Wild Oats makes hay during a fickle first night

• NEWS
• 27 Dec, 2005 12:57:00 PM

Wild Oats makes hay during a fickle first night

After a quiet first night for the Rolex Sydney Hobart, Wild Oats XI has reclaimed a slender lead ahead of arch rival Alfa Romeo. Co-navigators on Wild Oats, Adrienne Cahalan and David Dickson, opted for a more inshore route while the other Maxis held further out into the Pacific Ocean.

After a quiet first night for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Wild Oats XI has reclaimed a slender lead ahead of arch rival Alfa Romeo.  Co-navigators on Wild Oats, Adrienne Cahalan and David Dickson, opted for a more inshore route while the other Maxis held further out into the Pacific Ocean.

Cahalan had been looking forward to an "interesting night", and it seems she and Dickson read the fickle weather well.  "We went inshore, and that's where it made the difference for us," commented Cahalan on satellite phone this morning.  "We got a bit further down into the rhumb line down south and that's where the wind came in for us.  We got a nice windshift off Gabo Island and I think that's where we took a step forward."

Cahalan said they had managed to keep moving well throughout the night.  "We had a little more wind than we expected.  We got the better case scenario where we kept some wind all night, whereas I don't think some of the others did."

By this morning, the wind had increased and had begun to turn more northerly, as the forecasters had predicted.  "We've already got 20 to 25 knots now, and the seaway is building up," said Cahalan, adding that any more breeze would raise the question of whether or not to apply the brakes to this runaway train of a canting-keel Maxi.  "We've got to pitch it just right - do enough to stay ahead of Alfa Romeo but not push so hard that we break anything.  That's what the Rolex Sydney Hobart is all about. We'll probably end up seeing 30 to 35 knots if the wind comes through before we reach the Tasman coast."

While she was pleased with Wild Oats' overnight gain, there were many more dilemmas facing the navigators over the coming few hours.  "Whether or not you go offshore is the tricky decision for today. "Indeed when the navigator of the most seaward Maxi, Konica Minolta, was asked why he was so far out to sea, Ross Field retorted: "The others are just a long way in!  We'll just have to find out who made the best call."  As far as he's concerned, out in the ocean will be the place to find the best wind, and recent position reports show Konica Minolta and Skandia pulling level with Wild Oats and Alfa Romeo in terms of progress south.  But in terms of distance to Hobart, the more westerly Wild Oats still holds the advantage. 

The overnight conditions have made it less likely for Nokia's course record to be broken this year.  Adrienne Cahalan's main focus is on winning the race, but she said she was keeping one eye on the possibilities of setting a new time.  "We've got some corners to turn, and we've still a long way to go.  I think the record is very touch and go, actually."

The maxis have enjoyed the best of the overnight breeze, with the rest of the fleet suffering in much patchier wind conditions. Alex Thomson said his fat-bottomed Open 60, Hugo Boss, was "sticking like glue" to the flat ocean and he will thank the wind for increasing during the course of today.  Apparently his team mate Nick Moloney has taken some convincing to get out of his tuxedo, which all the crew wore at the start of the race in Sydney yesterday.  While the rest of the team were all too happy to get back into shorts and T-shirts once they were on their way, Moloney was threatening to wear his tuxedo all the way to Hobart.

Just behind Hugo Boss is another 60-footer, Stephen Ainsworth's Loki, who have reported sighting many whales and sunfish on their way south.  But there have been no serious collisions reported.  The only retirement from the 85-boat fleet is the German entry Conergy, who pulled out earlier today after reporting rudder and radio damage.

Towards the back end of the fleet, Alex Whitworth admitted to some frustration aboard Berrimilla, the little 33-footer that he has sailed across to England and back this past year with his crew mate Peter Crozier.  At times the boat has been completely becalmed, although Berrimilla continues to hold her own against yachts of similar size.

Not long after the start yesterday afternoon, Berrimilla got caught up with something in the water.  "We were trundling along just off Maroobra," said Whitworth, "when we snagged the rudder around three floats off the end of a lobster line.  We dragged it along for a bit, and then Pete jumped over the side and cut it away.  We probably lost about 10 minutes, that's all, because we weren't travelling very quickly at the time.  But how we managed to find it I don't know.  We managed to miss thousands of these things off the coast of England earlier this year, so to pick up this one off the coast of New South Wales seems like our bad luck for this race."

But Whitworth is enjoying this race, the last leg of a long odyssey across the world's oceans.  "Every race we do one day at a time.  We try to keep the thing moving.  It's not really different to sailing this boat across the Indian Ocean and trying to make the start line of this race in time.  After this, I think Pete and I will have to go back to work and earn some money.  "Perhaps snagging lobster lines in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race isn't so bad after all."