ALFA ROMEO TAKES ROUND ONE

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December 26, 2009

Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo took round one of the battle of the maxis at the head of the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race with smart downwind tactics in Sydney Harbour.

After a two nautical-mile spinnaker run from the start off Shark Island, before a 10-knot south-southwesterly breeze, Alfa Romeo rounded the first clearing mark at Sydney Heads 30 seconds ahead of her near-sister Reichel/Pugh 100 design Wild Oats XI (Bob Oatley), with another 20 seconds to the British Farr 100-footer ICAP Leopard (Mike Slade).

These three strongly-sailed, professionally-managed maxis are favoured to lead the fleet into Hobart, 628n miles from the start.

Manoeuvring these giants for a downwind start among the smaller boats in the 100-boat fleet was challenging. With a minute to go, Alfa Romeo was caught ahead of the line and had to re-round to start on the gun.

Wild Oats XI, with speed and a smart spinnaker set, showed out as the early leader from a clear start near the middle of the long starting line spanning nearly the width of the harbour, followed closely by ICAP Leopard.

Alfa Romeo, starting nearer to the line's pin end, sharpened up with pace to gain an overlap to leeward on Leopard. Off Watsons Bay on the harbour's eastern shore, Alfa gybed away first on a patch of good pressure breeze; Wild Oats XI and Leopard followed. But as Alfa Romeo gybed again and came back fast on starboard gybe, she cleared them both to round the mark between the Heads clear ahead.

From there Alfa comfortably held her lead in a procession over the one nautical mile reach to the second clearing mark, another mile to seaward.

As the fleet then sheeted on to head south, another procession developed. Starboard tack on about 155 degrees was by far the gaining leg towards not only Hobart, but the favourable flow of the Eastern Australian current, so tacking away on to port and heading inshore was not an option for the boats behind Alfa.

Next to round the seaward mark was another 100 ft maxi, Investec Loyal (Sean Langman), followed by the UK Judel/Vrolijk 72 Ran (Niklas Zennstrom), which is one of the favourites to take the race's major prize, the Tattersall's Cup, for the overall winner on IRC corrected time.

She was followed by Lahana (Peter Millard/John Horan), the Brett Bakewell-White 98, ex-Konica Minolta; Rapture, Brook Lenfest's 100ft Farr performance cruiser from the USA; Limit, the Reichel/Pugh 62 (Alan Brierty); Ludde Ingvall's Simonis Voogd 90 YuuZoo, which took line honours in 2004; the R/P 63 Loki (Stephen Ainsworth); R/P 55 Yendys (Geoff Ross) and the Farr 55 Living Doll (Michael Hiatt).

Grant Wharington's Jones 98 Etihad Stadium (ex-Wild Thing) retired with rig problems soon after starting. It was a near-miracle that Etihad Stadium even made the start after a two-week around-the-clock effort by crew members, mast-makers, and riggers to replace the mast broken on the delivery voyage from Melbourne.

The mast, a rebuild of a spare acquired from Neville Crichton, had to be cut in two for air-freighting from France to Sydney and re-rigged just in time for Etihad Stadium to get to the start line today without time for any testing under sail.

Wharington explained that ten minutes before the start, the crew discovered that the finely-tuned mast could not be kept in column. Misalignment of the runner blocks from the old rig meant that the runner tension of up to 15 tons could not be maintained.

"It was an incredibly tight set of circumstances and we needed everything to fall into place with 100 per cent agreement on everything to go to Hobart," Wharington said. It's an amazing feat to get to where we got, obviously disappointing just to miss out by the last one or two percent.

"I am enormously disappointed obviously and for my team more than anything because we've had probably 50 people working on this for the past two weeks and an enormous amount of input from every single person."

Another sad retirement was the Inglis 39 She's the Culprit (Todd Leary) from Hobart, seriously holed on the long journey home in a collision with another competitor (as yet unidentified) soon after the start.

Untypically for Sydney at this time of year, Boxing Day was wet and cold, which greatly reduced the size of the spectator fleet. Though with this came the benefit of also reducing the crush of powerboaters that often disrupt the fleet with their wakes once past the outer sea mark, which is beyond the spectator control areas inside the harbour.

Five hours after the start, with the sou'-wester freshening to 25 knots and a difficult short chop developing offshore, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's satellite yacht tracker system showed Alfa Romeo still leading by a mile from Wild Oats XI, which was just 0.2nm ahead of ICAP Leopard.

The 100-boat Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet (including two yachts officially retired) has crews representing the USA, UK, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands, and New Caledonia as well as every Australian state.

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ALFA ROMEO STILL LEADING LIGHT-AIR DRAG RACE

December 26, 2009

Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo remained in control of her nearest maxi opponents through a changing wind pattern overnight and into the second day of the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Alfa's afterguard, including tactician Michael Coxon and navigator Tom Addis, kept the yacht perfectly positioned at the head of the fleet to be first into the anticipated shift in wind direction from south-southwest experienced from the start to southeast off the south coast of New South Wales.

Alfa Romeo tacked on the shift at about 2145 last night to converge back towards the coast on port after the long gaining starboard tack the fleet followed after clearing Sydney Harbour from the 1300 start.

At 0800, 19 hours into the race, the Reichel/Pugh 100 was 24 nautical miles northeast of Green Cape, 2 miles ahead of Mike Slade's Farr 100 ICAP Leopard, which was three or four miles to seaward, with another 2nm to Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI, a near sister design R/P 100 to Alfa Romeo. Alfa had covered 193nm of the 628nm course and was doing 10.8 knots.

