65th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - Day 3
by Rolex Media Centre 28 Dec 2009 09:22 GMT
One more hurdle
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.
For more information about the Rolex Sydney Hobart 2009 including the entry list, yacht tracker and standings, please visit the event website at www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
Fans of social networking can follow the race via Twitter at twitter.com/rshyr
Wild Oats XI has Alfa Romeo in their sights (by Rob Mundle)
Wild Oats XI co-navigator, Ian ‘Fresh’ Burns, had an unexpected message for the yacht’s loyal band of supporters late today: ‘We can now see Alfa Romeo ahead of us. We’ve got them in our sights.’
During the day the 30.48 metre long supermaxi owned by Bob Oatley carved into the seemingly insurmountable lead that near sistership Alfa Romeo (sailed by kiwi Neville Crichton), had held when the frontrunners exited Bass Strait and reached the north-east corner of Tasmania soon after sunrise.
Now that’s changed. Wild Oats XI has made a spectacular recovery and moved into a position where she now has at least a slim chance of claiming her fifth consecutive line honours in the classic.
‘We thought we’d lost everything when Alfa Romeo got her nose into a new breeze yesterday and disappeared over the horizon,’ said Wild Oats XI’s tactician and world champion yachtsman, Iain Murray, this afternoon. ‘They put more than 20 miles on us in no time at all. But today we’ve managed to reclaim most of that distance. We are now back in the hunt.’
With the yachts having less than 70 miles to go to the finish, yachting meteorologist Roger Badham says that the leaders should carry a steady breeze south to the turning point at Tasman Island and for much of the passage across Storm Bay to the entrance of the Derwent River. But it’s possible that during that period they will have to contend with two transition zones where the wind will change direction – and this is where Wild Oats XI will get her best chances to once again close on the leader.
‘Much will depend on what time they get to the entrance of the Derwent River tonight,’ said Badham. ‘On current projections, If they get to the river mouth much after 11pm it is likely that the wind will die completely and the race will become a drifting match. It’s all making for an interesting finish.’
If the wind does fade to nothing then there’s a possibility this 628 nautical mile race will start all over again just 11 miles from the finish line off the Hobart waterfront.
The third placed yacht, the British supermaxi ICAP Leopard (Mike Slade), lost considerable ground today when they elected to sail an offshore course. It was a move that saw them sail into much lighter winds than their rivals and lose speed.