike [Slade] is absolutely thrilled to bits with the boat and she performed absolutely beautifully. Since she’s had that scoop put on she’s a stunning boat and she’s much much quicker. Anyway - good on Alfa – it was their race." (To read more about the mods made to Leopard following her abandonment mid-Atlantic earlier this year - click here)

In the closing stages of the race they were outdragged by Sean Langman's modified Open 60 Grundig, but Agnew said there was little they could have done to improve their performance. "There was no way we were going to hold Alfa. We reckon we sailed, I wouldn’t say a perfect race, but we couldn’t see more than 10 minutes, half an hour that we could have taken out of the whole race, so there was nothing we could have done more than that and Grundig found its point of sailing and took off."

Agnew says that apart from the approach to the finish line when the wind shut down, the least wind they saw was 8 knots while over most of the track down across Bass Strait it was 15 knots in a building northeasterly. "We had N-NE 28 knots as we came into Tasman Island. We had a fantastic ride down the coast of Tasmania. Storm Bay did its normal - everything and nothing - we had full main and our largest headsail and 2 reefs and our smallest headsail all in the space of 5 miles."

Like Alfa Romeo they experienced no real problems aside from running over a whale while crossing Bass Straits. Agnew says there is no damage to the boat. "The only problem we had were deciding what to eat! We had a good cook on board and had such good food!"

Both boats will shortly be making their way across the Tasman to Auckland to take part in the Millenium Cup.

For another fab photo of Alfa Romeo - see page 2...

To read more about Neville Crichton see page 3...

Below: Sean Langman's 'pumped up' 18ft skiff Grundig .