All three were close to the shortest-distance rhumb line between Sydney and Tasman Island and on course for the island, but were starting to slow as the wind dropped from its 25 knot peak of last evening to 10-12 knots and less this morning.

Critical for all boats will be traversing the light airs and calms expected today in the Bass Strait, between the Australian mainland and Tasmania, before a forecast 20-30 knot westerly change tonight.

Wild Oats XI navigator Ian Burns said this morning: "The wind is pretty light now, between 6-10 knots and quite variable. The seas are flatter - it was a little rough at times last night.

"We've had quite a few wind shifts and some big lulls. At one stage the guys behind us [Ran and Lahana] ran almost up to us. We exchanged some tacks as the southeast-southwester fought it out but it has been hanging in the southeast for some time now.

"Some forecasts are calling for no wind at all across half of Bass Strait. The fact that we will head butt into the light stuff gives us a bit of a chance. Leopard is doing a great job for a big boat in the lighter wind, but the race hasn't really started yet; that will be today."

The overall handicap leader on IRC corrected time is Michael Hiatt's Farr 55 Living Doll over the UK-based Judel/Vrolijk 72 Ran (Niklas Zennstrom), followed by the Jones-modified Volvo 70 Ichi Ban (Matt Allen).

One of the handicap favourites, Alan Brierty's Reichel/Pugh 62 Limit, was among the retirements overnight due to problems with the halyard locks.

That brings the number of retired yachts to four in the 100-boat fleet that started yesterday from Sydney. The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet has crews representing the USA, UK, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands, and New Caledonia as well as every Australian state.

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STOP-START TO HOBART

December 27, 2009

The Rolex Sydney-Hobart race fleet leaders stalled and stopped in calms off the far south coast of New South Wales earlier today. The smaller boats came up on a developing coastal sea breeze while the maxi leaders and 50-60-footers were stuck inshore this morning, trying to struggle around Green Cape and Gabo Island at the entrance to Bass Strait

Neville Crichton's Reichel/Pugh 100 Alfa Romeo, which had led the race from Sydney Heads, was first of the three leading maxis to struggle into new pressure to pass Green Cape and sail to the west of the rhumb line (straight distance) course from Sydney to Tasman Island.

Alfa Romeo took off on a two-sail reach in a freshening east-northeaster and by 1800 was well into Bass Strait, 58 nautical miles south of Gabo Island with 330nm to go to the finish.

The three leading maxis were achieving extraordinary speeds in only 10-12 knots of breeze and on course for Tasman Island, the last major rounding landmark on the 628nm course.

Alfa Romeo, making 16.7 knots, was 16nm ahead of ICAP Leopard, the British Farr 100-footer owned by Mike Slade, with Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI, a very similar Reichel/Pugh 100, another 2nm behind Leopard and closing the distance. Wild Oats XI was making 16.7 kn to Leopard's 16.2kn.

While these are very respectable speeds, the weather forecasting models are in agreement there will be more calms and light patches ahead. Respected yachting forecaster Roger Badham, who provides pre-race weather predictions to many top boats in the fleet, says: "The big guys will have some running in Bass Strait this afternoon, but there are still a lot of potholes between that and the finish," Badham said. "Anyone of the three could finish first."

One certainty is that Wild Oats XI's race record, set at one day, 18hrs, 40mins, and 10secs in 2006, is in no danger. Given the calculations of speeds so far, Alfa would be expected to finish at 2030 Monday night, with Leopard and Wild Oats XI finishing after midnight.

But a westerly change turning moderate southwesterly is predicted for Tasmanian waters tomorrow - and that could still create those potholes of calm and light patches off the east coast under the wind shadow of Tasmanian's high interior.

From Alfa Romeo, Murray Spence reported, as she picked up the light nor'easter, "We are now enjoying the sunshine; not the usual way to cross Bass Strait." He said the crew was driving the boat hard today, although they were keen to get some rest after reefing most of the night had meant "intense work from all on board".

Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards said Oats had been within three or four miles of Alfa Romeo in the morning calm before Alfa accelerated out of sight in the first of the new breeze. "There's always the element of luck in these races and right now it has gone his (Alfa's) way and not our way. But there's a long way to go, so anything can happen yet," said Richards. He said the attitude on the boat remained very positive. "We have a fantastic bunch of guys on board here; we won't give up 'til the death."

Adrian Stead, tactician on the British Jude/Vrolijk 72 Ran, the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race winner, was upbeat even though the light conditions are not expected to suit this powerful boat. "We are just past Green Cape and the breeze is filling back in. We have done okay with the current but had a light morning. It's nice to still see the maxis, but we are conscious of boats behind using the sea breeze this afternoon."

The concertina effect completely scrambled the IRC corrected time calculations. The new IRC overall leader is reckoned to be Noel Cornish's Sydney 47 Jude, crewed by a group of friends from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

The Sydney 38, Mondo, retired today with rigging problems and was heading to Eden, bringing the number of retired yachts to five, with 95 yachts still racing. The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet has crews representing the USA, UK, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands, and New Caledonia as well as every Australian state.

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THE RICH GET RICHER

December 27, 2009

The maxis leading the Rolex Sydney Harbour race fleet cleared a barrier of light air and calm in Bass Strait in the early hours of this morning to reach away on a new westerly flow at speeds of up to 20 knots.

Race leader Alfa Romeo, a Reichel/Pugh 100 owned by Sydney-based New Zealander Neville Crichton, first to clear the calm-creating ridge of high pressure to the north of Tasmania, opened a healthy lead of 30 nautical miles on her nearest maxi opponent for line honours, Mike Slade's Farr 100, ICAP Leopard.

