Sydney-Hobart 2014

Discussion in 'Sailboats' started by Doug Lord, Nov 25, 2014.

  1. CT249
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    CT249 Senior Member

    Now we're far enough into the race for corrected time honours to start shaping up, there's some interesting battles looming. The two fast 40s Midnight Rambler and Chutzpah are having a cracking duel for Div 1; Bruce went east, MR went west and now they have come together neck-and-neck. The two Volvo 70s did the same thing.

    The R/P 66 Alive is having an excellent race, ahead of the two VO70s and how ahead of Rags which apparently struck trouble.

    I'm holding out for a Wild Rose win; the old girl is going to come booming down onto Tasman if the forecast holds and then could make it partway into the Bay or better on a reach before the westerly hits.

    Maluka tends to look good most years and then fade (no fault of the boat or crew); like Azzuro she's going to cop the westerly even if the predicted finish time is right (and it's probably optimistic).

    The tracker from the Launceston-Hobart race shows how many holes there still are; the fleet in that race has compressed north of Maria, like the second group did in the Hobart. Damn I wish I was doing L-H this year, it would have been perfect for my boat!

    EDIT - and another boat that's flying and in with a possible chance in Enchantress - designed by her owner as a little (11m is little these days) downwind flyer 30 years ago. She's a fairly low-profile little number with a tall doghouse that has always gone quite well, but she could get slammed in a beat up the Bay. The old IOR Farr 40 Inner Circle is sailing well above her normal performance, too.

    It's a pity that we haven't adopted the US system of having a larger number of divisions, even if there are fewer boats in each division. It's hard for a boat like Malluka to be placed in the same division as Wild Rose, which is 13' longer and about half a century newer.
     
  2. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Relevant urls---

     
  3. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    ========================
    Getting real exciting!
    UPDATE: AT 6:10 USEST-WOXI 6.2 knots-53 miles to go. Comanche-9.9 knots-17 miles behind.
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    UPDATE: At 8pm USEST, WOXI doing 12 knots with 38 miles to go, Comanche doing 13.3 knots, 10 miles behind.
    Geez, I wish I could see this!
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    UPDATE: At 8:36 WOXI is doing 11.5knots with 32 miles left, Comanche doing 8.5 knots 10 miles back.
    ----
    UPDATE: At 9:32 USEST WOXI was doing 15.8 knots with 22m left. Comanche doing 10.6 knots and 10 miles back. It's looking like WOXI will hold on......
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    UPDATE: It seems now that unless WOXI breaks shes got her 8th victory.
    At 10 pm USEST, WOXI was doing 15.6 knots with 17 miles to go.Comanche doing 12.6 11 miles back...
    ----
    UPDATE: At 10PM USEST,Comanche was doing 14.5 knots and 10 miles behind. WOXI was doing 12.9 with 11 miles to go.
     
  4. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Looking at this shot reinforces to me the high drama about to unfold!! Wow! Interesting screen shot from SA:
    click-
     

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  5. Moggy
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    Moggy Senior Member

    Storm Bay always seems to throw a curve ball at you... in my experience. It's almost like a new race starts there.

    2c

    FWIW.
     
  6. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Sydney Hobart

    This is another expedition software screen shot--- now:
     

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  7. CT249
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    CT249 Senior Member

    WOXI just started outpacing Comanche again; it looks like C's a fat bottomed girl and not a buffalo girl.

    "Open" type boats have very rarely performed well in Australian ocean racing, with the exception of some good/great performances by Xena. It may be that we don't have them sorted but there is decades of evidence that the sloppy water down here doesn't suit some types of boat. Even among fairly similar types in IOR days it was apparent.
     
  8. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    ===============
    If it had been windy Comanche would have surely won-probably. I think Wild Oats DSS foil helped her tremendously to put miles in the bank. Can't wait to hear what the team says about that....

    Last expedition software screen shot for the night probably:
    click-
     

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  9. CT249
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    CT249 Senior Member

    Comanche performed well upwind in the breeze, but if you're going upwind in the Hobart it's normally effectively a wind against tide situation and a very confused seaway gets up*. That means that some boats stop, if not when the breeze is up then when the breeze dies off and a very sloppy seaway is left over.

    This is not saying that 'our' boats are better or other boats are worse, it's just an example of different styles suiting different conditions. Lots of our boats get hammered in the different conditions overseas.

    It's also very rarely a one-condition race.


    * For example Tom and Vicky Jackson from Sunstone say on their website that the Hobart produces the worst seaway in their experience, which includes 180,000 miles, 4 or 5 British 'offshore racer of the year awards', and months cruising Alaska and Cape Horn.
     
  10. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    I watched some video on the SH site(link above) of WOXI and Comanche in the Bass Straits and it seemed to me Comanche would tend to slow down more then WOXI when hitting waves-WOXI seemed to have an easier motion which, if I'm not imagining it, would be due to her super foil. Fantastic, incredible race.
     
  11. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Congratulations to Wild Oats XI and her crew for a well earned victory -her 8th-occurring in the 70th anniversary of the race!! In about 20 minutes from now she should cross the finish line.
    And I guess the fat lady done sung for Comanche.....
    But congratulations to them as well for making this one of the best Sydney-Hobarts ever as far as I'm concerned.
    Well done to both Teams and thanks for making this so much fun!

    Congratulations to Wild Oats XI!!!!!!!


    Crossing the line: https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/D1...p4?versionId=251Hv7cWFOaInU.ltUnCMFUD81zbWPLq
     
  12. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Sydney-Hobart 2014-----Wild Oats DSS Foil/ Foil-Assist Wins!

    This is a big victory for Wild Oats and almost as big a victory for DSS and foil-assist in monohull ocean racers. And foil-assist/DSS doesn't have to be limited to big ocean racers. I'll bet that this race, coming on the heels of WOXI's win last year, will have a profound effect on the design of many sizes of boats-no more wedges!
    And another interesting thing is that WOXI wasn't even designed from scratch for DSS-and the improvement that could be made in all-round performance for a boat designed from scratch to use DSS is substantial.
    Can't wait to see the new designs that use whats been leared in the S/H the last two years.
     
  13. Moggy
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    Moggy Senior Member

    I think they where some what lucky with conditions. Comanche was devastatingly fast out of the Harbour, it would probably be no contest in the correct conditions... but for a ten year old boat WOXI is remarkable. It will be interesting to see just how condition dependant Comanche is once they get the measure of her.

    Do they induce a heel using the canting keel in the light stuff? Seems it could be a tactic if she gets too sticky when she is sailing level.

    Next year will be fun, I hope she comes back.

    Will be interesting to see if these foils catch on, quite an easy "bolt-on" I would think.
     
  14. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    2 minutes ago, the oldest yacht (80 years) in the race Meluka of Kermandie, was 1st place in EVERY handicap class.

    Impressive !!
     

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  15. Moggy
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    Moggy Senior Member

    She is the best sorted Ranger that there ever was! I guess it proves that to some degree the limitation for the older designs was as much building methods and materials. Her rebuild was more than a little thorough, she has to be the stiffest and probably lightest Ranger ever... with the best rig and sails. IRC seems to favour her, maybe it will start an antique revival! I like the oldies... they are so sedate and gentle to sail, sometimes you want to go nowhere fast.
     
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