2013 Sydney-Hobart

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2013 Sydney-Hobart

Post by J.D. »

Well we’re getting to that time of year when everyone in the sailing community starts looking south again and this year’s edition of the Sydney-Hobart is set to be a cracker.

With five 100 foot supermaxis, three 80 footers, fifteen 70 footers and some interesting new boats like Matt Allen’s new Ichi Ban, this year’s is a proper international event.

At the big end of the fleet, six times winner Wild Oats XI has had even more modifications to add to last year’s. With the addition of some lateral wings to keep the bow out of the water, she now has so many foils some wag nicknamed her “the Swiss Army knife”. Not all her changes have been successful. Her new mast fell down in one of her first outings, fortunately with no casualties. From my point of view these modifications are something of a tacit admission that she’s getting close to being out-designed.

Grant Wharrington’s Jones-designed 100 footer Wild Thing is due to be back, provided her owner can get the paperwork sorted out this time. Hopefully we’ll get to see how successful the modifications were after Wharro chopped 10 metres off the stern last year and rebuilt her in a quest for more downwind speed.

Another boat to watch is Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin 100, the old Loyal which pipped Wild Oats XI at the finish in a dying wind on the Derwent in 2011. This Elliott 100 may not be the fastest in the race but she’s reliable and good in light stuff.

There’s a German-owned, Cyprus-based Farr 100 called Zafiro which has been cruising her way around the world and decided to do the race for a lark. She’s unlikely to be a factor unless it blows but all the same, she’s no slouch.

But the most interesting big boat this year is the new Loyal. Designed by Argentinian Juan Kouyoumdjian of Volvo Ocean Race fame, she was previously known as Rambler 100 which capsized after losing her keel in the 2011 Fastnet race. New owner Anthony Bell has had her completely rebuilt and strengthened and she should be good for Hobart.

Juan K’s designs proved themselves in the VOR with ABN AMRO 2 recording the fastest ever 24 hour passage for a monohull of 596 nautical miles (average 24.833 knots!), a record which still stands. The VO70s have been known to hit 40 knots and Loyal has a notional top speed of 45 knots off the wind. That’s about 80 km/h.

Of course it’s all academic once the weather is taken into account but this is the biggest threat to Wild Oats XI's supremacy yet and represents a newer generation of design.

Backing up the supermaxis are three 80 footers; the veteran Jutson 80 Brindabella and a Swan 82 from the UK called Nikata. But the interest here is Karl Kwok’s Botin-designed pocket Maxi, Beau Geste. This brand new Hong Kong-based boat is 2/3 the weight of a supermaxi but with ¾ of the sail area. We’ll see how the maths work out. Hopefully they will be better than they were for Kwok's Farr 80 of the same name. That boat all but broke in half in the Auckland-Noumea race and Kwok, after abandoning the Farr design group, has utilized all the components in his new boat.

Following the 80 footers is a veritable horde of Tony Castro designed Clipper 70 ‘round the world boats. Not as radical as the VO65 boats we’ll see in the next couple of years, they are nonetheless pretty quick and well capable of a very fast run to Hobart. Competition will be very tight and all the crews are internationals.

Backing them up are three VO70s including the new Black Jack (formerly Telefonica) and the New Zealand based Giacomo, formerly Groupama IV, winner of the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race. Southern Excellence II, the Jones-designed VO70 and former Ichi Ban, will fill out this very large group. Don't discount this group. They may not have the waterline length but off the wind, Black Jack and Giacomo will be impossible to stop. Remember what Nokia did to the race record in 1999.

Another boat well worth watching is the new Ichi Ban. Designed by South African Shaun Carkeek and built in Dubai, this boat has yet to turn a hamster wheel in anger but all eyes will be on her. Carkeek is known for designing very fast TP52s and often works in close company with Spanish designer Marcelino Botin, who penned Beau Geste. expect to see some similarities but both boats will represent the latest in design trends.

I don’t know if your ARSE correspondent will be in Hobart – unlikely, in fact – but all the same, with the best fleet in 30 years, I can’t wait for this one.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Some early form to watch:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/w ... 6779960379" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Loyal's case wasn't helped when she blew out a headsail early on. Black Jack, formerly Telefonica seems to be going well early.