At 0700 Alfa was 22nm east of St Helens on Tasmania's northeast coast, doing 14 knots and on course for Tasman Island, 41nm from the finish. She had 150 miles to sail and, at the present time, is expected to finish in the early evening.

ICAP Leopard, making 16.7 knots, was still three miles ahead of the race record holder Bob Oatley's R/P 100 Wild Oats XI.

Alfa Romeo was not only on track for the line honours win; computer calculations had her leading the race for the Tattersall's Cup, the race's major prize for the overall winner on IRC handicaps.

Alfa, Leopard and Oats had gained a huge jump on the rest of the fleet. The fourth boat, Sean Langman's Elliott 100 maxi Investec Loyal, was 80nm behind Wild Oats XI, 51nm east of Flinders Island making 9.2 knots; much slower than the leading trio.

Tom Addis, Alfa's navigator, said: "We got the ridge pretty well. It's always stressful going through transitions like that but we did as much homework as we could and it all went to plan. Our aim was to be first boat out and cross (the ridge) at the narrowest point. We made big gains on the way out."

Ian Burns, co-navigator of Wild Oats XI, said: "We managed to cross the ridge as it was spreading up. We drove west to get around it, as did Alfa and Leopard; we never slowed more than six or seven knots. The guys behind us got swallowed and are still there. "We were last through the gate. Alfa gets richer and richer, looking like a handicap winner, too. It was a very calm night, pretty warm with a nice moon. And now new breeze is coming in quite nicely from the Banks Strait (northeast of Tasmania)."

Burns warned that the leaders face one more difficult wind situation in the lee of Tasmania. Tasmania's high interior splits westerly flow into a nor'wester around the north of the island and a sou'wester around the south.

"We have one more transition to go, when the northwesterly meets the southwesterly," said Burns. "But Alfa hasn't made a missed step yet and they are unlikely to. So far, the race has favoured the leaders and in all probability will continue to do so."

Five yachts have retired to date, and there are 95 yachts still racing. The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet has crews representing the USA, UK, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands, and New Caledonia as well as every Australian state.

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Alfa Romeo leads fleet on all counts

0700hrs, 28 December 2009

As Alfa Romeo surged down the Tasmanian coast at 7am this morning she was leading the Rolex Sydney Hobart on two fronts: line honours and IRC handicap. The lead she has opened up on the other maxis is so large that the New Zealand maxi is almost sailing a race of her own.

At that time it was not the other maxis that were lining up behind her in the handicap stakes, it was a bunch of 40 footers 130 miles astern of her which had barely poked their noses into Bass Strait.

Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas’ Farr 40 AFR Midnight Rambler was lying in second place overall, followed by the New Caledonian Archambault 40 41Sud, sailed by Jean Luc Esplass, and Anthony Paterson’s Ker 11.3 Tow Truck.

These smaller boats should enjoy a lively 20 knot westerly across eastern Bass Strait today, which should greatly improve their time against Alfa Romeo, but they are also likely have to race in a southerly all the way down the Tasmanian coast. What the gods give they take away.

At this stage in the race for the Tattersall’s Cup for the overall winner, the grand prix 50 and 60 footers are doing it tough. The best placed in eighth position is last year’s winner, Bob Steel’s TP52 Quest, but unlike the little boats behind, the 60 footers have had to contend with the big hole above Flinders Island overnight.

They will have southerly winds most of the way down the Tasmanian coast and could arrive at Tasman Island for the final turn after the notorious midnight ‘shutting of the gate’, when the wind dies and Storm Bay and the Derwent River become very quiet places to park indeed.

1200hrs, 28 December 2009

On day three of the 65th Rolex Sydney Hobart, it’s not just the skills and endurance of the crews that are being tested; they need the patience of a saint.

Depending where they are on the racecourse, some yachts are fairly skipping along, and others are barely moving.

At the back of the fleet, just breaking away from the mainland coast, the smaller, slower boats are enjoying a handy breeze after a long and at times frustrating beat down the NSW coast. But the further into Bass Strait the fleet pushes, the lighter the breeze gets, and in the middle it all but disappears.

“We are in a parking lot,” Michael Bellingham, the navigator of Stephen Ainsworth’s normally super fast Reichel/Pugh 63 Loki reported. “It’s time to break out the cards.”

Sailors with disAbilities, a Lyons 54 design, is about a third of the way across the Strait. In a phone call late this morning, skipper David Pescud reported: “It’s like a millpond, but we’re happy with our four and a half knot boat speed, given the conditions. What little breeze there is is shifting to the south. It’s weird. We’re used to having 10 metre waves trying to chop our heads off.

“If it wasn’t a race it would be beautiful sailing. It’s become a very tactical race, but it’s so slow. It’s given us a lot of time to think, it’s like a giant game of chess.”

The lull has stymied the highly touted 50 to 70 footers all morning as they struggle to keep up with the leading maxis on handicap.

The race leaders, super maxis Alfa Romeo, Wild Oats XI and ICAP Leopard, were affected by it off Flinders Island during the night, but were still able to keep up some momentum. The gate really closed as Wild Oats XI broke out on the southern side and found a bit of breeze. As is so often the case in ocean racing, the rich are getting richer and the poor more philosophical.

“It has been a little frustrating watching the big boats pass through unscathed,” said Will Oxley, the navigator on Geoff Ross’ Reichel/Pugh 55, Yendys. “Behind us the fleet is closing on us but we are hoping for the first in first out theory in lulls to keep on working.”

