Second win in a row for Wild Oats

Bob Oatley's maxi clinches Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours

Late this evening in Hobart, Bob Oatley's super maxi Wild Oats XI, crossed the finish to score her second line honours win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart, the first time a back to back win has happened in this race in 42 years.

While the Reichel Pugh 98 footer may have been race favourite following last year's 'triple' (line honours, handicap win and new race record), the pressure was always on her.

At the start in Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day Wild Oats XI scored the moral victory of leading the fleet out through Sydney Heads but probably the decisive moment in the race came on the gruelling first night at sea that resulted in the dismastings of her competitors ABN AMRO One and Maximus. Being a tough round the world race boat, ABN AMRO One had headed offshore into the favourable south going current and more breeze. All seemed to be going well and she briefly, for an hour or so, pulled into the lead. However the speed of the southern wind - 30-35 knots gusting to gale force 37-38 - Mike Sanderson's team encountered were considerably greater than forecast and counter to the south going current kicked up a violent, sharp sea that caused the breakage.

According to Wild Oats XI's navigator Adrienne Cahalan it had been a tough decision to leave the Volvo Ocean Race winner to her own devices. "We always knew it was going to be a big decision about going out in the current or staying in, but at the end of the day we just had to look after the boat a bit and most of the fleet came in. It was only ABN who stayed out there and we let them go. Everyone else was inshore. They had 30 knots out there and big seas and you just know that surviving that type of seas without backs is pretty tough."

Skipper Mark Richards expanded on this: "We knew that they had perfect conditions. But we’ve all sailed a lot of boats - we have America’s Cup winners on board, we’ve got guys who’ve done the Whitbread race numerous times - and you that it doesn’t matter what the boat is, if you push them too hard they are going to fail. And that is obviously what happened there. We were a bit nervous about them being out there but at the same time we knew they were going hard and they were going to be in a lot tougher conditions that we were and that they’d pay the price."



Despite saying prior to the start that they would not back off in anything less than 35 knots Richards says that they backed off a lot that first night, despite only seeing around 25 knots. "There was a lot of set offshore, which we knew was out there and you can get a big gain by being in the set normally. But with a lot of wind and the sea state being that rough we just didn’t want to be out there, so we opted to go inshore and stay out of the current which meant staying out of the big waves and just look after the boat for the night, which is what we did and it paid dividends.

The main issue was the sea state which got up to 3m with the chop on top, even where they were inshore. "It was tough conditions. The swells weren’t huge but the waves were very short, steep, confused seaway. The boat is slamming a lot, the rig is bouncing around a lot, it is not very enjoyable sailing which is why you have to do the best you can to look after the boat."

According to Richards they had already backed off and were through the worst of the conditions, by the time of the dismastings. That first night they suffered their only major breakage of the race as while passing Woolongong they hoisted their heavy no1 only to pull the clew ring straight out of it. Two crew then worked non-stop for 12 hours fixing it and they were able to use this in the final stages of the race as they beat south to the corner at Tasman Island.

The ride was still hard on the crew. As Richards explains: "It is pretty tough. These boats are powerful and we had some big seas and two guys got washed against stanchions pretty badly which you have to be careful of. It’s just sailing unfortunately."

While the sea was calmer inshore it got worse again as they crossed Bass Strait. As Adrienne Cahalan delicately put it: "I had to come on deck to get some fresh air once or twice. People get very tired because you are sitting on the rail all the time and it was very very cold and that always takes it out of you."

The other key tactical moment according to Cahalan was covering the remaining line honours contenders Ichi Ban and Skandia. Crossing Bass Strait they did this which was fortunate as just north of Flinders Island off northeast Tasmania they found themselves becalmed for four hours. At this point they were 40 miles ahead of Skandia, the only remaining 30m maxi and they saw this lead evaporate. "It was very frustrating for us because the other boats pretty much pulled 40 miles out of us, so that was a bit unfortunate," said Richards. "But we got through the other side of the hole, got going again and we were okay from there."

Coming down the east coast of Tasmania fortunes turned once again as Skandia broke her single daggerboard, seriously impairing her windward ability. From here it was a case of Wild Oats getting around the course. They rounded the bottom of Tasman Island (on the SE corner of Tasmania) mid-afternoon Thursday and then had a SSEerly wind to take them across Storm Bay and up the Derwent. They passed the Iron Pot light marking the entrance to the Derwent River at dusk and at this point, for the first time in the race they were able to hoist a kite. They made record progress towards the finish line crossing at 21:52pm local time in a time of 2 days 8 hours 52 minutes and 33 seconds, more than 14 hours slower than their record setting pace last year.



This year's race was considerably different to last year's when they were fortunate enough to have favourable conditions to blast them south in record time. Last year their sistership Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo was the main competition and resulted in a match race down the course. This year there were potentially five line honours contenders including the two VO70s.

"Last year I think was more tactical for us," said Iain Murray. "We had Alfa Romeo on our tail and it was a very fast race and because it was a downwind race last year small changes when you are going fast make big gains in speed so and we had a lot of switching breeze, whereas this year it was a case of get in front and follow the leader and try not to leave too many crumbs for the other to pick up on."

Being the newest of the 30m super maxis also helped and Richards believes that upwind they always had height on their rivals.

While they may have only backed off on that first night, they did spend a lot of time worrying about the gear. "While the wind speed wasn’t over 25 knots most of the time the fact that you were just pounding into a seaway took a lot of toll on the gear and we were constantly working and repairing different things just to make sure that nothing else went wrong," says Cahalan.



Once again Wild Oats' 78 year old owner Bob Oatley, didn't sail on board but was over the moon to see his steed come home first. "I feel like a young man again. For the conditions it was a fantastic time. It was a great opportunity last year and the boys made the most of it. This year it was very different conditions. The other boats had a lot of trouble keeping up and they failed I think because they tried to hang on. I told them to play it safe and the boat would do the rest. You couldn’t ask for more than this. We believed in the boat and the boat did the job.

"The first night I was very nervous and that continued until the boat went across the line tonight because the smallest thing can put a yacht out of a race no matter how well it is prepared because there is always the unknown, the finger of fate gets you. The boat was so well prepared. So tonight the sound of that gun was music to my ears."

Wild Oats XI is back to Europe next summer - Bob Oatley doesn't seem that keen to bring the boat to the UK for the Rolex Fastnet Race unfortunately - but will once again return to Australia at the end of next year. It seems hard to imagine he won't attempt the triple race win.

See the video of Wild Oats XI 's finish here .