Foreign devils out to spoil Aussie parade

• NEWS
• 26 Dec, 2006 12:05:00 PM

Foreign devils out to spoil Aussie parade

Jazz must be seen as one of the form boats going into the Rolex Sydney Hobart. The Tattersalls Cup would be some redress for the Ashes.

Yachts from five countries will line up alongside the best of Australian ocean sailing for the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race today.

Like their Australian rivals they are here for diverse reasons. Some are here to win, others to say they have done it. All have come half way round the world because the Hobart's reputation makes if a must-do for a huge number of sailors around the world.

The motives of the giant New Zealand entry Maximus are pretty uncomplicated. "It’s all about line honours,” said co-skipper Charles St Clair Brown.

“We built this boat to break records. We want to be first across the line and we are not really worried about trying to win it on rating. If you build a maximum length yacht you shouldn't have to worry about rating, it's all about who gets there first."

To take line honours Maximus will have to climb over the Australian maxis Wild Oats XI and Skandia, while at the same time making sure that the Volvo 70s don't climb over her. The Netherlands entry ABN AMRO ONE is packed with world class Admiral's Cup and America's Cup sailors, lead by New Zealander Mike Sanderson.

They have won the Volvo Ocean Race, the world's toughest marathon, but for boats this big and this fast, even at 600 miles the Rolex Sydney Hobart is more like a sprint. They will have to keep the pressure on the maxis every minute of the race. That means putting intense pressure on themselves and their boat as well. "If we are going to annoy the big boats we need it to be a little bit adventurous out there" was how Sanderson put it.

Chris Bull, a past Vice Commodore of the Britain's Royal Ocean Racing Club is very focused on winning, too, though he knows his 14 metre J145 Jazz will not be anywhere near Hobart when Maximus docks.

Bull achieved a remarkable 2nd place overall in the 2002 race on the chartered Australian boat called Quest. He would dearly love to go one better and capture the Tattersalls Cup, Australian yachting's most prestigious trophy, at the helm of his own boat.

Jazz has a terrific race record, with class wins in the 2003 Fastnet, and the Round Ireland and Middle Sea races last year. She has already won the Flinders Island race since coming out here, and Jazz must be seen as one of the form boats going into the Rolex Sydney Hobart. The Tattersalls Cup would be some redress for the Ashes.

Three other British crews are out here for the challenge. John Liddell is leading a crew of fathers and sons who have already sailed together extensively in the Rolex Fastnet and other local races, and they have charted a very well set up local Beneteau 47.7, Kioni, for the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

The British boat, Adventure, sailed by a team from the British Army Royal Signals Corp, is a former BT Challenge yacht, capable of taking anything the sea can hand out. These boats were designed and built for a race that was conceived around the entirely British notion that it might be fun to sail around the world the wrong way, against the prevailing winds. A bit like floating armoured personnel carriers. So while no greyhound, Adventure is entirely suitable for an army training expedition that will eventually cover 33,000 miles and take eleven months.

The fourth UK boat is Michele Colenso’s Capriccio of Rhu which is completing a circumnavigation with a pit stop in Sydney to contest the Rolex Sydney Hobart. Michele has the added challenge of fighting breast cancer, an issue she is hoping to raise awareness for by contesting the bluewater classic – and by flying a one-off pink 'bra' spinnaker on Sydney Harbour for the 1pm start today.

The Italians on DSK Comifin, a Swan 45, are on a similarly quixotic odyssey, shipping the yacht from continent to continent to compete in the world’s four great offshore races: the Rolex Middle Sea, the Newport to Bermuda, the Rolex Fastnet and the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

Andrea Casale, who runs DSK Comifin for owner Danilo Salsi concedes that the NSW coast is quite a different proposition to the Mediterranean. "It's great but you get spoiled. It's too mild. You can sail for days forgetting all about your boots and your weather gear and when you have bad days you're not ready."

The distance between Naples and Rome, let alone that between Palermo and Milan dwarfs anything between Sydney and Perth, but Andrea says he crew work together surprisingly well. "We really have different heritage and different way of doing things. Half the crew is from the islands and the South. They are relaxed. The others from the North are more paranoid, precise. But Italy is like that. It is a joke, the land of individualism, not team players, but sometimes you have a super team like the (World Cup winning) Azzurri.

The Canadian Beneteau 47.7 Kinetic is another on a global adventure, sailing out here from Vancouver on her own bottom. Owner David Sutcliffe competed in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart on the local Beneteau 47.7, Kioni. "It was all research for this idea I've had for a long time, of bringing my own boat down," he says. "I didn't want to do it cold. It's not just the race. A huge amount of any successful program is the preparation that goes in ahead of time so I wanted to be part of that on another team to see how it was done here”.

Sutcliffe says that the sailing scene in Sydney and Vancouver are quite different, despite both places offering year round sailing. For a start it's warmer. "People here talk about hypothermia in three to four hours. In Vancouver in fall/winter/spring if we put a guy in the water we'd better get him out again in 10 minutes."

"When my crew got out here they asked if we could get a bulk rate on an immigration lawyer." - Jim Gale