The good news is that there is some breeze on the other side of the calm, and the boats are picking up speed as they close in on Flinders Island, though nothing like the double digit speeds they have been recording.

As the yachts move down the Tasmanian coast there is another hole around Maria Island lying in wait. The lead maxis were reaching 20 knots very early this morning as they raced past Eddystone Point on the Tasmanian north east coast, but they have been steadily slowing the further south they have ventured.

This whole race has become a matter of avoiding the lulls and holes and because it has been so slow, a true test of patience and crew management.

Crews spent the early part of the race on the rail, cold and wet, and lately, scouring the horizon looking for wind. Managing the watches and ensuring that everyone gets enough rest has become a key factor. Tired crews can make bad decisions.

Logistical management is also coming into unexpected play. On the grand prix racers, weight is everything, right down to the amount of food and water allotted to each crew member. Many of the racing crews get by on freeze dried food, nuts and Mars Bars - and a happy skipper is one who hasn’t lugged an extra sandwich all the way to Hobart for nothing.

But this race is taking a day longer than envisaged.

“We have started to ration water to make sure we have enough for this extended Rolex Sydney Hobart race,” Yendys’ Oxley says. “The trimmers are no longer allowed to pour fresh water over their winches to keep them quiet. No tea or coffee overnight.”

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Wild Oats XI closing - but is it too late?

28 December, 2009 2:00:00 PM AEDT | Racetime 02:01:00:00

Should Neville Crichton get his hands on the highly prized Tattersall’s Cup, his New Zealand supermaxi would be only the seventh boat in the history of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race to take the double of line honours and the overall winner on corrected time.

Alfa Romeo continues to lead the race half way down the Tasmanian east coast, 13 nautical miles ahead of four-time winner Wild Oats XI, which has gathered in the British maxi ICAP Leopard and opened up a gap of 19 nautical miles for second place. All three are making about 11 knots.

The problem for all three, but particularly the frontrunner, is that there are light, variable winds as they close on Tasman Island. If Alfa Romeo falls into a hole, the Mark Richards skippered Wild Oats Xl will be forewarned.

A short time ago, Alfa Romeo lost the handicap lead to the British yacht RÂN, which is going for the Rolex Fastnet and Rolex Sydney Hobart corrected time double.

The bulk of the fleet is experiencing light west to south-westerly winds of 10-15 knots as they cross Bass Strait with winds expected to pick up to 20 knots and stronger as the yachts approach Flinders Island. But overnight, further south, the winds off the coast will be light and variable and yachts will be greeted with early sea breezes from the south-east.

The bad news for the frontrunners is that the forecast for the Derwent estuary tonight are north-westerly winds at 10-15 knots, which are expected to fade.

The experience of Englishman Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard is symptomatic of the frustrations of the fleet.

“We’re all going through this north easterly/south easterly transfer area off Cape Forestier,” Slade said a short time ago.

“At the moment we have 3.3 knots of wind speed and 3 and a half knots of boats speed, but it goes up and down. I’ve seen two knots and I’ve seen six knots of both wind speed and boat speed. It is very hard work.”

ICAP Leopard is further out to sea than her two rivals, and intends to stay that way.

“Both Alfa and I can lay Tasman Island, but it is going to take a long time and I suspect there are more funny things going to be thrown at us by the wind gods before we get there,” Slade said.

Slade thinks it will be midnight or 1am before ICAP Leopard gets to Tasman, not an ideal time to arrive.

“Most people in Hobart go to bed early, and they do that mainly because there is no wind,” he quips.

While Alfa Romeo has got the jump on the other maxis, ICAP Leopard has had an enthralling dual with Wild Oats XI all the way from Sydney, the British yacht getting the better of it for most of the time.

“We are thrilled at how well the boat has gone in very, very light air conditions,” Slade says. “We did work hard on the boat after losing out to Wild Oats XI in light air in 2007, but this has been stop start all the way.

“Working in light air like this for three or four or five days, as some of the other boats will do, is tough enough, it really is. We’ve done five sail changes in the last hour and a half, and that’s pretty exhausting,” he said.

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Alfa Romeo holds on to Rolex Sydney Hobart lead

Despite a lead of about 14 nautical miles over four-time line honours winner Wild Oats XI, and only 70 nautical miles to go to the finish of this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Alfa Romeo skipper Neville Crichton is leaving nothing to chance.

“We will cover them whenever we possibly can,” Crichton told the Rolex media centre by satellite phone as the super maxi closed to 30 nautical miles on Tasman Island mid-afternoon.

“We won’t let her go out on a flyer without us being there,” the New Zealand businessman said.

In effect, Crichton is warning Wild Oats XI that it will be a match race to Hobart from this point on.

If the Mark Richards skippered Wild Oats XI changes her course, or strategy, Alfa Romeo will cover Bob Oatley’s yacht, but from the front.

In sailing terms, it means that Crichton will seek to ensure that the two recently modified yachts, which are virtually identical, stay in the same weather and wind pattern.

Crichton said he was expecting the wind to move to the south at Tasman Island, which the Hobart weather bureau has just confirmed.

Forecaster Malcolm Downing said the leading boats would face a south-westerly of 10 knots, gusting to 18, at Tasman and the wind would then veer to the west and north-west as they crossed Storm Bay and into the Derwent River, where the north-westerly would ease from 15-20 knots to 10-15, but, importantly, the wind would stay in.

“This race has been much more difficult than a windy race, there’s so much more to think about. The winds have been so variable and so up and down,” said Crichton, who would not be drawn on what time he would finish the race and whether he would be first over the line.

