The magnificent seven

We look at the unprecidented supermaxi line-up heading to Hobart on Boxing Day

This year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart race is lining up to be genuinely one of the top classic offshore 600 milers of all time.

Bucking the global economic melt down the race this year sees an unprecedented roster of serious offshore yachting hardware. This is strongest in the 50-55ft range where the entry includes six former TP52s, as well as in the Mini-Maxis, where the recent Rolex Trophy Series held off Sydney Heads has seen two of the top contenders go head to head in the similarly sized 60 foot Reichel Pughs, Loki and Limit.

And then there are the seven supermaxis, led, as ever, by Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats XI. The Rolex Fastnet Race this year, for example, only featured one super maxi, although there were a few more competitive Mini Maxis and other high profile classes such as the IMOCA 60s.

Incredibly, while there are some big players such as Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard and Niklas Zennstrom’s Ran which have made the long trip down under from Europe, the majority of this impressive line-up is Australian.

So are Australians a lot richer than they’re letting on? "We just like big boat and the Hobart is a big incentive for people. Down here the sponsorship dollar goes a long way down here over Christmas time," says Alfa Romeo’s Wade Morgan.

The fact is that in Australia the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race seems to be much more of a mainstream sporting event than its rivals in their respective countries. This is partly due to its long history and particularly the 1998 disaster still being relatively fresh in the public’s mind, when six participants lost their lives - including British Olympic sailor Glyn Charles, 55 were rescued and of 115 starters just 44 boats made it to Hobart.

Of all the classic offshore 600 milers, the Hobart race is probably the one capable of serving up the worst weather on a regular basis. Despite it being held in the height of the Australian summer the race heads south, 630 miles to Hobart on the southeastern side of Tasmania, which at almost 43degS is fully into the Roaring Forties.



The course also takes the boats across the eastern exit of Bass Straight between Tasmania and the Australian mainland through which some very serious weather can funnel. But the meteo scenario that typically nails the Hobart fleet and has given the event its knarley reputation is when a depression, known locally as a ‘Southerly Buster’, forms over the Tasman Sea providing not only headwinds for the fleet as they pound south but an evil wind-against-current sea state, the southerly wind chopping up the south-flowing current.

Aside from this the Boxing Day start of the Hobart race within the confines of Sydney Harbour is an annual phenomenon within our sport every bit as impressive as Cowes Week or the UK’s Round the Island Race.

Name	Owner	Nat	Skipper	LOA	Designer	Launched	ex
Crew
Alfa Romeo 2	Neville Crichton	NZ	Neville Crichton	30.48	Reichel Pugh	2005
W Morgan, L Jenkins, J Morris, G McPherson, D Rolfe, N Drennan, C Satterthwaite, B Clark, A Hutchinson, P Merrington, S Bannatyne, M Coxon, M Spence, E Williams
Wild Oats XI	Bob Oatley	AUS	Mark Richards	30.48	Reichel Pugh	2005
T Wiseman, S Runnow, M Shillington, R Goodrich, J Hildebrand, R Daniels, A Henderson, J Whittaker, R Naismith, S Jarvin, T Tindill, I Murray, I Burns, A Cahalan, M Sanderson, M Mason
ICAP Leopard	Mike Slade	GBR	Mike Slade	30.48	Farr	2007
R. Waddell, J. Clark, Z. Gills, D. Clarke, E. Turner, K. Rawling, J Elliot, J. Carrington, J. Slattery, C Sherlock, G Salter, J Turner, R Davies, Z Gills, T Burnell, M Thomas, T Sellars, B Jackson, B Wylie, J Larrineen, H Agnew, J Salter, R. Greenhall, H Slade, N Dikmen
Investec LOYAL	Sean Langman	AUS	Sean Langman	30.48	Elliott	2005	Maximus
D. Dickson, J Alexander, S McKnight, T Oxley, J. Dekock, P Calligeros, R Field,  J Crawford, L Jamieson, B Cormack, P Schultz, J Akacich, A Bell, J Dack, G Hackett, P Waugh, D Green, P Kearns, L Emdur
Etihad Stadium	Grant Wharington	AUS	Grant Wharington	30	Don Jones	2003	Skandia Wild Thing
G Taylor, I Johnson, P Cosman, G Durran, T Ede, G Healy, D Haines, P Heyes, M Bartlett, M Pearce, J Rae, B Coventry, S Crafer, W Finlay, B Morrison-Jack
Lahana	Peter Millard/John Honan	AUS	Peter Millard	30	Bakewell-White	2003	Zana/Konica Minolta
A. Jackson, J. Honan, A. Pryer, P. Shwarz, P. McInearmey, D. Curtis, N. Nicole, M. Souter, J. Beaton, G. Chessels, P. Sheldrick, C. Jones, P. Magee, D. Adams, R. Moore, N. Crawley, C. Love, D. Kilponen, N. Nicole, N. Barda, I. Davis, J. Cropley, T. Munns, D. Williams, R. Fraser, W. Roberts, J. Currie, J. Beaton
YuuZoo	Ludde Ingvall	AUS	Ludde Indvall	27.38	Simonis Voogd	2004	Nicorette

