Winner takes all in Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

When Wild Oats XI crossed the finish line on December 27, it became just the sixth boat in the 61 year history of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race to take the line honours and handicap double. It also became only the second boat in history to win the magical treble (the first boat to do it was Rani under Captain John Illingworth in the inaugural race) by setting a new race record too, eclipsing Nokia's 1999 race record by more than an hour for the 628 nautical mile race. It is an enormous irony though, that the boat which was the last in contention to beat the US$10 million super maxi was the oldest boat in the race. The 41-footer Ray White Koomooloo won the race on IRC in 1968 with an elapsed time 4 days, 10 hours, 26 min and 52sec – in her time she was at the very forefront of boating technology with her lightweight four-skin, cold moulded wooden construction. This year she bettered that time by more than eleven hours to finish in 3 days, 22hours, 51min and 39sec but light winds in the final stages cost her any chance of repeating her IRC victory of 37 years ago. The mahogany-constructed Sparkman-Stephens-designed Koomooloo was lovingly restored over seven years and for the last twelve months has been heavily and successfully campaigned by Queenslander Don Freebairn. That's Wild Oats XI on the left and Koomooloo on the right.

A few days before the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, skipper of the brand-new maxi Wild Oats XI, Mark Richards, commented that winning the race on handicap was the real prize. “It's a bigger thrill for a boat to win on handicap than to get line honours,” he said. “Line honours this year is between four or five boats really. Handicap is between the whole fleet. That is the goal that everyone aspires to. All the guys up in the CYCA clubhouse with their photos on the wall, they are the handicap winners. From the sailors' point of view, that is the real trophy, to win the Tattersalls Cup.”

Little could Richards have realised that less than a week later, he would become the first skipper since Rani's victory in the inaugural race of 1945 to win 'the treble' - not just line honours, but the handicap victory and a new course record to boot. Many experts believed Bob Oatley's brand new maxi would get to Hobart at all. It was not an unreasonable assumption. You don't launch the world's most hi-tech and technically complex racing yacht just three weeks before an ocean race that takes you into some of the most treacherous seas in the world - and expect to get away with it, let alone win the race.

For that reason Alfa Romeo, a virtual twin of Wild Oats XI, was the bookies' favourite to win the race because owner/skipper Neville Crichton had spent five months working his Reichel/Pugh design up to speed. And when the two sisterships squared up to each other in the inshore series a week before the Hobart start, Alfa Romeo beat Wild Oats in almost every race.

Even then, despite Crichton's preparation, Alfa Romeo was considered touch and go for making it the full 628 miles to Hobart. Only if the 85-boat fleet received an uncharacteristically kind forecast did pundits believe the two newest maxis capable of going the distance. Waiting in the wings were the three leading contenders of last year's race - Konica Minolta, Skandia and the 2004 race winner Nicorette, now rebranded and repainted in the colours of the telecom company AAPT.

But the weather gods decided to be lenient and dealt one of the kindest weather forecasts seen for many years. Sean Langman, skipper of AAPT, said it was a dream scenario for the leading maxis. “There is a fantastic opportunity for the treble with this forecast. The treble of winning line honours, handicap and the race record, which we haven't seen for some time.”

In front of thousands of spectators crowding the shores of Sydney Harbour for the Boxing Day start, along with hundreds of spectator boats and a swarm of TV choppers buzzing overhead, first blood went to Mark Richards, when he helmed Wild Oats out through the famous Sydney Heads two boat lengths ahead of Alfa Romeo.

Just behind the maxis, Alex Thomson and the crew on Hugo Boss were getting all the attention of the TV cameras and photographers as they started the race wearing suits and ties. Nick Moloney, the famous Aussie round-the-world sailor, was on board as well.

Further back in the fleet, the crew of Quest honoured their skipper, John Bennetto, who had died the week before, by throwing a wreath into the water next to the Rolex marker buoy, before continuing south towards Bennetto's birthplace of Hobart. The great sailor known to many as “The Fish” holds the record of 44 Rolex Sydney Hobarts, a remarkable testament to his tenacity and dedication to the race.

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