As Crichton was speaking, Wild Oats XI was closing the gap in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s annual 628 nautical mile race.

The Rolex race site tracker has Alfa Romeo possibly finishing at approximately 10 o’clock this evening.

The all-star cast aboard the 100 footer Investec LOYAL - Olympic swimming gold medallist Grant Hackett, boxer Danny Green, HSBC Waratahs captain Phil Waugh and former rugby union player Phil Kearns – are getting the taste for ocean racing, so much so they are talking about signing up for next year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart before they reach the finish line of this year’s race.

“We’ve discussed 2010,” Phil Waugh said this afternoon as he spoke glowingly of their experiences since leaving Sydney on Boxing Day.

“It got pretty heavy all of a sudden yesterday,” he said. “And the last hour has been really good.” (They were sailing at over 20 knots).

“All the guys are loving it,” he said.

The Wallaby flanker, fresh from preparing 120 Vegemite rolls for the crew before they set sail, “to put some fuel in the tank”, has settled down to a menu of curries and spaghetti bolognaise as he literally learns the art of winding winches.

He aired his new lexicon of nautical terms, informing the listening media at the Rolex media centre in Hobart this afternoon that the cable attaching the port helm to the rudder had broken, forcing skipper Sean Langman to the starboard wheel while repairs were made.

Investec LOYAL’s navigator David Dickson confirmed that a strop between the rudder quadrant and the rudder itself had chafed and broken, but a replacement had been spliced.

Dickson said their strategy coming down the coast, running before a NNE wind of 19-25 knots, was to sail under a jib top and staysail before setting a spinnaker to bring the bow down and to cross the southern end of Maria Island before making for the turning mark at Tasman Island.

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ONE MORE HURDLE

December 28, 2009

Rolex Sydney Hobart Race leader Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo leading over the final miles to the finish of the 628 nautical mile classic and with a healthy 17nm advantage over nearest rival Wild Oats XI faced a final hurdle -- a strong sou'-wester that will give his weary crew a final hard upwind workout.

Through another day of stop-start sailing, Alfa retained the race lead she has held since clearing Sydney Heads. Wild Oats XI, a near sister Reichel/Pugh 100ft maxi, passed Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard and gained on Alfa, which had led her by up to 30 miles throughout the morning.

The three supermaxis had opened a huge 80nm gap on the remainder of the fleet by emerging first from calms and light air created by a high pressure ridge in Bass Strait, then ran into more frustrating light patches off the east coast of Tasmania.

Leopard, the heaviest boat of the three, suffered most, down to just over a knot of boat speed at noon while Alfa and Oats also lost time "parking" in the soft spots.

Wild Oats XI passed Leopard and gained on Alfa to be 13nm behind off Maria Island, 70nm from the finish, with both yachts under spinnakers and traveling at about 14 knots on a nor'-wester that swung northeast under the influence of coastal sea breezes.

But the with the southwest change looming, the race for line honours was not over, Crichton warned. "We still have a lot of racing to do because we are 30 miles from Tasman Island, with another 40 miles into the Derwent and the forecast is for 20-30 knots on the nose, so anything can happen.

"It's difficult because we are going to run into the southerly first and they are still under spinnaker. I guess we will have to wait until we get into the sou'-wester and see where they are, but we will certainly cover wherever possible."

Australia's most respected yachting forecaster Roger Badham sees another hurdle in the wind pattern: a curtain of total calm descending on the Derwent River over the last 11nm to the finish after 2100-2200 hrs.

Wild Oats XI tactician Iain Murray said there were still opportunities to catch Alfa after rounding Tasman Island. "It's a difficult part of the day; sailing into the night. We're in a north-easter; we know there is a sou'-wester around the corner, there will be a transition zone. It's been a very challenging race, keeping the boat going the whole time, obviously doing a lot of tacking and gybing, changing sails. It keeps you right on your toes."

At 1800, Alfa was only 5nm from Tasman Island, 17nm ahead of Oats and making 12.4 knots to Oats' 11.9 kn with Leopard another six miles behind.

The next-sized group of boats, the 50-70 footers, got going again through the day after clearing the Bass Strait doldrums, to make fast progress in the nor'wester which freshened to 15-20kn off Flinders Island and 20-25kn off Eddystone Point at the north-eastern extremity of Tasmania.

On the final miles of the Bass Strait crossing they reached at speeds of 15-17kn under reaching headsails and staysails. One of them, the British Judel/Vrolijk 72 Ran (Niklas Zennstrom), jumped to the top of the overall IRC handicap calculations at 1800, followed by Yendys, Geoff Ross' Reichel/Pugh 55, the TP52 Shogun (Rob Hanna), Reichel/Pugh 63 Loki (Stephen Ainsworth) and Farr 55 Living Doll (Michael Hiatt). Alfa Romeo, which until this morning had led the corrected time calculations, was back in 16th place. But this group still had to traverse the light patches along the Tasmanian coast.

For much of the day, the smaller boats in the back end of the fleet remained stuck in the Bass Strait doldrums or in light southerly headwinds. This afternoon Love & War, the 1970s vintage Sparkman & Stephens 47 that won the Tattersall's Cup IRC overall in the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race in strong upwind conditions, was doing only 3.8kn and was calculated to be 72nd on overall IRC corrected time.

Another 1970s S&S design, the 41-footer Pinta-M (Atse Blei) from the Netherlands, was down to 2.7kn and 54th overall on IRC.

Ninety-five yachts are still racing, from a fleet of 100 starters, with five boats retired. The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet has crews representing the USA, UK, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands, and New Caledonia as well as every Australian state.

