Sydney-Hobart: CBTF wins!(prediction)

Broken battens in the main-still making good speed and will still win(I hope) and in record time!

Fantastic! Bob Oately who was the first owner to use CBTF on a Grand Prix yacht and predicted CBTF would revolutionize sailing just made his prediction of 5 or so years ago come true.
Congratulations to Mark Richards and crew for a great milestone! CBTF Rules!
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edit: This means that CBTF has now broken the record in the Transpac,SH and the Bermuda race!

[nevd]

Originally Posted by Lorsail

Should be there tomorrow morning I think-fast pace but probably just under a record ..

Congratulations to all those people and organisations who insist on living on the "cutting edge" of technology.

[usa2]

will this record have an asterisk next to it, just like Nokia's did? (waterballast)
I dont have any problems with the motor running to power the keel, but the powered winches is a bit excessive. Congrats to Wild Oats for a superbly sailed race(minus the mainsail incident).

[D'ARTOIS]

Maybe I am a bit of a purist........

I don't blame the sailors - they did an exellent job;

I don't blame the designers - engineers - they did what was expected from them;

The introduction of "Line Honours" is disqualifying the or any race - the biggest boats will (almost) always win; therefore: who is the overall winner of the S-H?

To me, the Sydney - Hobart was always the purest of the purest. Like the Grand National in Steeple Chasing, or Pardubice.

Now a bunch of motorised sailing yachts has taken over the leading edge due to the heavy sponsoring.

Sports sponsoring = sports spoiling!

[Skippy]

I'm with D'Artois. This may belong on another thread, but if you really want to race canters, there should be a separate "power-assisted" category. You don't have to be a purist, just acknowledge that there IS an engine on your boat, it IS running, and your boat would NOT function without it. To say that your powered-keel, powered-winch, multimillion-dollar boat set a new "sailing" record doesn't do justice to the guys who went out there in the past with much less equipment. The purists could have a class that bans more conventional equipment, but you can still have in-between classes that allow, for example, electronic navigation and/or an auxiliary. That way, the big cats can fight their financial/technological arms race, and the little mice can do some real sailing!

[D'ARTOIS]

Applaudite, applaudite......I am not such a purist that I ban navionics and the like - but the remaining of your statement fully represents my feelings Skippy; even in SA a large number of members is against the canting keel business.
Saw that Wild Oats is all over winner too, and rumour is going that in the last minute Wild Oates broke the keel too and that they just barely won the S-H.
If Alfa Romeo had followed Wild Oates instead of taking another course, who knows who may have won?

[usa2]

Skandia had her problems also. apparently they filled the engine with water and had to disassemble it. Good thing they were not near the coast.
I am not against the engine for running the keel, as in a few years they will not need the engine running full time to cant the thing. I do believe powered winches should be banned, because the crew will not be as fatigued as other crews, and have a physical advantage plus a faster boat. The J-Class boats were sailed with coffee grinders, why should these boats be different?

[tamkvaitis]

where can I found information about sidney-hobart race?

"Just barely won the SH" ! what a load of hogwash! The boat cleaned the clocks of the whole fleet for line honors and overall in record time. Alfa also broke the record(I think). CBTF broke the record!!
I would never suggest you couldn't race your leadbelly and you shouldn't have the incredible presumption to say that these magnificent SAILBOATS shouldn't be allowed to race.
If Wild Oats DIDN"T have some trouble I would be surprised! It was her FIRST major ocean race for gods sake! Canting keels and particularly CBTF have a long and mostly safe record-in fact no CBTF boat has ever had a design problen with the keel to my knowledge. There were huge ,serious problems with fin keels when they were first introduced but the designers learned as they will with canting keels.
You talk in absurd doubletalk when you say "power assisted" or motor sailers" as if the engine was providing motive power which it most
certainly isn't. It's pitiful that in your dislike for the new technology you have to use such silly tags for some of the most magnificent sailing machines ever to touch water. It's pitiful that you feel the need to denigrate the accomplishment of a huge team of dedicated people from Bill Burns,Alberto Calderon, Charles Robinson,Matt Brown and the other guys at CBTFco, to Jim Pugh and John Reichel at Reichel-Pugh, the builders at McConnaghy's and the crew on the boat.Some of these people have worked for over 25 years to achieve this goal and to try to put down the accomplishments of such a team using those ridiculous tags is disgracefull!

[Chris Ostlind]

Here: http://rolexsydneyhobart.com//default.asp?key=521

[Chris Ostlind]

Hi Doug,

Would you be pissed if the next S/H were won by boats with turbine assist for all the functional elements of the boat's operation as well as light wind "traction enhancements" ? (to be determined by some fluctuating comittee of obtuse overseers)

This same sort of discussion took place in the Indy 500 some thousands of years ago when the Andy Granatelli turbine powered car LAPPED the field nearly twice before expiring due to a $6 ball bearing placement... with the finish in sight. The subsequent discussions banned turbine cars from the field forever.

Why not full-tilt ORMA 60 multihulls that woud lay waste to anything the mono's could ever do credibly? (and that includes all foil equipped mono's due to the submerged crap in the water) If they have really big balls there won't be any hassle for multihullers to enter this race. The organizers just have to sack-up and let it roll as it may.

This record should be asterisked as appropriate to the style of boat as entered.

End Rant... Out

Chris Ostlind

[usa2]

Where are people coming up with this stuff about Wild Oat's keel having problems? It was at full cant in the photos of her at the finish. It sure doesnt look like she was having keel problems, as she was doing 14 knots under a 110%(ish) jib.

Would people object to the keel being canted off batteries? It certainly is possible. You would only need to run the engine to recharge the batteries, which they do on nearly all the boats in the race to provide for the electronics.


They should also change the ratings on the canting keel boats, because they tend to be rated unfairly in regards to the smaller boats. They should rate them as a bigger boat, because they are capable of speeds that a bigger boat would do. So if you have a 98' supermaxi, it would rate as a 120 footer. Or something like that. Just like Wild Oats 66' should be rated as a 90(ish) footer, because thats how fast she is.

[Chris Ostlind]

"Would people object to the keel being canted off batteries? It certainly is possible. You would only need to run the engine to recharge the batteries, which they do on nearly all the boats in the race to provide for the electronics."

No, no objection to the full-on battery exception, but the design would then have to allow for the distribution of battery ballast.

"They should also change the ratings on the canting keel boats, because they tend to be rated unfairly in regards to the smaller boats. They should rate them as a bigger boat, because they are capable of speeds that a bigger boat would do. So if you have a 98' supermaxi, it would rate as a 120 footer. Or something like that. Just like Wild Oats 66' should be rated as a 90(ish) footer, because thats how fast she is."

And now you've hit the nail on the head.

Chris

Chris, I think multies should be allowed and it's a black mark against the SH that they aren't. And I don't care how they generate onboard power just so long as multihulls, canting keels and hydrofoils are allowed....
2, the ED on SA started the keel rumor this morning by mentioning that he thought Adrianne Callahan had mentioned something about it after getting off the boat. But I haven't seen any more to back that up and I seriously doubt it.
The rating systems all take canting keels into account; the Schock 40 rating is particularly onerous from what I hear..