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  • 2006
  • Chinese-built grand prix racer for Rolex Sydney Hobart

Chinese-built grand prix racer for Rolex Sydney Hobart

Chinese-built grand prix racer for Rolex Sydney Hobart
Yendys' hull at McConaghy International's China boat yard

Chinese-built grand prix racer for Rolex Sydney Hobart

“The hull structure is as strong and light as possible so that she will be able to cope with being smashed by big waves in Bass Strait,” says Ross, a veteran of 11 races to Hobart.

Prominent Sydney yachtsman Geoff Ross has ventured into China to build his latest grand prix racing yacht in a bid to win his second Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

The Reichel/Pugh-designed 16.8-metre LOA yacht, again to be named Yendys (Sydney spelt backwards), is the first grand prix yacht to be built in China.

A joint venture company between Australia’s McConaghy Boats and China’s JinLi Composites, each internationally renowned in their field, has built the new Yendys using the latest high-tech composite construction method.

The yacht is due to reach Sydney by ship late in November, but first will be transported by barge down the Pearl River Delta, one of the busiest shipping waterways in the world, to Hong Kong.

Yendys will be the newest boat in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet, with owner/skipper Ross’ sights set firmly on again winning the historic Tattersalls Cup for IRC overall handicap honours in the 628 nautical mile race.  He won the Cup in 1999 with a previous boat called Yendys.

The designers, who created Wild Oats XI, the record-breaking line and handicap winner of last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, and the builders have gone to extraordinary lengths to make Yendys an ocean racing equivalent of a Formula One racing car.

Windage has been minimised, with the hull and deck shaped to offer minimum resistance to the waves of the Tasman Sea and Bass Strait.

“The hull structure is as strong and light as possible so that she will be able to cope with being smashed by big waves in Bass Strait,” says Ross, a veteran of 11 races to Hobart.

“We researched this design for six months before we started to finalise plans. It does not have a canting keel; it will be conventionally ballasted, something that I think will give us an advantage under the IRC handicap rule.”

Ross is putting together a highly experienced international crew, including three current America’s Cup sailors from the Oracle challenge, to campaign the yacht for the Rolex Trophy and Rolex Sydney Hobart in December.

Once the boat is rigged after its arrival in Sydney, Ross plans to contest all the major lead-up events before the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on 26 December.

To date the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia has received 38 applications for entry to the bluewater classic with less than two weeks until the 3 November deadline for applications. - Peter Campbell