Refresher course

A crewman had just helped About Time’s owner Julian Farren-Price clip on, when the always competitive Cookson 50 broached and he was flicked off the boat.

According to Farren-Price, a highly experienced yachtsman, the crew carried-out a textbook MOB retrieval.

“All systems worked as they should,” he recounted to Sails. “His PFD auto inflated, we activated his AIS, we launched the dan buoy and horseshoe, with a light on each. We never lost sight of him and had him alongside and in a life sling within 15 minutes and hoisted him aboard with a halyard.”

More tests of crews and boats were to come.

Wild Oats XI was doing 32 knots off Terrigal at around 830pm when the crew heard a distinctly unpleasant ‘bang’. The supermaxi’s giant mast had compressed under enormous load, causing cracks to appear on the deck and necessitating on-board repairs to stabilise the rig.

The combined shipwright and boat-building experience on the defending Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours champion ensured the repairs held, and the yacht made it safely to Newcastle.

Some long hours back in the shed at Woolwich Dock will be required to get Oats back on the water in time for her 15th run south.

Meantime the night-time downwind running in occasional breaking three metre seas was giving steerers a reboot on what is one of the hardest offshore skills to master.

I was on watch on Wax Lyrical and Lou Stevenson was on the wheel when a serious wave hulked behind us and slammed into our quarter, shunting all of Wax’s 14 tonnes. “That was a bit bigger,” she observed wryly after we recovered our footing.

During my stint guiding the powerful X-50 under the vivid, shifting tableaux of stars and moonbeams off Newcastle I silently thanked the workers at the Haderslev factory for their dedication in securing every bolt and screw, but baulked at the thought of a shout at the X-Yachts canteen.

Definitely a few pitchers of Pilsner, though, to show my appreciation.

We rounded Cabbage Tree around 6am in good shape, but the night and early morning took its toll with Wings, Helsal 3, Arch Rival, Koa, Dreki Sunan, Imagination and Minerva all pulling out.

Up front, the retirement of InfoTrack had left the line honours door wide open for Black Jack and the immaculately prepared supermaxi powered home, crossing the line in a time of 13 hours, 30 minutes and 12 seconds. The run was just outside WOXI’s record but a very pleasing result for the Black Jack team.

“We have improved and achieved a top boat speed of 28 knots,” noted skipper Mark Bradford.

“We could not go with Wild Oats XI in those conditions before, but now we have had a couple of hours directly boat on boat with them, and good ideas have come from that.

“Interestingly, the configurations have all changed for both of us, and the boats are similar. We hope they get back on water, as there is a lot of good sailing ahead of us,” he added.

Gweilo, with her Hobart crew Hobart aboard finished only three hours astern of the supermaxi, securing first place Overall and Division 1 IRC, ORCi and PHS handicap.

Skipper Wade Morgan saw it as vindication of 15 months of work-up since the TP52 arrived in the country.

“We have good confidence in the tough stuff at the moment, there is always plenty of luck involved but we were on the right side of it in this race,” he said.

As for Wax Lyrical we managed to just scrape into a windless harbour illuminated by a brilliant sunset, playing every zephyr, before the breeze kicked in. Our result of 13^th on line, the boat’s best ever line honours performance, and a welcome dividend for a testing outing.

Commenting on the high attrition rate with 22 of 58 yachts retiring, Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Commodore Paul Billingham said; “This has been one of the tougher Cabbage Tree Island Races and it is the chance to sail in races like this that helps ensure that our blue water fleet is ready as it can be to deal with whatever arises in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.”

cyca.com.au