Okay, now for some techy stuff which will give you an idea of where the differences lie at the big end of the fleet. Here's the Stern of Wild Oats XI:

Image

As you can see, she's pretty conservative with nice curves to flared topsides and relatively narrow stern. This is classic IMS of about 10 years ago, roughly when she was designed.

Now look at Loyal:

Image

Very wide stern with razor sharp chines. Very much like an 18 footer. Add to that the twin rudders and you've got a package which probably doesn't rate brilliantly but has a lot of righting moment and plenty of floatation aft to stop the stern mushing into the water when she planes off the wind. This would leave less wake and as a result, less drag. The comparisons with VO70s are pretty easy to make.

Here is Giacomo, formerly Groupama 4

Image

And now Black Jack, in the days when she was Telefonica, sans any underwater appendages:

Image

All except Wild Oats XI were designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian and the lineage is pretty obvious. Oats is a Reichel Pugh.

I can't see Wild Oats XIs extra wings being a lot of use. I'd be surprised if they had much use because I doubt if she'd have much directional stability once she got past about 20-25 knots.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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If you're still with me, this should give you an even better idea of the differences:

Wild Oats XI lines:

Image

Loyal, ex-Rambler100, ex-Speedboat lines:

Image

For what it's worth, Anthony Bell estimates it costs him $10,000/day to run Loyal. The program to rebuild her is estimated to have cost $10m...
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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That boat doesn't get out of dock for less than $10,000.00.

I'm interested JD, just don't know much about it so just reading :)
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Vilante wrote:I'm interested JD, just don't know much about it so just reading :)
+1 :up:
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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One of Wild Oats' wings:

Image

I can't imagine this is going to improve the boat much. Directional stability won't be great.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6783576275" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Here's an outsider:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6777540708" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Although Wild Oats XI has been pretty bullet proof over the years, Ragamuffin100 has an excellent finishing record too. Just what Syd and his cohort have done to her is anyone's guess. On the other hand, starting a Sydney-Hobart with untested components isn't ideal. That leads me to conclude either that the differences are probably not that radical or Syd has had a change of tactics.

Shades of the old America's Cup...

David Witt's comments about Loyal are revealing. I would add to that the issue of her reliability. We don't yet know how she will take to a couple of days of pounding into the wind. If she holds together Loyal will be a contender, even into the wind. But if the wind goes north...
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Six days from the start and the forecasters are already showing their hands:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-20/w ... st/5169550" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm kind of sceptical about this. They say it pretty much this time every year. I'm also sceptical about their conclusions. The forecast I read today showed a west-south westerly wind. That would, indeed, suit Wild Oats XI as her narrow hull is better suited to a beat or cracked sheets than Loyal. However, if it is as this report says, I would definitely dispute the conclusion that Loyal would be at any sort of disadvantage, despite Stan Honey's comments. Reaching and running would play into her hands perfectly.

Mind you, like all the other boats, the supermaxis have to get to Hobart to break any records.

The bottom line is though, that this is six days out and too early to be jumping to any conclusions about the possible conditions. We'll know more on Monday.

While you're at it, check the video link for some views of the brand new Carkeek designed 60 footer Ichi Ban.

I just hope that if it is a record, they finish very, very early...midnight to 1:00 AM would do nicely.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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I wish someone would get their collective shit together and decide what the forecast is actually going to be.

So far I've read at least three wildly differing sets of predictions. The first - last week - was for northerlies and a potential record. I elected not to believe that one. The second was for light and shifting winds and no record. This one is for 30 knots on the snotter and no record.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/s ... 6789455228" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So who do you believe?

Then there's the Sydney version of stormy weather - 30 knots. Pfft. Any boat or crew which can't handle 30 knots has no business in that race or any other ocean race. The peak gusts for that kind of wind should come in at about 45 but that isn't by any means excessive. If the Melbourne-Hobart West Coaster doesn't get 45 knots, nobody bothers with it!

