News

  • News
  • 2005
  • Wot if ‘Wot's Next’ Won?

Wot if ‘Wot's Next’ Won?

Wot if ‘Wot's Next’ Won?
Wots Next (6559) - 2005 MHYC Savills Regatta - Photo Andrea Francolini - CYCA Archives

Wot if ‘Wot's Next’ Won?

Wot if ‘Wot's Next’ Won? - Web businessman Graeme Wood pursues Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race Dream

Graeme Wood, CEO of global specialists in last-minute travel ‘wotif.com’ and owner/skipper of Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race entrant Wot’s Next, reckons it is no accident that when good business people go sailing they are so often successful.

“When you run a business you are used to winning,” said Wood.

“You don’t start a business to come second.

“Business is all about delegating, making sure everyone is focussed on the same target, getting the details right. Yacht racing is the same thing.”

That attitude underpins Wood’s approach to this, his first Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

To start with, the Australian Entrepreneur of the Year set about getting exactly the boat he wanted, a Murray Burns Dovell Sydney 47CR.  Not just any Sydney 47 - he had a proposition to put to the designers.

“My last boat was a Murray Burns Dovell boat, and it was fantastic so I really wanted to stay with them,” he said. 

“But the first two Sydney 47’s were very cruisy - two heads, that sort of thing.

“I wanted one that would win, so I went to them and said I wanted something special - that I wanted to win but they needed a win too.  Why are so many people buying Beneteaus when they could be buying Sydneys, I thought. ”

Sydney Yachts were convinced and pulled out all the stops to build Wood a strong, light boat that would be fast, yet still meet IRC cruiser/racer limits.

Next Wood needed a crew.

“We didn’t have a lot of time so we needed a group who already knew each other, and were used to sailing boats our size,” said Wood.

Performance consultant Ron Jacobs, closely associated with Sydney Yachts and who will sail to Hobart as Wot’s Next’s tactician, introduced Wood to the guys who had sailed Quest when the Nelson Marek 46 won the Rolex Sydney Hobart in 2003.

It has been a pretty steep learning curve for Wood, not least in getting to know how to work with fiercely competitive professional sailors.  Between them, the crew has sailed 140 Hobart races.

“They look at me sideways,” he jokes.

“They want to know - is he as desperate to win as we are?”

So far it’s a combination that is working.  In her first outing in November, Wot’s Next won line honours in all three IRC Division B races in the Savills Short Ocean Racing Championship and Wood is confident they will make a big impact on the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

The parallels with an IT start up are striking – get the best platform and good people.  The crew of Wot’s Next  shouldn’t worry.  The boardroom can be as desperate for success as any foredeck.