Fresh winds spur bid for Sydney-hobart record
Wild Oats XI hot favourite
SYDNEY, Dec 24, (AFP): Favourable winds may produce a record time when the gruelling Sydney to Hobart yacht race sets off on Boxing Day, with supermaxi Wild Oats XI a hot tip to take a sixth line honours win.
The weather forecast suggests the 77-strong fleet will face a headwind when they sail out of Sydney Harbour Wednesday on the 628-nautical mile course down southeastern Australia.
But this should fade as tail winds blow in to speed the boats across the Bass Strait and on to Hobart, capital of the island state of Tasmania.
“On the first night, the winds will lighten off a bit and will back around from the southeast to the northeast,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Michael Logan told AFP.
“It looks like on the second day, those northeasterly winds will freshen up quite a lot making for some faster downwind sailing.”
Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards said Monday that his boat’s 2005 race record was up for grabs.
“For all of us it’s just going to be pedal to the metal,” Richards told a news conference.
“Don’t back off, push off as fast as you can and hopefully sail the shortest course possible and the rest is in the hands of the gods.”
His navigator Adrienne Cahalan said the forecast was ideal.
“Every Hobart sailor dreams about a southerly on Christmas Day, so it’s a very exciting forecast for us,” she said.
“If you use the computer and run the forecasts, Wild Oats has a chance on record pace,” she said, noting “a few transition zones we are going to have to deal with”.
Logan said the fleet could face a westerly change in the closing stages, but conditions were not expected to be anything like the catastrophic weather of 1998 in which six sailors died.
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia race includes a fleet of old and new, big and small boats and is a wellestablished Boxing Day spectacle as the yachts make their way out of Sydney Harbour.
With a tailwind, the big boats are backed for line honours while smaller vessels could face a buffeting if the westerly impacts late on.
“It’s going to be exciting up the front end of the fleet, and also the back end of the fleet are going to have some serious yachting on their hands,” Cruising Yacht Club of Australia commodore Howard Pigott said.
Wild Oats XI holds the record of one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds set seven years ago. Fellow 100footer Ragamuffin-Loyal (which took line honours in 2011 as Investec Loyal) and 98-foot yacht Lahana are also in the betting.
The 2003 line honours winner Wild Thing, now a 100footer, could be a dark horse having undergone major work since last year, including a completely new back end.
The race awards line honours as a well as handicap honours which take into account each boat’s dimensions, including sail area, whether it has a canting or fixed keel and age.
For some, such as the 80-year-old, 30-foot Maluka of Kermandie, which was the last to cross the line in 2011, just finishing is its own reward.
“It’s not looking too flash for the smaller boats because we’ll contend with a lot more upwind conditions,” skipper Sean Langman said.
“Certainly it will be a big boat race. It’s exciting for the big boats.
“We’ll be listening and just hoping we’ll get there in time for the New Year’s Eve fireworks.” This Sept 25, 2011 file photo shows New York Yankees’ Nick Swisher celebrating his two-run home run off Minnesota Twins pitcher Esmerling Vasquez in the fourth inning of a baseball game in Minneapolis. Two people familiar with the negotiations said Swisher has agreed to a $56 million, four-year contract with the Indians, who used the free agent outfielder’s deep Ohio connections to convince him to join the club. The people spoke on condition of anonymity Dec 23, because Swisher must take a physical before the deal can be finalized. The Indians are expected to announce Swisher’s
signing after Christmas, one of the people said. (AP)