And while I'm at it, there's the issue of Bass Strait. Ever since 1998, Bass Strait has been in the mind of every Sydney-Hobart sailor, except those who actually know it. It seems to be a Sydney obsession.

I don't know why this is. The Sydney-Hobart fleet does not enter Bass Strait! As the skipper I sail with says, "Any Sydney-Hobart skipper who finds himself in Bass Strait is lost!" For the record, the eastern end of Bass Strait ends at the line between Gabo Island and the north-east tip of Flinders Island. The fleet hugs the coast to Eden to stay in the southerly current and avoid the north one further east but as soon as they get to Eden they head out to sea to follow a great circle. most don't get within 40nm of it. The entire race takes place in the Tasman Sea.

I think they are so used to sailing in the lee of the land that as soon as they get out into the real stuff...well, you get the idea. Some have historically handled it very well. In 1984 a Farr one-tonner called Indian Pacific ended up winning the race because she went about 100nm offshore. This was a huge gamble but it was a particularly wild race and that strategy kept her out of the worst of the waves.

Anyhow, if the weather is as predicted, it will certainly be a matter of reliability over speed.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Just looked at the weather reports again... no one has the same values, but looks interesting.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Crazy start. It's always like that with downwind starts. Not sure what the protest is over. Either Loyal went to the wrong mark or Wild Oats XI luffed them up. Either way, I can't imagine they've got any rights to redress. If there was contact, as Rob Brown thought, Loyal would still be in the wrong. Wild Oats XI was the leeward boat so they had luffing rights. Had they made it to the mark without that incident, it would have been different.

Even if Wild Oats XI had been ahead, Loyal could still have been the first yacht around. Unlike motor racing, you have to be clear ahead - that is, you must have daylight between your stern and your opponent's bow three boat lengths from the mark - before you can move across to take your line. No Ayrton Senna-type heroics there. You cannot cut across to round the mark if there is an overlap.

Saw some pretty crappy sail trim there too.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Should be a few interesting angles of that start..
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Yeah someone seems to have found some extra shots which show why it went the way it did. Seems Loyal went for the wrong mark and Wild Oats XI went with them. This explains why Beau Geste made up so much ground. They were headed for the right mark. Nothing like sailing your own race...

Loyal's American navigator Stan Honey sent them east last night and they came out of it better than the others who got flicked by the tail end of a small storm.

The protest has been dropped.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

Post by wobblysauce »

Should see another few high winds with a follow up system in a few hrs.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Yes that is the topic under discussion down here at the moment.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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An early start today And probably a very late night, especially since Loyal won't get in until at least midnight. Since we have one of our own on board we have to be there, come hell or high water.

This just hasn't been Loyal's race. The boat is obviously fast but conditions have suited Wild Oats XI better. Although the tracker shows her travelling at least 3 kts faster on occasions, it also shows her losing ground. In the end though, it will come down to who sails best. That will decide both the line honours and handicap wins.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Just witnessed one of the more amazing things I've ever seen in my life. Loyal travelling at speed up the Derwent river. We were doing nearly 20 knots just trying to stay with her. Then she caught a gust and just smoked away from us. I was speechless. So was everyone else. Karl Stefanovic told me afterwards that they had been doing 35 knots under spinnaker. I asked him what it felt like and for once I think he was a bit short for words. I got the impression he was seriously impressed.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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It is not something you would get to see much going up river like that.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Nope, a rare sight indeed.

I'll report more when I get back to Melbourne.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Victoire is sweet!

The Farr-designed Cookson 50 Victoire has taken out the 2013 Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race.

Owned by Sydney plastic surgeon Darryl Hodgkinson and sailed by many of the crew who brought home the bacon for the RP51 Secret Men’s Business 3.5 in 2010, Victoire suffered a spectacular crash gybe in horrendous conditions which resulted in several crew members being thrown into the water. Nobody was hurt in the incident but it took ten minutes to right the boat and get her underway again.

