Three in a row for Oats

Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI takes third consecutive line honours win in Rolex Sydney Hobart

The Sydney maxi Wild Oats XI, skippered by Mark Richards, has made yachting history this morning, crossing the finish line of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race at 10:24am (00:24GMT) to secure her third consecutive line honours victory. Richards has been at the helm each time.

Wild Oats XI is the first yacht to achieve this feat since Claude Plowman’s Morna made it three in a row between 1946 and 1948, today’s result confirming her place as one of the most successful yachts in the history of the Rolex Sydney Hobart with three consecutive line honours, an overall win and the race record.

Her elapsed time for the race was one day 21 hours 24 minutes 32 seconds, the third fastest time for the 628 nautical mile course.

“We came here to do a job and that was to claim the treble,” said a jubilant Richards soon after crossing the finish line this morning. “We were challenged, we were chased and we were constantly looking over our shoulders but we are here now and it’s time to celebrate.

“Back next year for a fourth? You never know, you’ll have to talk to Bob,” Richards added.

Bob Oatley’s Reichel Pugh-designed 30m maxi Wild Oats XI was the pre-race favourite and has dominated since the opening minutes of Australia’s premier yacht race which began from Sydney Harbour at 1pm on 26 December. She led the fleet out of the Harbour and never looked back. In the opening 10 hours of the race she surged down the New South Wales coast reaching speeds of 22 knots in almost perfect conditions, but light southwesterly winds in Bass Strait yesterday quashed hopes of bettering her own record set two years ago.

Northerly winds overnight allowed her to make up a lot of time as she sped down the Tasmanian coast, reviving faint hopes of a new record, but it was always going to be a big ask.

Wild Oats XI crossed the finish line ahead of the British maxi City Index Leopard,
skippered by Mike Slade. Slade staged a dramatic comeback over the course of the morning. At one stage the two frontrunners were 21 nautical miles apart and by the time the crew of Wild Oats heard the sound of the cannon marking their finish, (provided by
members of the Militaria Association of Tasmania who dress in period costume to fire the cannon historic Battery Point), City Index Leopard was in the Derwent River and only four miles short of glory.

The result is an extraordinary achievement for Mark Richards who assembled a line-up of 24 international yachtsmen with an extraordinary 233 Rolex Sydney Hobarts between them to mount the historic challenge. Among the crew were Iain Murray, Robbie Naismith, Alby Pratt, Rodney Daniel, Ian Burns and Billy Merrington.

“This finish was very emotional, especially after the broken mast,” Bob Oatley said dockside, “thinking we wouldn’t get the boat ready for this race. We not only got it ready but we won.”

The lead up to the Rolex Sydney Hobart has not been an entirely smooth ride for Wild Oats XI. In September she dismasted during the Rolex Maxi Yacht Cup in Sardinia and it has been a massive job getting a new mast and sails in time for the race, the boat only re-launched in the first week of December.

After the dismasting in Porto Cervo, Oatley admits that he followed the race even more anxiously than normal. “We do everything there is to do to make sure the boat is
right but sometimes that’s not enough, you don’t know what you’ve missed.”

Richards admits there were times during the race that he was pretty anxious too, particularly in the Derwent River. There they seemed to go through a whole race in 11 miles. Six sail changes as the wind ranged from almost nothing to 25 knots in the space of a few minutes.

“It was the culmination of a difficult morning, with glory so tantalisingly
close. “We always thought that we had enough up our sleeve but we were
becalmed at Tasman Island, Cape Raoul and halfway up the river,” said tactician
Peter Shipway.

“We parked three times, for quite some time,” Richards said. “Those are very
nerve-wracking times. After all the hard work to get to the Derwent and then
park is not a great feeling.”

Currently in third place is Matt Allen’s modified Volvo 70 which this morning bore
down on Grant Wharington’s Melbourne maxi Skandia which is limping to Hobart
under jury rig after snapping the top of its mast at 2.30am this morning. Skandia
is currently third but set to overtake is Roger Sturgeon’s Rosebud.

Morna, which sealed her third consecutive win in 1948 with an elapsed time of 4 days 5 hours and 1 minute, was a Fife design, a 65ft Bermudan cutter which took line honours three times as Morna and went on to finish first over the line a further four times as Kurrewa IV. Morna was built in Sydney for the then Commodore the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Dr Alexander MacCormick, and was owned by a number of prominent Sydney yachtsmen including the late Sir Frank Packer.