As to why there are seven supermaxis competing this year – perhaps part of the reason is that the event's organiser, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, has allowed there to be more prestige in winning line honours than perhaps is the case with other 600 milers.

Of the seven supermaxis competing, three are in with the best chance of winning - the 2005 generation Reichel Pugh sisterships Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats XI and the UK contender, Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard.

Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI has claimed line honours in every Rolex Sydney Hobart race since 2005, when she arrived in Hobart 1 hour 16 minutes ahead of Alfa Romeo, to ultimately claim the triple prize of line honours, a handicap win and also a new race record of 1 days 18 hours 40 minutes and 10 seconds, which to date she has yet to better.

Significant this year is that it will be the first time that the old rivals Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats have lined up in the Hobart race since their first dust up in 2005. Bob Oatley’s crew, led by Mark Richards, have more experience on this particular course in their boat, however the Alfa Romeo team have spent the intervening years winning events all around the Med and most recently claimed line honours in this year’s Transpac between Los Angeles and Hawaii.

The only significant change to the supermaxi rules for the Hobart race this year is that the maximum length has been increased marginally from 30m up to 100ft, the CYCA falling in line with the other 600 milers around the world. It is this, partly, which has prompted the return of Alfa Romeo and her owner Neville Crichton - a long term Sydney resident, despite being a New Zealander. Alfa Romeo was lengthened at the start of the 2008 season for racing in Europe, the extra length added to her transom (as was the case with ICAP Leopard) while Wild Oats has only had this work carried out this year the added length in her case being split between bow and transom.

According to Wild Oats’ skipper, Mark Richards, otherwise they have fitted a new bulb and carried out a lot of small refinements. "The other big thing is that rather than IRC rule-cheating sails, we have gone to VO70-style fast sails. We have a big square top main and proper code zeros rather than IRC-oriented ones, which are big round bubbles. They are going to make a big difference to these boats."

The result is more area in both the mainsail and the kites. Helping with the sail development, and on board for the Hobart race, is TeamOrigin boss and former Volvo Ocean Race winner, Mike Sanderson.

"He is a great attribute to the team and we get on well and we have similar ideas in how to go fast, so it has worked out very well for us," says Richards of Sanderson. "He has been involved for a few months and has had a lot of input in the sails. It is a one-off thing for him. It’s an opportunity for him to sail a different style of boat. He is pretty impressed with how fast these skinny Reichel Pugh boats go..." Aside from the ABN AMRO boats, Sanderson was deeply involved with both Mari Cha III and IV and Alex Jackson’s currently mothballed, Speedboat supermaxi.

Another significant difference is that Wild Oats XI have shed six crew and are now down to 18. In comparison Alfa Romeo are supposed to be sailing with 22. According to Richards the six crew and their gear represents about a tonne in weight. "We have always been a little bit heavy on people, so we’ll just have to be very disciplined and do a good job. We have a good system set up so we are very confident."

Over in the Alfa Romeo camp, they too have been working on their sails. According to boat captain and crewmember Wade Morgan they have had to go about a major reconfiguration to their rig set-up and sail wardrobe from the inshore racing they typically undertake in the Med and the downwind Transpac. The only mod otherwise specifically made for this race has been replacing the bowsprit, where they have gained a little weight.

