Match race to Hobart

We look at the potential line honours contenders in the Rolex Sydney Hobart race

BoatName	Owner	State	Design	Division	LOA (m)
Zana	Stewart Thwaites	NZ	Maxi 98	IRC	30
Skandia	Grant Wharington	VIC	IRC Maxi 98	IRC	29.85
Brindabella	George Snow	NSW	Jutson 79	IMS/IRC	24.08
Nicorette	Ludde Ingvall	NSW	IRM Maxi	IRC	24
Zaraffa	Skip Sheldon	USA	Reichel Pugh 65	IMS/IRC	20.27
Grundig AAPT	Sean Langman	NSW	MBD 66	IRC	20
Andrew Short Marine	Andrew Short	NSW	Volvo 60	IMS/IRC	19.44
formula1sailing.com	formula1sailing.com	UK	Volvo 60	IRC	19.44
Nokia 2UE	M Gray / J Hodder / P Sorensen / S Zemanek	NSW	Volvo 60	PHS	19.44
Seriously TEN	J Woodruff / S James / E Robinson	NSW	Volvo 60	PHS	19.44
Pale Ale Rager	Gary Shanks	SA	Elliott 56	PHS	17.1
KAZ	David Pescud	NSW	Lyons 52	PHS	16.2
Ichi Ban	Matt Allen	NSW	Farr 52	IMS/IRC	15.79
Yendys	Geoff Ross	NSW	Judel Vrolijk (JV52)	IMS	15.75
Merlin	David Forbes / Richard Brooks	NSW	Forbes / Kaiko	IMS/IRC	15.6
Bounder	Chris Little	UK	Farr 49	IMS/IRC	15.5
Bright Morning Star	Randal Wilson / Hugh O'Neill	NSW	Peterson 50	PHS	15.5
Ragamuffin	Syd Fischer	NSW	Farr 50	IMS/IRC	15.5
Strewth	Geoff Hill	NSW	MKL 49	PHS	14.97
Shere Khan	Richard Wyatt	QLD	Beneteau 47.7	IMS/IRC	14.53
Dysons Cobb & Co	Chris Dare	VIC	Farr 47	IMS / IRC	14.32
Mirrabooka	John Bennetto	TAS	Frers 47	IMS	14.32
Aint Misbehavin	Justin Ricketts / Rob Alexander / James Walker	UK	Lavranos 47	IMS	14.29
Love & War	Peter Kurts	NSW	S & S 47	IMS	14.281
Quest	Bob Steel	NSW	Nelson Marek 46	IMS/IRC	14.19
Ice Fire	Hans Butter	WA	Mummery 45	IMS/IRC	13.85
Kontrol	Peter Blake	VIC	Hart 45	IRC	13.85
Loki	Stephen Ainsworth	NSW	Swan 48	IMS / IRC	13.8
Kickatinalong	Geoff Smith	NSW	Adams 13	PHS	13.075
Liberator	Geoff Catt	SA	Farr 42	IMS/IRC	12.9
Tilting at Windmills	Thorry Gunnersen	VIC	MOD J. Dory 41	IMS	12.825
Secret Mens Business	Geoff Boettcher	SA	MBD 42	IMS/IRC	12.75
Terra Firma	Nicholas Bartels & Martin Vaughan	VIC	Murray 41	IMS	12.48
Fuzzy Logic	Paul Roberts / Bill Lennon	VIC	ILC 40	IMS/IRC	12.475
Midnight Rambler II	Dennis Millikan	VIC	Farr 40	IMS	12.239
Wahoo	Brian Emerson	NSW	Frers 40	PHS	12.2
Aurora	Jim & Mary Holley	NSW	Farr 40	IMS	12.19
Interum	Craig King	TAS	Lyons 40	IMS	12.172
Nips-N-Tux	Howard De Torres	NSW	IMX 40	IMS/IRC	12.1
Witchdoctor	The Rum Consortium	NSW	Davidson 42	PHS	12
First National Real Estate	Michael Spies & Peter Johnson	NSW	Beneteau 40.7	IMS/IRC	11.92
Matangi	David Stephenson	TAS	Frers 39	IRC/IMS	11.782
Balmain Experience	Tony Williams	NSW	NSX 38	PHS	11.63
Degrees of Freedom	Mike Reynolds	WA	Runnalls 38	IMS/IRC	11.6
Another Challenge	Lou Abrahams	VIC	Sydney 38	IMS/Syd 38	11.58
Asylum	Wayne Kirkpatrick	QLD	Sydney 38	IRC/IMS/Syd 38	11.58
Chutzpah	Bruce Taylor	VIC	Sydney 38	IMS/IRC/Syd38	11.58
Dodo	Adrian Dunphy	NSW	Sydney 38	IMS/IRC/Syd 38	11.58
Obsession	S Wheelhouse / M Hunter / S Roach	NSW	Sydney 38	IMS/Syd 38	11.58
Team Lexus	Rupert Henry	NSW	Sydney 38	IMS/IRC/Syd 38	11.58
Pippin	David Taylor	TAS	Farr 37	IMS/IRC	11.4
AFR Midnight Rambler	Ed & Sue Psaltis / Bob Thomas	NSW	Northshore 369	IMS/IRC	11.25
Impeccable	John Walker	NSW	3/4 Tonner	IMS/IRC	10.22
Berrimilla	Alex Whitworth	NSW	Brolga 33	IMS/IRC	10.16
Krakatoa	Rod Skellet	NSW	Young 31	IMS/IRC	9.54
Toecutter	Robert Hick	VIC	Hick 31	IMS/IRC	9.44
Katinka	Paul O'Connell	NSW	Currawong 30	PHS	9.245