Mike Slade 's City Index Leopard ended up crossing the finish line at 1051 local time, just 27 minutes behind Wild Oats XIto finish in a time of one day, 21 hours, 51 minutes and 55 seconds.

Slade commented: “We knew from the minute we started in Sydney that this year’s race would not bring ideal conditions for City Index Leopard, and that they would suit Wild Oats XI beautifully. It’s just like race horses who are good on the flat; some prefer soft ground, some are better on hard ground. We’re better in the upwind breezier conditions, as we had in the Rolex Fastnet Race back in the UK earlier this year, and Wild Oats XI prefers the lighter conditions which we’ve seen for this event.

“My congratulations go to Bob Oatley and Wild Oats XI on their third Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race win. Three wins in a row is very commendable, especially as there is so much new technology on the block these days. Each year newer boats come along, so for the same boat to keep doing consistently well in today’s climate is very impressive. It’s a long trip for us to come down to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race but we love coming here to compete and hope to come back again one day, it’s a great race.”

Among the star cast of 26 crew on board City Index Leopard were Paul Standbridge, Ray Davies, Jules and Guy Salter, Noel Drennan, David Rolfe, Kelvin Rawlings, Jason Carrington, Mark Thomas, Hugh Agnew, 'gorgeous' Gordon Macguire.




Throughout the morning a rampant City Index Leopard had been ripping miles out
of Wild Oats XI’s lead. “We pulled back 20 miles in the last six hours,” said City
Index Leopard’s owner, Mike Slade, when he docked in Hobart after finishing 27
and a half minutes behind Wild Oats XI.

“This morning it was our favoured breeze. Ninety per cent of the race was their
race. They were 23 miles ahead of us at sunrise, and I think we got a better
gybe angle coming into Tasman Island. I was thinking they were wounded in
some way because we were watching them struggle coming up the river.”

Despite his late charge, though, Slade believes that the race was decided
during the first 10 hours of the race, when a brisk northerly delivered the fleet a
vintage downhill ride along the New South Wales coast.

“It was in the first afternoon and the first night with lightish airs we knew we
were vulnerable to them and to Skandia and they put about 12 miles on us by
going deeper, and we never got that back. And they got better and better.

Mark Richards said it was a tough race tactically.

“There were a lot of sail changes through the two days and I’ve got to say the
Derwent was unbelievably tough. We had to work our butts off in the river.

“The guys are over the moon. To equal an historical record is sensational.”

City Index Leopard worked hard overnight to overcome a 20 nautical mile deficit
and put pressure on Wild Oats XI in the race across Storm Bay and up the fickle
Derwent River for line honours in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart.

However, Wild Oats’ lead was simply too much, beating Leopard to the Castray
Esplanade finishing line by almost 28 minutes. For Leopard skipper Mike Slade
there was disappointment but also a tinge of satisfaction in being so close.

“Us Poms are pretty used to being thrashed by the Aussies so it comes as no
surprise whatsoever that we just came second.”

Slade also hinted that City Index Leopard’s presence in the race ensured it
would not be a one-way street.

“We gave them a tough look over their shoulder, and we are delighted we could
give another dimension to this race otherwise it would have been another Wild
Oats fanfare.”

Slade also believed that Wild Oats won the race during the first afternoon and
night when the lighter maxi was able to exploit the fast downwind conditions.
According to Slade, “We knew they were much faster than us in those
conditions, and they proved to be.”

The crew of Leopard kept the pressure on, knowing there is always the
possibility in any yacht race of either gear failure or loss of wind, and Slade
noted that a ‘shutdown’ off Tasman Island had affected yachts in previous
races.

Slade did consider the possibility of going ‘bolder’ and steering a different
course that would get Leopard closer to Wild Oats XI.

“the weather and current predictions were so accurate that their (Wild Oats)
line was our best line. Any other line would have us in oblivion,” Slade said.

As both maxis tacked up the Derwent it was evident that City Index Leopard
would not be able to make up the four nautical mile lead in order to pressure
Wild Oats XI, and Slade knew that.

“We couldn’t catch them … we were just delighted we could see them.”

More photos on the following pages....