#rshyr – Veteran owner Bob Oatley's Reichel Pugh 100 Wild Oats XI, skippered by Mark Richards, has taken her seventh line honours win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, with an evening finish at Hobart at 19.07.27 hrs AEDT writes W M Nixon.
Up-dating our report from last night's midnight posting of Sailing on Saturday, the slim hulled fleet leader continued to build on her light airs lead over Anthony Bell's much beamier hundred footer Perpetual LOYAL, the former Rambler 100. The gap between the two became even greater when Wild Oats began to feel the benefits of a building nor'easter the further south she got, while Perpetual was virtually becalmed.
Thus the gap expanded to more than fifty miles. But then as Perpetual began to feel the breeze, she showed her potential and was zooming down the Tasmanian coast at speeds of up to 28.2 knots, closing the gap to 25 miles. However, by this time Wild Oats was shaping her way into the Derwent estuary and the often tricky final virtually inland stages to the finish. She was comfortably across the line in mid-evening in an easing breeze which had her speed down to 9-11 knots, though at one stage while in Storm Bay the power in the new nor'easter had her down to storm jib and heavily reefed main.
But as darkness closes in, the wind has gone in the Derwent, and while Perpetual LOYAL has only 18 miles to the finish, her current speed of 3 knots could make it a long and frustrating night, and though she has a lower rating than Wild Oats, it looks unlikely she'll beat her on handicap. But for now Wild Oats XI is the undisputed 2013 holder of the prestigious Illingworth Cup for first to finish, named in honours of the noted English offshore racing skipper Captain John Illingworth who, in 1945, suggested that a proposed post-Christmas cruise-in-company from Sydney to Hobart should be sailed as a race instead. He won it too, and the rest is history.
Now with the Tasmanian weather into a more volatile state, all sorts of possibilities arise for the new holder of the Tattersall's Cup for the overall winner under IRC. Wild Oats did the double in 2012, but under current placings and speed of those still racing at 1000 hrs Irish time, she lies at 69th overall, while the leader is Bruce Taylor's Reichel Pugh 40 Chutzpah.
Second place is currently held by the Farr 43 Wild Rose owned by Roger Hickman, which back in the day was the original Wild Oats, so it would make for a nice double if she could pick up that extra place on handicap.
Of boats of Irish interest, the First 40 Breakthrough, skippered by Barry Hurley of the Royal Irish YC, was at one stage third on handicap overall, but has currently slipped to 31st overall, which shows just how rapidly things can change. My apologies, by the way, to the two Irish owners of First 40s, one in Baltimore and the other based on the Algarve, for saying that we don't have any of these fine boats in the Irish fleet – as you'll gather, I've been very quickly put right on that one.
The Clipper 70 Derry-Londonderry-Doire skippered by Sean McCarter of Lough Swilly lies 42nd overall on IRC, but is first of the 12-strong Clipper fleet, so keep an eye on that, and keep fingers crossed too. Ich Ban with Gordon Maguire on the helm was 36th OA, but might get lucky in the final stages. It may be complex in the extreme, with the time lapse adding o the confusion, but this is turning out to be one specially fascinating Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race.
