Sydney-Hobart 2017

Ditto Doug! Very suitable name for this ferocious yacht.

OzFred: You must realize and respect the history of the Comanche warrior. Those eyes strike deadly fear into the souls of feeble minded sailors. Nothing better than good stare down + head games in a tough match!

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I missed this reply. Sorry.

It's interesting to look at the Mac fleet. By my count, about 185 of the 300 or so starters would be fit within the smallest of the five divisions in the Sydney-Hobart. So 55% of one fleet are slower than a Benny 40 (roughly) and 20% of the other fleet are slower than a Benny 40.

It really shows how distorted the Hobart is getting, and how the reason its fleet has dropped more than the other classics is because the smaller boats have stopped racing.

 

I think the purchases of Comanche and Black Jack means that every 100 ft racing canting "supermaxi" is now owned in SE Australia. In other words, every other area in the world has given up on them - and in the countries that have given up on them ocean racing is doing well whereas in Australia it's doing poorly.

It seems that like almost all classes limited by length only, they may have ended up stuffing more and more beam and more and more sail on the hulls, and making them much more expensive. It would be great to see a rating limit rather than an LOA limit; that way we could see a mixture of big Wallycentro cruiser/racers, Open types and the beautifully efficient Maxi 72 types racing together for line honours and none of them would need diesels running 24/7.

 

Sydney-Hobart 2017-- To me the SH is one of the greatest ocean races around. The fact that the largest monohull oceanracers in the world participate is a plus not a negative. I can't understand the thought process that wants to eliminate the big boats-the most spectacular ocean racing monohulls on the planet! I look forward every year when the powers that be "allow" worldwide video of the start-not just to see the big boats but all the boats.
How the big boats can be accused of minimizing participation is a mystery to me -and probably isn't the case. The incredible technology that some of the big boats represent is
one of the coolest aspects of the SH to me ,and I'm sure, many others.

Go Wild Oats!

 

Sydney-Hobart:
tracker- Tracker - Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2017 http://www.rolexsydneyhobart.com/tracker/

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2017 http://www.rolexsydneyhobart.com/

The race coverage will be broadcast on the Sydney-Hobart website starting at 12:30 AEDT which is 8:30pm on Boxing Day. The broadcast date is December 25th in the USA at 8:30pm.

 

It's a thought process followed by many sailors who, unlike you, do ocean races and the Hobart. It has been explained here before and it is very simple. I don't think I've ever met anyone else who was unable to understand the basic process.

The idea is that;

(1) the performance difference between these huge canters and the bulk of the fleet makes anything like fair competition on corrected time impossible;
(2) the fleet is now spread so widely that by the time much of the fleet is home, much of the atmosphere that used to make the race so great has gone. They even sometimes do the presentation when many of the top boats are still at sea!
(3) the attention being paid to the 100' canters means that the media and clubs are less concerned about the smaller boats. This means, for example, that the smaller boats cannot offer as much for a potential sponsor.

This has been brought up by designers and by many, many owners and sailors. If you find this hard to understand it is because you apparently have never actually done an ocean race despite having lived in a hotbed of ocean racing, nor apparently have you ever campaigned even a modest offshore racer or championship contender in full-size boats. You therefore don't have any experience whatsoever in this area.

The fact that you think there are "some powers that be" who "allow" coverage is very odd. There has been live coverage of the Hobart start for decades. There used to be a regular specialised programme every day. This coverage used to include more of the smaller boats.

It is not a case of "allowing" or "powers".

 

Oh, there are "powers that be" alright-they prevented web casting of the race in the US for at least a couple years recently. Last year was great-the year before there was nothing accessible in the states-at least where I live.
It seems incredible to think that every boat entered in the race should have an equal chance at winning Line Honors-smaller boats can still win on handicap.....

 

Of course not every boat in the fleet has an equal chance of line honours, and nothing I said implied that.

A commercial broadcaster maximising its profit is not really some over-arching power.

 

Someone from CYCA would know better, but as far as I know, broadcast rights are sold based on the medium type, such as "free–to–air" TV and various digital streams. Channel 7 Australia did a deal with CYCA in 2015 to bundle all those rights into one deal so that from 2016 onward it's been essentially free worldwide via any medium.

Nothing Machiavellian, just commercial business as usual.

Coverage of the start tends to focus almost exclusively on the big boats on the front starting line, coverage of the second line is non–existent. It would be interesting to see secondary coverage of the second line and boats other than the maxis, which normally only get any coverage once line honours are decided, and even then only as they come up the Derwent.

But additional coverage requires someone with sufficient interest to do it, which means it has to make commercial sense. And CYCA would likely have to renegotiate their deal with Channel 7, so potentially big costs all round. If you're really interested, get to Sydney and watch it on the water.

 

Wild Oats struck by lightning:
Is this strike three for Wild Oats XI? >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2017/12/19/strike-three-wild-oats-xi/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Scuttlebutt%204984%20-%20December%2020%202017&utm_content=Scuttlebutt%204984%20-%20December%2020%202017+CID_e53f07eaa27c502b41d10ba92b2f372a&utm_source=Email%20Newsletter&utm_term=Is%20this%20strike%20three%20for%20Wild%20Oats%20XI

Excerpt:
The Reichel/Pugh 100 Wild Oats XI was launched in 2005 and immediately took the triple victory of line/race record/overall win in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, a feat repeated in 2012. The maxi is an eight times line honours winner of the 628 nm offshore classic, but of late has had a run of bad luck.

She failed to finish in 2015 when her main split in half and a hydraulic ram failure in 2016 similarly derailed her. Eager to put the past behind, now Mother Nature is interfering.

Wild Oats XI was out of the water and in its cradle at Woolwich Dock, on Sydney Harbour, when a bolt of lightning struck the top of the 45-metre high carbon fibre mast during a thunderstorm early morning on December 17.

With a week to the start on December 26, it is uncertain at this stage if the yacht will be in full racing trim to compete.

The 10 million volt-plus discharge from the lightning destroyed a significant number of electronic instruments, all of which are vital if the yacht is to maintain maximum speed and stay on course during the race. What is not known at this stage is if any of the yacht’s carbon fibre rigging was damaged by the strike.

 

I was wondering if they would rick taking a lightning damaged Carbon Fibre mast out to sea, even IF there was not "apparent" damage ?

 

Lightning strike!? Good grief!

 

I must take issue with the assertion in the opening post that woxi is the most successful yacht in the history of the S2H. This race is a HANDICAP event for the Tatterstall Cup.
The most successful yachts are FREYA winner of 3 in succession 1963/4/5 and Love and War also 3 wins but spread over many years. Maybe other triple winners but I have not done the necessary research - probably Chris CT249 can chip in here.
I had the pleasure of seeing the mighty Freya being built in Halvorsens Shed right alongside the 12s Vim and Gretel in October '63 en-route to Halvorsens Bobbin Head hire boats on my honeymoon.

 

There is a list of winners (handicap and line honours) here (pdf).

I think you've got all the triple handicap winners. There are quite a few boats with a double, only one back–to–back so three in a row is remarkable.

Two time winners:

• Quest (2002, 2008)
• Siandra (1958, 1960)
• Solo (1956, 1962)
• Westward (1947, 1948)
• Wild Oats XI (2005, 2012)

Any point in looking at division winners, even if the data are available?

 

And they have carbon rigging as well......