“We are fairly happy with the boat - it is tried and tested, so we are concentrating on new sails, crew work over the last few weeks and optimising the boat for more of an upwind forecast. The Transpac is a very different race to the Hobart..." says Morgan, who points out that within the supermaxis generally there is a trend away from even considering the possibility of a handicap win with everyone gunning purely to be first up the Derwent river into Hobart. This is why most boats have gone much more extreme on their sail wardrobe.

For Mike Slade and his team on board ICAP Leopard, they have been slightly on the back foot since the shipping of their boat was delayed by 8-9 days into Australia. They only arrived in Sydney on Saturday. According boat captain Chris Sherlock they got the sailing team down earlier to help put the boat together and have been out sailing with a full crew every day since.

ICAP Leopard herself hasn’t changed since she claimed line honours in this year's Rolex Fastnet Race.

Given that all three of the top supermaxis are now tried and tested, the key issue over who will win this year’s race could be down to the weather. Being narrower and lighter, the Reichel Pughs prefer lighter conditions, ideally VMG running, while ICAP Leopard being longer and with a more powerful hull shape prefers stronger conditions, ideally upwind or power reaching.

The latest forecast indicates that Leopard could be fastest out of the blocks as the boats set out in a fairly stiff SSEerly of 20-30 knots (with 30 knots more offshore) but during the two days of racing the wind will back right round through the east and north ending up in the northwest for the finish. According Chris Sherlock yesterday's forecast was looking better for them than today's, but with four days to go until the start there is still much potential for change in the forecast.

"Hopefully it will be quite windy down the Tassie coast but it will be a fairly light easterly 5-20 knots across Bass Straight, but still into a head sea and a lot of current pushing us down so I think we’ll almost need to slow down at that point," says Wade Morgan. "Then it’ll come round aft and we’ll be running fast down the Tassie coast." The routing, he adds, presently has Alfa Romeo into Hobart in just under two days - which is nothing special given that Wild Oats in recent races has completed the course in around one day 20 hours.

So favouring the Reichel Pughs over Leopard? "I wouldn’t say so on the first day," contemplates Morgan. " Leopard is a quality but which we have a lot of respect for. In less than 15-18 knots they are not the fastest, but as soon as we go upwind or reaching in breeze they are as fast or faster than us. For now Leopard are favoured in the first 18 hours. We will all be slowing down but Leopard will slow down less and from there it’ll more favour the RP boats. But if it gets windy enough Leopard will be back in the action. Leopard could get a good lead at the start."

While these are the top rated boats, the others cannot be discounted too. Grant Wharington returns once again with his Skandia Wild Thing, now known as Etihad Stadium, but experienced an 11th hour disaster when the boat dismasted on her delivery up to Sydney. They managed to get Alfa Romeo’s spare rig, which was in France and was then transported to Belgium before being flown to Sydney where it only arrived yesterday morning at 01:30am.

"It is going well," Wharington told thedailysail last night, keeping a brave face on. "We are expecting it to crane it in tomorrow night. It is currently in two pieces. We’ve just made the join, it is about to be slid into one piece."

Other than that they have fitted a new keel to the boat this year extending it down to almost 7m! Wharington says the boat is also 3.5 tonnes lighter than it was a year ago. “It has transformed the boat. It was very fast last year.”

Both Kiwi super maxis are now in Australian hands. The Greg Elliott-designed former Maximus, is now owned by long term Hobart race contender and Sydney boatyard owner, Sean Langman and renamed Investec Loyal. She has been extended to 100ft and has just recently had a new keel fitted.

The Bakewell-White designed former Zana/ Konica Minolta is now owned by Peter Millard and John Honan and is back down under having been on the market in the UK for a long time.

The surprise return has been that of 2004 Hobart race winner and former Whitbread Round the World Race competitor Sydney-based Finn, Ludde Ingvall. After a five year sabbatical, mainly for personal reasons, the dynamic Ingvall is back in his Simonis-Voogt designed 90 footer re-equipped with a former Pyewacket mast bought from Roy Disney shortly before he died (the mast now has a special plaque on it as tribute to its old owner). Ingvall’s entry has been an 11th hour one and he is aware that he is going to struggle against the well prepared and resourced top trio. More on his campaign in due course.

So seven supermaxis on the start line. One wonders whether the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup – where no 100ft supermaxis competed this year – shouldn’t find a new venue? Hamilton Island perhaps?