Finishing barely 12½ hours behind Wild Oats XI, Victoire absolutely destroyed any chance of Oats repeating her 2012 triple crown. According to her crew, Victoire had something like 13 hours up her sleeve when she finished at about 7:30 on Sunday morning. The only fly in the ointment might have been Roger Hickman’s Wild Rose. This veteran campaigner was the original Wild Oats, built by McConaghy’s in 1985 and campaigned by Bob Oatley in the Admiral’s Cup. She was still at sea when Victoire was declared the winner.

Victoire also took out the ORCi division as well as IRC.

According to her crew, they were belting along at 25kts when they hit an unfavorable wave pattern and broached to leeward. The boom crashed across to the other side and with the canting keel on the wrong side of the boat, she lay with her mast in the water for some minutes. After rescuing the three crew members who had been thrown into the water, the next job was to centre the keel. The boat slowly drew herself upright and with the boom now on the wrong side, they took off again on the opposite gybe. They only lost about ten minutes.

The crew told me that they had been pushing really hard and anticipating something like this would happen. Shaken but undeterred, everyone relaxed and figured that it was behind them and they could press on.

The interior of the boat is a wreck and they destroyed a couple of spinnakers but Darryl Hodgkinson is a happy man.

Next article will be about some of the more interesting boats.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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The boats

Wild Oats XI

She had it all her own way this race. The conditions suited “Old Skinny” better than her rivals, though the start showed just how big a part the tension between them played. Outmanoeuvred by Loyal’s canny American navigator Stan Honey, Wild Oats’ Tom Addis had to come up with something special. Adrienne Cahalan sent them inshore in 2005, in a radical move which paid off in spades, but this time that tactic backfired. But they clawed their way back and held their lead – even extending it – to the finish.

Skipper Mark Richards must be running out of things to say on Constitution Dock and he raised an eyebrow or two with his claim that Wild Oats XI was now the most famous boat in Australian history. Ben Lexcen would probably have begged to differ…

Wild Oats XI, however good she is, is still a big fish in what was until now, a small pond.

In truth their superlatives were probably a little hollow this year because they were thrashed on handicap by the hard-sailed Cookson 50, Victoire.

7/10

Perpetual Loyal

Loyal really only started sailing again back in November but Anthony Bell and his project manager Joe Akacich did an amazing job just getting her to the start line. Rumours abound that this boat cost $1m to buy and $7m to rebuild and has had a large injection of capital from one James Packer. With sailing master Michael Coxon seriously ill, the rest of the crew would have to rely on some educated guess work and guile to get Loyal the rest of the way to Hobart.

The fat bottom girl of the fleet, Loyal was seriously disadvantaged by the light air which plagued them for the first 24 hours of the race. On Saturday afternoon, when the wind picked up, I was watching the tracker which, at one point, displayed her average boatspeed at 28.2 knots which is the highest average I have ever seen. That confirmed for me that her peak must have been in the high 30s. I spoke to a bloke called Billy, who was on the helm for some of that time, who told me Loyal had touched 40 knots (75 km/h) on one occasion and had spent a fair amount of time surfing at 35. A white knuckle ride!

Even with the experience of people like Barney Walker aboard, Loyal’s biggest problem is that she has never been properly developed. Nobody has owned her long enough to really sort her out and find out what makes her go fast. Now things are different and I suspect her best days are actually ahead of her.

Her designer, Juan Kouyoumdjian, is under a cloud at the moment. Loyal – as Rambler 100 - lost her keel in the 2011 Fastnet, then Artemis folded up during the America’s Cup with the loss of Andrew Simpson. To add further to Juan K’s problems, an Open 60 called Cheminées Poujoulat broke in half and sank last week and the crew saved in extremis. Whether these were design faults, engineering faults or manufacturing faults has not been adequately explained yet. That doesn’t stop some fairly prominent pundits from calling for his head.

Let’s at least give the guilty bastard a fair trial before we take him out and hang him, eh?

Loyal may not have a single attractive line on her and Juan K’s days as a designer may be numbered but anyone lucky enough to see her roaring up the Derwent, blowing spray into the fading light, will remember her for a long time.

