Spinnaker sock puts foot in it

• NEWS
• 11 Dec, 2004 08:20:00 AM

Spinnaker sock puts foot in it

A faulty spinnaker sock has thwarted punters hoping for a 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honours form guide from yesterday’s Canon Big Boat Challenge on Sydney Harbour

A faulty spinnaker sock has thwarted punters hoping for a 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honours form guide from yesterday’s Canon Big Boat Challenge on Sydney Harbour.

The low grey clouds engulfing the tops of the CBD office towers should have made Melbourne skipper Grant Wharington feel at home, but just two minutes into the race, as he tried to gybe Skandia, a spinnaker sock that had knotted itself around the top of the supermaxi’s giant spinnaker tore the fragile sail in half. 

For the remainder of the first two legs, a downwind run followed by a spinnaker reach, Wharington limped along under a conventional headsail as his New Zealand rival Stewart Thwaites charged off into the distance on Konica Minolta.

So this was not to be a continuation of the 630 mile match race between Skandia and the New Zealand boat (then named Zana) that had left us all spellbound during the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart. 

Both boats have been modified since then, and both boats are faster than they were twelve months ago, but as to which has made the most improvement, well, the punters will have to wait until the Rolex Trophy next week.

Still, a win is a win, and Richard Thwaites is feeling very happy with how things are shaping up.  With the addition of a bowsprit Konica Minolta and an efficient water ballast system this year, Thwaites says this has added an enormous amount of speed to his boat. 

He also believes that he and his crew are much better organised and on top of the boat.  In 2003 Zana was just out of the showroom and crew were still flying into Sydney on the eve of the race.  While conceding that anything can happen on the way to Hobart, Thwaites believes he has an edge over Skandia.  “We have won line honours in our last seven races in Australian waters, three against Skandia.”

Wharington agrees that his rival is going faster than last year.  “I don’t think it is so much the changes they have made to her,” he ventures, “they are going faster because they are managing the boat better.  But we’re going faster too. 

“There is not much in it.  They are a bit faster in lighter airs.  In seven races I tell you one boat will win three and the other four, but I don’t know which one.”

Both skippers say next week’s Rolex Trophy Rating Series will be a better guide to the Hobart, with more races spread out over more variable weather, and on a course that will allow competitors to fight back after a mishap.

And of course, both are aware of the elephant that was not so much in the room as ghosting around on a different part of Sydney Harbour while the big boats raced.  Ludde Ingvall was out working on his brand new 90 foot Nicorette.  This latest creation alone will ensure that the 2004 Sydney Hobart is no rerun of last year’s match race.

Of the handicap contenders, again the punters best wait another week.  The Big Boat challenge is no place for the smaller yachts that so often rain on the big boats’ parade.  Nevertheless, Steven David’s Targé, formerly the 2003 Admiral’s Cup champion Wild Oats, with America’s Cup yachtsman Iain Murray as skipper, is looking very fast. 

David says they are still learning how to get the most out of the boat’s canting keel, so they will only get faster, and that surely must be an ominous warning for the rivals who followed her around the harbour today.

When asked Murray is pretty sanguine about his yacht’s rating, so watch this space.