Here at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet are flexing their muscles ready for the start on Boxing Day.

The race for line honours looks set to be a battle royal between the two new super maxis Zana and Skandia, both purpose-built for this one goal. Despite both being very long, skinny, underpowered and underballasted, the two boats could not be more different.

Zana, owned by Stewart Thwaites from New Zealand is a Brett Bakewell-White design and is business-like and bulletproof. She is a fixed keel boat with a five spreader rig with rod rigging and is generally conservative in her approach.

Skandia, owned by Australian Grant Wharington, is a much more radical design by relative unknown Don Jones, who has clearly taken a long look at how to build a rule-beater under IRC. She has a canting keel and just two enormous spreaders which are wider than the shroud base so the lower shrouds angle in towards the chainplates. Perhaps one of the most interesting innovations is that she has no coffee grinders. All the winches are electrically powered and the sail handling a push-button affair. This is allowed on big boats under IRC. An obvious downside is the line speeds of the winches, but a crewman we spoke to earlier said that the system on board was acceptibly fast.

Both boats have serious crews - with Warrington are the likes of Barney Walker and Peter Doriean while navigator is former BT Global Challenge skipper Will Oxley. On Zana Cameron Appleton is starting helmsman and the crew includes a number of Volvo heavyweights such as Stu Bannatyne, Joey Allen, Steve Cotton, Phil Airey and Rodney Keenan.

At present the forecasters are saying that this year's Hobart race will be upwind into 20 knots for the front runners. In this case our money will be on Zana for line honours. Although Skandia has shown pace in recent races around Sydney Harbour here she has no daggerboard or foil to prevent leeway when her keel is canted.

However the bookies here think otherwise, the odds no doubt skewed by the punters backing the home team. Local bookmakers Sports TAB are quoting the following for line honours:

Skandia - 1.65:1
Zana - 2.45:1
Grundig 8:1
Nicorette 11:1
Brindabella 26:1
Zaraffa 34:1

There is an outside chance that Zana and Skandia both being so fresh out of their respective boxes might break after a prolonged hammering to weather in which case Sean Langman's ever evolving Grundig is the most likely contender. Once upon a time this boat was an innocent Open 60. Langman owns Noakes Boatyard in Sydney and over the years his boat has evolved beyond all recognition. She is now 66ft long and the latest innovations have been modifying the rudders so that they can lift. Most unusual about her are her bow hydrofoils. These are two winglets mounted halfway up her bow which are designed to dampen pitching. It will be interesting to see if they are still on the bow when she reaches Hobart.

Ludde Ingvall's Nicorette, line honours victor in 2000, is another boat with an all-star cast of crew including navigator Adrienne Cahalan, Anthony Nossiter and Richard Bouzaid. The boat has been fitted with a canting keel for this season, but word on the dock is that this transformation hasn't turboed the boat to the degree it was hoped to.

If the race is upwind then George Snow's stalwart Hobart race entry, Brindabella will be in with a chance. Despite being 10 years old now this Scott Jutson design looks brand new. Snow, a veteran of 20 Hobart races is still contemplating the build of a replacement.

Where do Volvo Ocean 60s go once their time on the round the world race course is over? One answer is Marstrand in Sweden, the second answer is Sydney. There are an impressive four in this race a majority having been formerly campaigned by Knut Frostad - these include Andrew Short Marine (the former djuice race boat), Serious TEN (the djuice non-race boat), while British charter company Formula1Sailing have chartered the former Innovation Kvaerner. The fourth is Nokia. Confusingly this isn't the boat which currently holds the official course record for the Rolex Sydney Hobart but is Paul Cayard's former EF Language.

Upwind these boats will also be in with a chance, although all four of them are looking somewhat long in the tooth.