8/10

Wild Thing

This was an anticlimax. As reported last year, Grant Wharington had sawn 9 metres off the stern and rebuilt her to be faster off the wind. As I also predicted, her stern is a lot wider and the gunwales run parallel from amidships, more in line with current design trends.

Wild Thing’s best days are behind her and Wharington should just get rid of it and buy a used VO70 if he wants to get back into the winner’s circle. Trying to run a maxi on that sort of money is not really feasible and Wharro has done well enough out of this boat that he can walk away from it and still feel he’s achieved something.

Anyone who looks at her critically can see what’s wrong. Her sail plan just looks undersize to me, with a boom which barely seems to go half way down the cockpit. It’s a bit like joining the front half of a 2001 car to the back half of another built in 2011. I don’t want to be critical of Don Jones but I think he was handed a design brief which was just too far removed from reality to be achievable.

She got smashed by both Black Jack and Giacomo - boats 30 feet shorter - and finished only a few hours ahead of Victoire, which is half her length.

3/10

Ragamuffin 100

Rags was always going to make it and the feature this year was Syd Fischer completing his 45th Hobart run. But that was about it.

The Elliott 100, formerly Investec Loyal and before that Maximus, is just starting to show her age. Some last minute modifications to improve her performance, such as the inclusion of water ballast, did little for her and she finished well down on handicap even though she was 3rd across the line.

It’s not really Rags’ fault. They tried as hard as anyone and if any boat was going to make it to Hobart, it was them.

6/10

Beau Geste

Karl Kwok’s brand new 80 foot pocket maxi had not been raced at all until she greeted the starter on Boxing Day. With Kwok’s usual helmsman Gavin Brady, she was in good hands and managed to get through the weather unscathed, which is a pretty good effort for a first outing.

Marcelino Botin didn’t hold back in his design and it certainly reflects some recent trends like hard chines and slab sides. Beau Geste is not an attractive boat but with her light weight and large sail plan, she should have been quick in the light stuff. Lack of development is probably the issue here but her big bum probably didn’t help until the wind got up.

This boat is still an unknown at the moment. There’s no shortage of talent on board though.

On a lighter note, I watched on as her crew used a halyard to haul a folded sail aboard on Sunday. They had tied the sail in a block – known to us as “bricking” - but they had also tied it to a trolley. When they tried to hoist it aboard, they nearly took the trolley as well!

Probably a combination of tiredness and a marathon session at Customs House…

7/10

Ichi Ban

Matt Allen’s brand new, Shaun Carkeek-designed 60 footer, did quite well for a boat with next to no development behind her. With an incredible pool of talent on board, the boat was in excellent hands. Her crew reads like a who’s who of Australian sailing: Gordon Maguire (ex-sailing master on Loki), Will Oxley, Darren Senogles, Rob Case and Michael Spies.

Despite the weather and the fact that the boat was probably being pressed extremely hard, Ichi Ban made it to the finish with no serious problem and finished a creditable 8th, both on handicap and over the line.

8/10

Black Jack

Peter Harburg’s new VO70, the former Telefonica, was the standout of the VO70s. Revelling in the hard conditions, she tore her mainsail in the latter stages and was passed by Giacomo, Beau Geste and Wild Thing. The owner went below to lick his wounds and get some sleep while the crew rigged a storm trysail. Four hours later, Harburg came back on deck to find that the crew had got the boat going again and re-passed everyone and was back in 4th on line honours!

Nobody would use a storm trysail if a 4th reef in the main was available but it worked and she finished only 9 hours behind Wild Oats XI! Who’dda thunk it? She would have lost much of that time in the light air early on.

The boat has been modified since her VO70 days and some of the transom is now closed. She also has a longer boom than what Juan K originally designed for her. They experimented with an even longer one in the lead up but it didn’t work.

7/10

Giacomo

The other Kouyoumdjian-designed VO70 was Jim Delegat’s Giacomo, formerly Groupama 4 and winner of the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race. Less impressive than Black Jack in the performance stakes, she nonetheless ended up ahead of her rival on handicap, which says something for the performance of the crew.

