Sydney to Hobart multihulls

[rob denney]

Team Australia smashes Sydney to Hobart passage record https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/168099/New-Sydney-to-Hobart-passage-record

Their time was 29 hours 52 minutes and 23 seconds. Pretty impressive, but they had the luxury of choosing their weather and the advantage of no spectator fleet or competitors
Wild Oats XI (canting keel mono) did it in 32 hours, 48 minutes and 50 seconds a few years ago. Good weather, but not perfect.

10% difference is not huge. Throw in some upwind and light air sailing and maybe they would be closer still.

I am not sure if Sean still owns Team Aus, I don't think he races it, either against other multis or unofficially against the monos. He races to Hobart in monos. There may be another ORMA (ex Vodaphone) in the Whitsundays, but I don't know it's capacity to race to Hobart.

Guzzi,
Same destination, same time, near enough same course, but different clubs and start locations. Monos always from Sandgate, multis have been from Sandgate (sometimes on an extended start line, sometimes later) and Manly.
The longest running and most multihull competitors in any ocean race (just) in Aus.
For what it is worth, racing is far less scary than being on the Broadwater on a sunny Sunday afternoon with all the drunk power boat drivers. ;-)

 

[guzzis3]

I didn't find it scary. I was on a keelboat. I learned on keel boats and sailed them for, I don't know, maybe 8 years or something. I bought a caper cat in the mid 90's because I knew my circumstances at the time would prevent me doing anything more than daysailing occasionally. A friend had it for sale. Anyway the first time I put it in the water it was a revelation. I didn't care about the speed, it was how effortless it was. You can set your sails any old way and still get decent drive. I could just sit back and relax.

I've been hooked ever since. Sailing flat is just a huge bonus. And the space, the privacy... I can keep sailing on next to no wind when everyone else is motoring.

Conversely the stress of trying to extract another 1/4 knot as you roll around the course trying to keep up with the others is my personal hell. I wouldn't row competitively either. It's just not my thing. The only sporting competition I've ever cared for was target shooting. I've got a bunch of trophies from that but I never cared about winning, I was competing against myself. It's a search for perfection. Mind at the end when the scores and targets compared there was a bit of laughing at each other

 

[Corley]

I'd love to see Wild Oats XI attempt to improve the Team Australia record, I'd say go for it! Records are meant to be broken and it might give an incentive for a faster multihull to take it back. As for multis in the Sydney Hobart, we actually have enough ORMA60's and MOD70's in the asia pacific region to make it worth watching in terms of a division or as part of their own synchronous and separately organised race (3 potential competitors) whether they would want to do it is another question.

 

[redreuben]

3 competitors that means one for line honours one for handicap win and one to lodge a protest and steal the win.