New 30 metre super maxi being built for 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

• NEWS
• 04 Jun, 2003 01:46:00 PM

New 30 metre super maxi being built for 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

The largest ocean racing yacht ever built in Australia, a 30 metre super maxi for Victorian yachtsman Grant Wharington, will contest this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. This is the most innovative of Wharington’s line of fast boats named Wild Thing and is under construction at Mornington, Victoria, due to be launched in late August.

The largest ocean racing yacht ever built in Australia, a 30 metre super maxi for Victorian yachtsman Grant Wharington, will contest this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

This is the most innovative of Wharington’s line of fast boats named Wild Thing and is under construction at Mornington, Victoria, due to be launched in late August.

At 30m (100 feet) length overall (LOA),  the new Wild Thing will have a state-of-the-art canting keel and will just fit within the maximum LOA and IRC upper handicap limit imposed by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

“Line honours in the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is our goal,” Wharington said today.

“I believe this race is the ultimate challenge in Australian yachting today and, as an Australian and a patriot, the winning would be even sweeter,” added Wharington who, with his previous Wild Things has had a second, a third and a fourth over the line.
 

“Our maxi is a truly ‘Australian made’ product.   We have ordered our D4 sails from Doyle Fraser sails, we have an Australian rig and, of course,  an Australian builder in Mal Hart and designer in Don Jones,” he said.

A detailed technical insight into the design concept and construction of the new Wild Thing by chief designer and structural engineer Don Jones is published in the June/July edition of Offshore Yachting magazine.

The hull,  which is now at an advanced state of construction, is moulded in unidirectional carbon/aramid over an end-grain balsa core.  The boat will have a 15/16 fractional rig with non-overlapping headsails, with optional sloop/cutter rig. The mast is being built by Applied Composites in Melbourne.

Explaining the canting keel,  Jones said the rules of the Australian Yachting Federation (and the CYCA) limited the angle of static heel with full ballast movement  to 10 degrees for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

After launching and rigging the new Wild Thing in Melbourne in late August,
Wharington and his crew plan to extensively test the boat and sails in Bass Strait and southern Tasmanian waters before bring the super maxi to Sydney in December.