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ALFA GETS THE GUN AT 2009 ROLEX SYDNEY HOBART YACHT RACE

December 28, 2009

After sailing a near perfect tactical race in extremely difficult conditions, with extremes from a testing 25-knot southerly, with a bumpy seaway through the first night, to a calm in the notoriously rough and windy Bass Strait, Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo was first to finish in the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, with an elapsed time of two days, 9hrs, 2mins, 10secs for the 628nm course.

The line honours win, with a Reichel-Pugh designed canting keel 100-footer, was Sydney-based New Zealander Crichton's second in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. His previous win, in 2002, was with his first Alfa Romeo maxi, a water-ballasted Reichel/Pugh 90.

Alfa, with good speed and crew work, as well as tactics, led from the start, holding off all challenges from her arch-rival Bob Oatley's R/P 100 Wild Oats XI, a very similar design from the same builder, McConaghy Boats in Sydney, launched only a few months apart in 2005, and Mike Slade's (UK) Farr 100, ICAP Leopard.

Wild Oats XI won their first line honours battle with Alfa in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race by an hour and 16 minutes. Crichton then took Alfa Romeo to the northern hemisphere for the Mediterranean regattas in 2006 and 2007 where Alfa and Oats swapped line honours wins until Wild Oats XI broke her mast in the 2007 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo and was shipped back to Australia. This year's Rolex Sydney Hobart was their first encounter since in a major offshore race.

Crichton's fears of slowing in a southwest headwind in calms in the River Derwent over the last 11 nautical miles to the finish were unfounded. She stalled only once in a light patch and finally steamed home to get the finishing gun at Battery Point just after 2200, with Wild Oats XI 17nm behind (Wild Oats eventually finished just over two hours later.)

A crowd of several hundred people crowded the Constitution Wharf marina to watch the finish and cheer Alfa in to the dock. Asked, as Alfa Romeo berthed, how he was feeling, Crichton said: "It's fantastic and the welcome here in Tasmania is unbelievable."

He praised his crew, half of them New Zealanders and half Australian: "The 22 guys I have are the best crew in the world. The two days coming down the coast was hard work and it was good; the boys did a helluva job on the boat and it was very, very close racing."

Was the lack of wind frustrating? "Oh no, we were very busy the whole race."

Did he see the win as sweet revenge for the 2005 defeat by Wild Oats XI? "Every win is a good win. It has taken me four years to come back and do it, so it was even nicer. He added, "Winning the Rolex Sydney Hobart is the ultimate in ocean racing."

Crichton was presented with a Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece and the JH Illingworth trophy for his line honours win. The victory-pumped Crichton showed his mischievous sense of humour at the dockside presentation; MC Steve Barker asked Crichton if he had any message for the skippers of Leopard and Wild Oats, who had challenged a couple of times. He raised a big laugh with the answer and a gesture toward the River Derwent: "Where ARE they?"

At 0015, ICAP Leopard was 35.6nm from the finish making 8.6 kn. There were 93 yachts still to finish from a fleet of 100 starters, with five retired.

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LINE HONOURS PODIUM FILLS

December 29, 2009

The 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race line honours podium filled this morning when Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI and Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard finished in second and third positions.

Wild Oats XI finished at five minutes after midnight, two hours and three minutes behind her Reichel/Pugh 100 near-sister yacht Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo. Leopard, a Farr 100, finished at 0545, five hours and 40 minutes behind Wild Oats XI.

Next to finish, at 0734, was another 100ft maxi, the Greg Elliott-designed Investec Loyal (Sean Langman), which previously raced for New Zealand owners as Maximus.

Fifth home, at 0927, was Niklas Zennstrom's Ran from the UK, a Judel/Volijk-designed 72-footer that was overall handicap winner in the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race.

Ran has a chance of winning the race's major trophy, the Tattersall's Cup, for the first yacht on IRC corrected time. She has certainly beaten Alfa Romeo, which led the IRC overall standings for a time yesterday, denying Crichton the rare handicap/line honours double.

Wild Oats' Mark Richards was gracious in defeat. "It was a tactical race and we never got a look in really," Richards said. "They had a little edge on us on the first night and the next morning we were in a big parking lot together. They got out first and put 30 miles on us before we knew what had happened."

Mike Slade had an historical perspective of the close three-way battle of the maxis: "When Napoleon turned up at Waterloo he knew he was in for a bad day, he had a bad day at the office didn't he? I've been a bit like that. It was a fantastic race and well done Alfa, bloody marvellous."

Slade said that Leopard had gambled by sailing farther offshore than Alfa and Oats down the east coast of Australia rather than sailing in Alfa's wake. "We went offshore because there was no point in covering Alfa's tracks; she had about 20 miles on us and we just got locked out. We had about four shut-downs and it was as frustrating as hell. We sat there for hours, watching them go away. That cost us. We got punished."

Rounding Tasman Island was the worst Slade had experienced. "There was no wind and appalling seas; really nasty because it's a lee shore, you've got no steerage because there's no wind, but the seas were huge and that took us a couple of hours.

"Alfa and Oats had already gone round. The rich get rich and the poor get poorer, that's what the game's all about. So it was a shocker but we loved every minute of it. We will be back to do another one I think - the boat's a glutton for punishment."

Ran, after performing well in the fresh upwind work on the first night, parked in calms before zooming back into handicap contention with a blistering run on the new nor'-west breeze off Flinders Island.

Ran's owner/skipper Niklas Zennstrom said: "The race at times was frustrating, we got parked up. Yesterday afternoon we had a fantastic run, we were reaching at up to 24 knots of boat speed, averaging 18 and 19 knots. It was excellent sailing.

