Rolex Sydney Hobart win will come down to time and a protest or two

• NEWS
• 30 Dec, 2009 06:06:00 PM

Rolex Sydney Hobart win will come down to time and a protest or two

Little Zephyr Hamilton Elevators is battling the elements in her efforts to become the smallest boat since Zeus II to win the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Little Zephyr Hamilton Elevators is battling the elements in her efforts to become the smallest boat since Zeus II to win the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Should James Connell and Alex Brandon’s Sea Nymph 33 be successful in her bid to win the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s (CYCA) famous 628 nautical mile race, she will be the smallest yacht since 1981, when Sydneysider Jim Dunstan sailed his Currawong 30 Zeus II to victory in the corrected time of 3 days 19 hours 25 minutes 59 seconds.

Connell needs to cross the finish line in Hobart’s Derwent River by 1.31am tomorrow (Friday) morning. As of 5.00pm this evening, Zephyr Hamilton Elevators is due to finish at 11.46pm this evening. However, while she is well ahead of time, Connell is pushing hard to get his little boat into the Derwent River before the breeze shuts down, which could happen any time after 10.00pm.   

Should Connell not make it in time to win handicap honours, the next yacht in line to claim the win is Andrew Saies’ Beneteau First 40 Two True, which will have to wait until tomorrow morning and the outcome of the protest against her in what is shaping up to be arguably the most controversial finish in the history of the race.

Not only is Two True being protested, but James Connell announced to the CYCA race committee today that he will lodge protests against three other yachts in the race when he docks, but is yet to name them. 

Two True’s Andrew Saies will go to the protest room to defend himself against a protest lodged by She’s the Culprit after a collision at the first turning mark in Sydney Harbour resulted in Todd Leary withdrawing Tasmanian boat She’s the Culprit from the race.

The protest will be held at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania tomorrow (Thursday) at 10.00am by an international jury of five. It cannot be held any earlier, as some of the witnesses being called are still at sea.

Should Saies’ lose the protest, then a sistership, Wicked will be the beneficiary. It will be a hollow victory after an absorbing battle between the two boats, according to Wicked’s owner Mike Welsh.

The identical boats, both Beneteau First 40s designed by Bruce Farr, crossed the finish line within 22 minutes of each other at lunchtime today, Two True in front.

“I do not want to win a race like this on a protest against a similar boat that sailed a better race,” Mike Welsh said this afternoon.

“To us it would be a very hollow victory because they beat us across the line; they beat us fair and square and I seriously would like to see the guys win the race. However, we are quite prepared to accept the trophy if that is how it works out.”

Welsh said that Wicked’s race went like clockwork.

“We did a lot of research before the start about where the winds were and where the currents were. We had a plan and we stuck to that exact plan. The wind was where it was supposed to be and the currents were where they were supposed to be.

“We were getting a two-knot favourable current. Talking to the guys inshore they were getting a 1.5 knot adverse current, so that was giving us a 3.5 knot advantage for nearly two days. It was little bit of research and planning and it worked for us.”

Welsh said the difference between the two boats was that Two True’s owner decided to buy a Code Zero spinnaker, Wicked did not.

By Di Pearson/Bruce Montgomery, Rolex Sydney Hobart media team