Wild Oats reaps reward again
The 30 metre (100-foot) maxi crossed the finish line at 9:52 pm local time in a time of two days, eight hours, 52 minutes and 33 seconds — far short of the record of one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds it set last year.
Wild Oats is only the sixth yacht to score back-to-back victories in the Sydney to Hobart since it was launched in 1945, and the first boat to do so since Astor achieved the feat in 1963 and 1964.
“We were really happy to have a tough race to show everyone this boat is capable of going upwind just as well as downwind, so it was good stuff,” said jubilant skipper Mark Richards.
“It was tough, a very tough race, you don’t get much tougher than that,” he said after a treacherous start to the race that saw the 78-strong fleet decimated.
Wild Oats took the lead after most of its main rivals were forced to retire or fell victim to rough weather and equipment failure during the first 24 hours of the 628-nautical-mile race.
It came in about 40 nautical miles ahead of second placed Ichi Ban, which was about three nautical miles ahead of Skandia, which fell into third position late Thursday after mounting a brave challenge against Wild Oats.
The reigning champion saw its huge lead over Skandia halved in calm conditions on Thursday, but managed to maintain a 10-nautical-mile buffer down the east coast of Tasmania.
Wild Oats temporarily lost the lead on a tumultuous first night to both rival maxi Maximus and the 21 metre (70-foot) ABN Amro, both of which were dismasted before dawn on Wednesday.
But most of its main rivals were either forced to retire or crippled after falling victim to rough weather and equipment failure before the race had passed the one-day marker.
The extreme conditions that sank one yacht and forced eight others to retire did not re-materialise, but the damaged Skandia had already lost its front rudder and was generally believed out of contention.
It appeared to be the likely runner-up until it was finally passed by Ichi Ban.
Wild Oats reached the finish line in Hobart’s Constitution Dock to cheers and celebration by its crew, which included 15 previous members of line honours winning yachts.
“I feel like I’m a young man again,” said its ecstatic owner, businessman Bob Oatley.
“We are pleased to have this race behind us and it’s great to be in one piece and for the crew to be in one piece.”
Only 69 of the 78 yachts that made their way out of Sydney Harbour on Tuesday remained in the race by Thursday afternoon.
On Maximus, six crew members were injured when the mast and rigging crashed onto them.
The New Zealand supermaxi limped into Sydney Harbour with her motors Thursday, with her crew devastated at the mast failure they believed cost them the race.
While happy to be safe, crew members said they felt sure they were heading for victory after taking the lead from Wild Oats shortly before the mast came off in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“I thought we had it in the bag at the time,” said co-owner Bill Buckley. “We’d had a little bit of headsail problems earlier on, but we’d tidied that up and were gaining and were side by side (with Wild Oats).”