"This morning was also very good; last night we had a few stops and goes. But we are happy with how the boat performed on corrected time and we will have to wait and see how the other boats are going on handicap.

"At times it looked really, really bad for us and really good for the small boats, but that's how it is. All you can do is sail as good as you can and avoid making as many mistakes as possible. I don't think we made too many mistakes."

Ran's tactician Adrian Stead said that after riding the nor'-wester fast, Ran hit a light spot last evening, 20 miles northeast of Maria Island. "We got through that and sailed the last bit up here pretty well, very conscious that 10:20 was our deadline to beat Alfa," he said.

With six yachts finished, and five yachts retired, there are 89 yachts still racing.

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet has crews representing the USA, UK, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands, and New Caledonia as well as every Australian state.

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SOUTHERLY SLOW-UP

December 29, 2009

A strong southerly to southwesterly change sweeping up the Tasmanian coast this afternoon slowed the 87 yachts still at sea in the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

At 1600, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a strong wind warning for the lower east coast, from Wineglass Bay to Tasman Island for southwest to southerly winds of 30 knots in open waters at first, easing to 5 to 15 kn by late evening, with two to three metre seas and a southwest swell of 2.5 to 3.5 metres.

The winds would then tend northeast to northerly at 10 - 20kn during tomorrow morning before increasing during the afternoon to 20 - 30kn by evening.

For the yachts covering the remaining miles of the 628 nautical mile race, the forecast meant a bumpy, wet night of tacking upwind before the strong northerly picks up the fleet still at sea and propels them towards Tasman Island at a very fast pace on a wild spinnaker ride.

That scenario removes any certainty about the computer calculations of the likely winner of the Tattersall's Cup for the overall IRC handicap winner.

But it is comforting for a leading contender for the Tattersall's Cup, already tied up at the Kings Pier Marina in Hobart. At 1800, Niklas Zennstrom's Judel/Vrolijk 72 Ran (UK), was showing up in 15th position on corrected time calculations.

Ran's tactician, Adrian Stead, said: "We're in good shape; we got Neville (Alfa Romeo) by 50 minutes or so, which is good and we sailed really well. All we can do now is wait and see how we shape up."

Also at 1800, Tony Kirby's X41 Patrice 6 was calculated to be leading IRC overall handicap from an eclectic mix of designs and sizes. She was 12nm east of Cape Sonnerat, between the coastal villages of Swansea and Triabunna, making seven knots with 96nm to sail.

Second was Andrew Saies' Beneteau First 40 Two True, followed by Wicked (Mike Welsh), another Beneteau First 40. Then came the Spanish entry Charisma (Alejandro Perez Calzada), a 1970 Sparkman & Stephens IOR rule design that should revel in the strong upwind conditions.

One IRC handicap result that is certain is the win of Neville Crichton's 100ft super-maxi Alfa Romeo, the line honours winner, in IRC division 0 for canting keel-powered boats and the second place in that division for Matt Allen's modified Jones-design Volvo 70, unbeatable in second place on current position reports.

Allen said the Volvo 70 was a very good boat for upwind and in high-wind pressure sailing. In the sou'-wester of up to 25 knots on the first night, she worked up to within a half mile behind Wild Oats XI.

"We were not overly surprised to see that, but we knew the next night in the lighter airs and with the bigger sails the maxis carry, giving away rating, they would get through that first light-air gate. Only the three boats got through and the next morning we were there with all our fellow-sized boats stuck for five or six hours."

Allen said that every night there were challenges. "You'd sail through the day, with quite a few wind shifts, but generally the night-time sailing was tricky. Every night we parked up. Tactically it was a very interesting race, because you had to work out where you were going to get through in the next transition.

"Last night we'd had a 30-knot nor'-westerly and we were doing 25 knots, white water coming over the boat. It lasted for an hour and-a-half and within minutes it went down really quickly: to ten knots, to five and then zero. So we went from having 30 knots to being in no wind with leftover swell and you could only go in one direction, with the waves.

"The big transition zones had the navigators really on their toes, playing the angles and trying to work out how to handle the next transition."

With eight yachts finished, and five yachts retired, there are 87 yachts still racing to the finish in Hobart.

Shogun...

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TATTERSALL's CUP STILL IN DOUBT

December 30, 2009

The smaller boats at the back of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, after surviving frustrating light air and calms off the southeastern coast of New South Wales, are blowing home fast today.

A light but steady nor'easter in Hobart this morning, has been giving the yachts finishing a comfortable one-leg day over the last 11 nautical miles of the course up the Derwent River.

The Bureau of Meteorology forecast for the lower east coast of Tasmania has a light east-northeast breeze this morning tending northeast-north during the morning and increasing to reach 20-30 knots by this evening.

But the winner of the race's most prized trophy, the Tattersall's Cup for the first boat on IRC overall corrected, may still be in doubt after the finish.

At 1200, Andrew Saies' Beneteau First 40 Too True (photo above), from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, was leading the IRC corrected time calculations from another First 40, Wicked (Mike Welsh) from Sandringham YC.

Seventh was the British Judel/Vrolijk 72 Ran (Niklas Zennstrom), moored since finishing yesterday, at the Kings Pier Marina.

Two True was 7.6nm from the finish doing 7 knots, looking set to cross over two hours inside the time needed to win.

But, after finishing she still has to survive a protest lodged against her by the Inglis 39 She's the Culprit (Todd Leary) over an incident soon after the start in Sydney Harbour. She's the Culprit, holed in a collision had to retire immediately.

