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Ichi Ban and Skandia arrive in Hobart

Home 2006 Ichi Ban and Skandia arrive in Hobart

Matt Allen's Ichi Ban after the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart

Given that the maxis have a 30 foot waterline length advantage over a Volvo 70, it is small wonder that Ichi Ban skipper Matt Allen is all smiles.

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The modified Volvo 70 Ichi Ban finished second over the line in the Rolex Sydney Hobart at 1.42am this morning, three hours and fifty minutes behind line honours winner Wild Oats XI. Skandia followed Ichi Ban across the line sixteen minutes later at 1.58am.

Given that the maxis have a 30 foot waterline length advantage over a Volvo 70, it is small wonder that Ichi Ban skipper Matt Allen is all smiles.

“I’m really happy. They were badly handicapped without their canard but getting ahead of Skandia this evening was good and it was great to be so close to Wild Oats XI. We’re ecstatic,” he said.

“These weren’t the ideal conditions for these boats by a long shot, so you haven’t seen the real performance of these boats yet.”

Allen said that on the first night of the race he stayed pretty conservative, unlike the other Volvo 70 in the race, ABN AMRO ONE.

 “We didn’t go quite as wide into the current as some of the other boats and I think I’m glad we didn’t because obviously it was pretty punishing,” he said. 

“When we heard that ABN AMRO ONE had lost her rig, the first thing that came to mind was ‘what broke?’ because our rigs are pretty similar. But in fact we started to put the pedal down after that because the weather conditions got better, the waves calmed down, and we went for it.”

For most of the final day’s racing Ichi Ban relentlessly hunted down the wounded Skandia, finally passing her around 7pm last night as they approached Tasman Island. 

For Skandia's skipper Grant Wharington it was a bitter moment.  “They just sailed past us like we were sailing in a forty footer,” he said.

Skandia broke its canard yesterday afternoon. The canard is the foil that stops the boat from sliding sideways when going to windward. Without it, Wharington was left with little more than the slim hope that something equally dramatic might happen on Wild Oats XI to slow them down as well.  “We lost three to four hours easy. “We were about a knot and a half slower without the foil over thirty-six hours,” the disappointed Victorian skipper said this morning. 

The next boat due into Hobart is Geoff Ross’ Yendys, expected to finish late morning today, 29 December.