She was unlucky to be beaten over the line by only a minute by Beau Geste and in fact, was only about 2½ minutes behind her rival Black Jack.

7/10

Bacardi

“Who?” I hear you ask? Bacardi has now done more Sydney-Hobarts than any other boat in the history of the race and has failed to finish only once. With her 28th race now behind her she holds the record officially. Unofficially, she has actually done 30.

Built in 1978 by John Gould, she is the “Paddy’s axe” of the fleet, having had 3 new engines, 4 masts and two decks! She was nearly wrecked in 2010 when the mast came down and tore half the deck off. Owner Martin Power, a former racing driver in the 1980s, put her back together again and although she missed last year’s race, she was back again this time.

In 2006, her then-owners John Williams and Graeme Ainley sailed her to second overall.

I have done a few races on this boat. She looks well used because she is! There’s no glamour here and the only concession to comfort is the biggest beer fridge I’ve ever seen on any boat.

Innovative for her time, she was designed by American Doug Peterson and built of solid fibreglass, as opposed to the foam core sandwiches of today. That is probably why you can expect to see her line up for next year’s edition.

7/10

Next article will look at some of the design trends (with pics).
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

Post by J.D. »

So now for some stuff which might be of a little more interest to the more technically minded among you. I'm not going to try to explain in too much detail what the design features of each boat actually do beyond basic detail. I'm not and engineer, I'm strictly an end user! In any event, this might give some perspective on the boats and how different they really are when viewed up close. For the most part, these are all relatively recent designs, barring Victoire and Wild Thing.

Let's start with Karl Kwok's new 80 foot pocket maxi Beau Geste. This was designed by Spanish naval architect Marcelino Botin, who has been a leading designer of TP52s over the past few years. He sometimes works in partnership with South African Shaun Carkeek, with whom he studied naval architecture at Southampton University.

Beau Geste is hardly a high point of elegance and shows none of the sweet lines of say, the Farr 50s.

Block of flats:

Image

Slab-sided and with hard chines and twin rudders, she is very reminiscent of a Juan Kouyoumdjian design but without the double angled gunwales of which we shall see more later.

Chinese dragon:

Image

Botin has gone in for extremely long daggerboards which are angled the opposite way from most others. I'm advised that this has a minor hydrofoil effect when the boat is heeled and running at high speed. Whether this works or not is open to speculation but if others copy it, we'll have some idea of its effectiveness.

Clear the deck:

Image

Recent designs, in their quest for lightness, have tried to minimise the number of winches and so reduce weight. Botin has fallen back on his TP52 experience, using only one halyard winch in the office but has done so with everything run under the deck.

Black Jack is a three year old Juan K designed VO70 which shares a lot of features with Giacomo. I am unaware if they are sisterships or not but my impression is that each is a bespoke design. They seem to have different sail plans, even when they raced as Telefonica and Groupama 4.

Image

Again, hard chines which go almost all the way along, twin rudders and plumb bow and stern for maximum waterline length. The offset of such a wide stern is the suction at low speeds.

Back to the office:

Image

Classic VO70 office, designed to clear water away as efficiently as possible. It would require a harness in most conditions because the crew would likely be cleared away too! Notable features are the central winch pillar for the mainsheet and the watertight hatch.

Cockpit drain:

Image

Notice in this shot the downward sweep of the deck next to the hatch and instruments and the exit points for the halyards, part of the way along. This is another concession to fast ocean sailing but curiously, it steers the water towards the cockpit, rather than away from it.

Combination corners:

Image

Giacomo's foredeck is classic Juan K design with two corners for strength instead of just one join between the hull and the deck. It also helps to shed water at high speed.

The back of the bus:

Image

The pushpit on Giacomo, showing extensive anchor points and turning blocks for wide angle sheeting of big reaching sails.

One of the most anticipated designs this year was Ichi Ban, Matt Allen's 60 foot Carkeek design which was built in Dubai. Echoing some of Botin's features on Beau Geste, it was, nonetheless, a bit more conservative with a softer hull design. It still has a very wide stern but a more rounded bilge.

