Regatta test for Wild Joe, Konica Minolta and others

• NEWS
• 25 Nov, 2004 03:14:00 PM

Regatta test for Wild Joe, Konica Minolta and others

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race leading contenders Wild Joe and Konica Minolta will make their regatta racing debuts in Sydney this weekend in the Savills Short Ocean Racing Championship.

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race leading contenders Wild Joe and Konica Minolta will make their regatta racing debuts in Sydney this weekend in the Savills Short Ocean Racing Championship.

They are among 19 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race entrants using the four-race regatta on Saturday and Sunday as part of their preparation for the Rolex Trophy in mid-December and the 60th anniversary race to Hobart that starts on Boxing Day, 26 December.

The four-race regatta will be sailed over short windward/leeward courses off Sydney Heads on Saturday and Sunday, with around 100 yachts entered in the rated classes and one design classes.

America’s Cup yachtsman and international yacht designer Iain Murray will be at the helm of Wild Joe, one of the fastest 60-footers in the world, while New Zealander Stewart Thwaites will steer his super maxi Konica Minolta.

Konica Minolta, which as Zana, finished only 14 minutes astern of Skandia in their duel for line honours in last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, arrived from New Zealand on Monday.

The 30-metre sloop has undergone significant changes including an improved water ballast system and a bowsprit since last summer in which she contested only the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race out of Sydney.

Calling tactics on Wild Joe will be Michael Coxon, the tactician on the super maxi Alfa Romeo when she won line honours in the 2002 Rolex Sydney Hobart and on her highly successful campaign in England and the Mediterranean over the past two Northern Hemisphere summers.

Electric problems effecting the 60-footer’s canting keel forced Wild Joe,  the 2003 Admiral’s Cup winning champion then named Wild Oats, out of last weekend’s Flinders Islet Race,  which would have been her first overnight race under her new ownership and keel configuration.

Designed by American naval architects Reichel/Pugh with the then new CBTF (canting ballast, twin foil) concept, Wild Oats became the fastest offshore racing 60-footer in the world under the ownership of prominent Australian winemaker Bob Oatley.

She outsailed the maxis and super maxis at the 2002 Hamilton Island Race Week, shattered the record for the 2003 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Race and then, in August 2003 was topscoring boat at the Admiral’s Cup at Cowes, joined by Aftershock in a winning team from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Sydney.

New owner Stephen David has had the 60-footer modified to meet the limitation on canting keels of 10 degrees of static heel to be eligible for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

Both Wild Joe and Konica Minolta face strong opposition in the IRC Division of the Savills Regatta, including Rolex Sydney Hobart opponents AFR Midnight Rambler (Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas), Abbott Tout (Ola Strand Andersen), Loki (Tony Kirby), Nips N Tux (Howard de Torres), Terra Firma (Nicholas Bartels), Prime Time (Neville Wittey) and Pla Loma (Rob Reynolds). 

This will be the first race for Reynolds, a past Commodore of Middle Harbour Yacht Club,  with Pla Loma, a DK43 he recently imported from South-East Asia to replace Tara, his previous boat that foundered after hitting a rock on the delivery trip back from Hamilton Island in September.

Many of the expected Farr 40, Sydney 38 and Sydney 32 one-design entrants for the Rolex Trophy will also be racing this weekend in the Savills Regatta.