The weather pattern, with its heavy mix of calms and light air before the northerly flow bringing the small boats home fast, has not suited the 50-72 footers that were most fancied in pre-race predictions.

Aboard one of smaller boats in this group, the Corby 49 Audi Centre Melbourne (formerly Flirt), was Roger Hickman who has sailed in 33 Hobart races, twice aboard Tattersall's Cup winners.

Hickman described how the mid-fleet boats were finally slowed by the southerly change, the final nail in the coffin for their overall handicap chances. "We were off Schouten Island, (102nm) from the finish, when it went hard south with a good 28-30 knots of breeze for four or five hours. Then it lightened up, but it got very bumpy off Maria Island.

"It was a tough night, cold but within the realms of acceptability. It went straight south so we had to tack into Maria, tack out, and back into Eaglehawk Neck and chipped our way up to Tasman.

"Half an hour before we got to Tasman the wind went a bit left. We just got to Tasman and then it was just soft, five knots, six knots, and then halfway across Storm Bay this little north-easterly came in, which I guess was the saving grace because we could well still be out there for another couple of hours."

The after-race beers with crew mates on the dock this morning evoked sad memories for Hickman ... of his partner and crewmate Sally Gordon who, along with the yacht's skipper Andrew Short, died in the wreck of Short's Shockwave on Flinders Islet during a Cruising Yacht Club of Australia overnight coastal race in October.

"This is my 33rd Sydney Hobart; the first one in 15 years without my mate Sal," he said. "And it's a piss-off because you get so used to relying on people. It's all about the camaraderie. It's not which Hobart you do; it's whom you do it with. And you make some wonderful, wonderful friends."

With 35 yachts finished, and five yachts retired, there are 60 yachts still racing to the finish in Hobart.

Below, Tow Truck! Go small, go now and go bloody hard!

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HANDICAP WINNER STILL IN BALANCE"shortwave" shown above

December 30, 2009

The smallest boat in the fleet, Zephyr Hamilton Elevators, was as of this evening, still well in the running to win the IRC overall handicap division of the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

Zephyr is a Sea Nymph 33 co-owned by James Connell and Alex Braddon from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. She won division E in the 2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

The Sea Nymph 33 design is extremely fast downwind and is well-suited to the strong northerly wind prevailing on the lower Tasmanian east coast, forecast to reach 20-30 knots by evening.

The final 40 nautical miles of the 628nm course, with the northerly forecast to blow at 15-25 knots with gusts to 30 knots, which will put Zephyr on the wind, and will certainly slow and may end her chances of winning the Tattersall's Cup for IRC overall handicap.

At 1550, Zephyr had 46 miles to go, and was doing 9.7 knots for an estimated finish at 2311, well inside the time she needed to take first place (0131 on Dec 31).

Second and third on corrected time standings were two of Beneteau's new First 40s, which have already finished: Two True (Andrew Saies) from the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia and Wicked (Mike Welsh) from Sandringham Yacht Club.

The Farr-designed First 40 is a replacement for the successful Beneteau 40.7. A Beneteau 40.7, First National Real Estate skippered by Michael Spies, was the overall handicap winner of the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

Two True, in second spot, still has to face a protest by the Tasmanian Inglis 39, She's the Culprit (Todd Leary), which was badly damaged after the race start in a jam of boats converging on the first rounding mark at Sydney Heads and had to retire.

With some of the boats named in the protest documents still racing, the International Jury has deferred the protest until tomorrow morning (Dec 31).

Zephyr has also signaled by radio to the race committee that she will lodge protests against three boats, without specifying who they are, after finishing. That protest could also arise from the crush of boats in the 100-boat fleet converging to leave Sydney Harbour.

Two True and Wicked finished fast under spinnakers before a moderate southeasterly sea breeze early this afternoon, with Two True crossing 22 minutes ahead of Wicked.

Saies said: "It was a very difficult and frustrating race. Having had a couple of light patches on the way down, we thought we were through it and then we got a third one, 25 miles from Tasman Light last night; around 3:00am we were flapping around for three hours."

Tactician Brett Young said Two True had followed a strategy of always being well east of the rhumbline and had received a favourable push from the current in two major eddies.

"Our routing was always east of the rhumbline," said Young. "It's the first time I've ever done that. And we had really good competition from Wicked. They sailed hard, but we got through them. We really stuck to our game plan, even with the weather not being anything like what it was originally forecast. We only came into Tasmania when we could lay Tasman Island."

Young said the First 40 had performed well in the bumpy seaway following the southerly front. "Last night was a tough night, but that's when this boat comes into its own. In a seaway, it just goes faster."

Mark Welsh, boat manager and tactician on Wicked for his owner-skipper father Mike Welsh, said: "We chose the design after a lot of searching around the world for one that would be very competitive in IRC racing and it looks like we might have chosen successfully."

A third new First 40 was racing, Paca (Philippe Mengual) from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. "So our race really depended on watching the other two boats, said Mark. "All credit to Two True, they sailed an absolutely sensational race.

"On the second night out, even though we were with them off Gabo Island, we couldn't hold them. They sailed very, very well that night, got through us and from there we were just playing catch-up and we couldn't catch them. They did a great job."

The only IRC division decided, with all boats finished, is Division 0 for canting-keeled boats. The line honours winner Alfa Romeo (Neville Crichton), a Reichel Pugh100, won from the Cookson 50 Evolution Racing (Ray Roberts), with the modified Jones Volvo 70 Ichi Ban (Matt Allen) third.

With 48 yachts finished, and five yachts retired, there are 47 yachts still racing to the finish in Hobart.