No compromise:

Image

Carkeek has tried to detail design this boat to an extent I have not seen before. This shot shows a pulpit stanchion with a foil shape and some superb design and manufacturing around it. I think he was expecting it to be a wet boat! There are some clever little anchor points for wide angle sheeting and some superb manufacturing.

Much has already been said about Loyal but there is so much more to her story. Another Juan K design, she shares some features with both Giacomo and Black Jack.

Not cutting corners:

Image

As you can see, this is basically the same idea as used on the smaller VO70s.

Fat bottom girl:

Image

Loyal's Achilles Heel in this year's race, her 7 metre wide stern really only helped when the wind got up and she started to show what she's really capable of. In light air the suction drag from he stern meant that she was not able to match it with Wild Oats XI. Planing off the wind is the best point for her, though anything requiring more righting moment would favour her too.

Bullseye:

Image

One of her most notable features for me was the use of rings instead of turning blocks (pulleys) for the sheets. I have seen many boats where the sheet goes directly to the winch to save extra weight and complication but this is a little bizarre and reflects a weight-saving which I would have thought presented more disadvantages than advantages. The loads would be stupendous but the use of terylene ropes is a factor here and the system obviously works. In fact, the only blocks I saw were on the mainsheet and in the stern corners, like this:

Image

Some neat building here but not overly attractive to my eye. again, notice how hard the chine is There's no curve at all.

Again, the lack of development of this boat is her biggest problem at the moment. With a new and committed owner, she will be a feature of future races. Hopefully she will do some of the other big boat events like Hamilton Island etc.

That's all for this post. I'll cook up another one with the last five boats I'm going to look at to make things a bit simpler.

Feel free to ask questions...if you're still interested!
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

Post by wobblysauce »

Did not expect Victoire to lead but that was a quick run for the size, Nice looking also.

It does seem that Wild Oats XI is showing that age but not in the best way, maybe from not being solid design point, bit of this and that.

Wonder where Black Jack would of been if the sail didn't stop them


It has been interesting to watch the design changes over the years.
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

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Part two of my tech description which will also have a sort of conclusion from an armchair expert - me!

Varuna is 51 foot, all carbon boat from young British designer Jason Ker. Notable for some neat design points, this particular Ker 51 is in an unfinished state; that is to say, she's just one big piece of carbon with no paint. There are all sorts of reasons why I'm not a big fan of this but the principal one is the heat generation in warmer climates. Ker has been on the scene for a while now but good as he is, I don't put him in quite the same league as say, Shaun Carkeek. Matt Allen didn't think so either. That said, Varuna - a German entry owned by Jens Kellinghusen - finished 10th over the line and did extremely well on handicap which is a hell of a performance for her first shot at the Sydney Hobart! So, despite the way he is currently perceived, Ker seems to be very much on the up and up.

Ker has recently been involved in the design of several new lines of stock boats which are now coming out of McConaghy's facility in China, notably the MC38 and the Ker 46. Both are radical and are acquiring a name for themselves. The Ker 46, Patrice had to retire with some minor hull damage which will cause some headaches at McConaghy's.

Neat cockpit:

Image

Starting with a rear mounted mainsheet traveller, the track which can just be seen in the lower left, Ker has opened up the rest of the cockpit to provide plenty of work space. He has also limited the number of winches to save weight. I like the way he has offered so many alternatives for the helmsman too. With that platform he or she can stand or sit without difficulty, regardless of the angle of heel.

The hatch would be a pain for anyone of larger than average proportions but looks as though it would be relatively dry. It would be a pain for spinnaker take downs too.

He seems to have stuck with running backstays too.

The jib sheets lead through an eye at the peak of the deck next to the mast and go straight to the primary winch with no turning block. Ker has used a lateral traveller to adjust the slot between the jib and the main. This is not unusual in a race boat but the opposite of what I'm used to. It would also make the cut of the sails more critical.

Flare anyone?

Image

Beautiful construction on this boat, built by Knierim in Germany. Ker has gone for very wide flare of the topsides in an attempt to create as much waterline length as possible with minimum drag while also creating enough floatation aft to support the boat while planing.

Victoire, the overall winner of the Sydney Hobart is a classic Farr design, built and named for Cookson in New Zealand.

Nothing radical here:

Image

Conservative when compared with Varuna, Victoire is a stock boat with very conventional but very efficient design. Compared with Varuna she has longitudinal jib tracks using conventional cars and a straight run to the primary winch. Because of her canting keel design, she has a daggerboard which can be seen just ahead of the mast.

Move to the back of the bus please:

Image

Rather more crowded than the Ker 51 due to a slightly narrower beam, Victoire has a pretty conventional layout and a slightly less race-orientated cockpit. That said, she's still open and relatively spacious compared with some of the spaces I've been in! With a simple rig and uncomplicated deck layout, Victoire doesn't represent the latest or greatest but certainly stands up well as a boat which would be fun to sail.

Not really a feature of this article, I thought I would throw in a couple of shots of the Reichel Pugh 51 Wedgetail, which was dismasted half way down the east coast of Tasmania.

Image

This is what happens when a D2 shroud fails:

Image

The D2 is a diagonal bracing shroud which goes from the outside end of the lowest spreader to the junction point between the next spreader and the mast. You can see the D1s still in position. You can always tell when a D2 has failed because the mast breaks half way between the first and second spreader.

Wild Oats XI is a relatively simple but well engineered design from the US/UK design office of Reichel Pugh. This is the same team who designed another Sydney Hobart winner, Alfa Romeo They have also been responsible for most of the modifications made.

Old Skinny:

Image

Wild Oats XI is long and narrow. The beam at her widest point is 5 metres, compared with 7 metres on Loyal. Traditionally, long, narrow boats have done better in the Sydney Hobart than wider designs. Is this a coincidence? Probably. Where Wild Oats is really designed to be a combination of a regatta boat which can do windward return courses and the occasional ocean race, Loyal is more like an overgrown VO70, optimised for reaching and running in harder conditions. So you have a boat which is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades versus one which is in something of a design corner.

Oats' strength this year was her ability to track in light air. Long, narrow hulls are good at that and they don't have big bums to drag around.

Big cockpit:

Image

Very clean layout, especially for such a narrow boat. Reichel Pugh have done a great job of putting everything exactly where it needs to be and leaving nothing to trip over. The after end winches, with the orange lines, show the running backstays are still being used even with the new rig. Oats went on a diet in 2013 and they shaved 200 kg from the mast and boom. This amazing weight saving reportedly cost $2m was achieved despite an increase in strength and reduction in windage. It went over the side the first time they used it but they rebuilt it and used it to great effect.

I don't know if they used their much vaunted wings or not. The photos I've seen of her surfing under spinnaker show no conclusive evidence of them being used. They do show the crew all sitting behind the helmsman.

Finally, Wild Thing, which showed off her new stern this year to little effect.

Image

This is the fourth new stern she has had and, I predict, the last. As I predicted last year, it is a lot wider than it used to be with parallel gunwales Wild thing was designed in the late '90s/early noughties and a lot of things have changed since then, as you can see.

Old bum:

Image

Wharington is trying to campaign a maxi yacht on an 50 foot budget. Even if he had the money to run a maxi, Wild Thing would now be a poor choice because she's past it.

Conclusion

The design trends seem to follow three paths at the moment; the hard chine/slab-sided look of the VO70s, the long and narrow designs like Wild Oats XI and the newer types like the Ker 51. Designers are using fewer winches than ever before and are ever simplifying their rigs. Most have gone for swept spreaders and eliminated the complicated and infuriating hassle of running backstays to keep the mast up and maintain forestay tension.

What they will look like in 5 years remains to be seen but I think the influence of designs like Wild Oats XI is starting to fade. Whatever the controversy surrounding Juan Kouyoumdjian, his ideas still seem to be the major influence on new boat designs.

Cheers,

JD
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Re: 2013 Sydney-Hobart

Post by wobblysauce »

It does not matter on how you design it if the winds do not blow in your favour, but to make the most of it is a lot of small things.
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