Sydney To Hobart 2015-2016

[Polux]

Bad luck for Rambler: those light winds near Tasmania will only be there 12 hours from now and they are already there sailing with 15k winds. Ahead there are slightly weaker winds but nothing like the weak winds that were previewed and that will give Comanche a good chance of arriving first.

Between "little" Maserati and big Ragamuffin things are not as clear and the race between them will be decided on strategy and routing. They are taking different choices to circle Tasmania. The advantage should be to Ragamuffin since they have the obligation to know better those waters and coastal winds but we never know.

Regarding the race, that is decided in IRC, Courier Leon, the French JPK 10.80, one of the smallest boats on the race, still leads with a good advantage to the British that sail a Swan 62 (Uxorious IV) followed by the Australians of Wild Rose, a Farr 43.

But the weather will not favor the JPK that being smaller and slower will get weaker winds on Tasmania, so the victory should go to one of the faster and bigger boats.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by Factor

Well done to Comanche, who would have thought that if you heard one boat tearing a main and one damaging a rudder it would be the rudder damage boat that would stop, fix it and then battle on. Wild Oats should be ashamed of themselves. BTW Polux, comanche lost plenty of time effecting the fix. The green line is their track, they turned and slowed effected the repair and then headed off again.

Not plenty time. Yes some time but not the 4 hours I would expect them to take for drooping a rudder and to put another in place and that would be an accomplishment in itself giving the sea conditions.

I don't think they had time to change the rudder so probably the boat was not so damaged....but I am very curious about that.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by Wotname

More silly super maxi questions!

Would it be usual or unusual to have more than one mainsail aboard?

Can these supersized sails be hoisted in say 25 kts?

Not, not even on circumnavigation races, like the Vendee Globe they carry a spar mainsail. One of the problems is the cost of a huge mainsail, the other is the extra weight.

On the Vendee globe a solo sailor mounting alone a mainsail would not be easy but I have saw them making more difficult things. I remember a year a sailor repaired a broken boom with very inventive assorted materials and for that he had to take the mainsail and put it again...alone. On a maxi with a 25 crew aboard that would not be a problem, except the time that would take to perform the job.

A damaged mainsail is not unusual on this type of short races (that would allow the boat to keep on racing) but a mainsail completed destroyed, like they reported on Wild Oats, it is not frequent and would not justify having another one aboard.

[Polux]

And Rambler overtook Comanche and I don't think that Comanche can catch it on the lighter winds. I really like that boat, a 88ft beating two 100ft boats: A great design by JK.

Regarding the fight for 3rd it seems they have problems with data transmission since Maserati position was not updated so it is impossible to know what is going on even if they give it ahead of Ragamuffin. That is awesome, a 70ft boat beating a 100ft boat!!! Great sailing.


That happened the last time I posted about boat positions with Teasing Machine, that Swiss/French 43ft A13 that had disappeared from the first. I thought they had some kind of nasty problem slowing them down but no, now that the position was updated we can see that they are on a fantastic 11th place in real time and are 4th overall in IRC and leading their division.

Regarding race results (IRC) the little French cruiser/racer JPK 10.80 (Courrier Leon) still leads with a big advantage to the 2nd that now is American Rambler (great race) followed by Australian Mayfair, also a production cruiser/racer, a First 40, followed by another production cruiser/racer, the Swiss/French A13.

Quite amazingly on the first 4 we have only a race boat and 3 production cruiser/racers and this on the toughest Hobart of the last 10 years. And we are not talking here about old heavy designs that are doing well in compensated but that are dragging themselves at the end of the fleet:

Little Leon, the 35ft JPK is 27 in real time!!!, the 43ft A13 is 11th in real time!!! and the First 40 is 29, on more than 90 boats still racing, almost all bigger.

Other production boats doing well: Uxorious IV, a Swan 62 (7RT), Calibre, a Sydney 38 (33RT), Challenge another Sydney 38 (30RT).

Anyway a big confusion regarding IRC places because the data they are receiving is not all up to date. Now I had a look at it and the positions are completely different. It gives as 1st the A13, the JPK comes only in 8th and Rambler is only 17th!!!!!

What an amateurish mess. It is not like this that they will manage to get public following the race

[Polux]

Rambler damaged too:

“We have no idea what we hit, we couldn’t see it,” Rambler’s Australian navigator Andrew Cape said by satellite phone a short time ago. “It might have been marine life or flotsam, but it was a solid hit. It shook the boat.
“Our port tack performance has been badly affected, and it is all upwind to Tasman Island, so we have a lot of pain to come.”
Cape estimates that they have lost about 10 percent of their speed on port tack and, because they can’t lift the daggerboard, they are losing a bit on starboard tack as well. “It’s tricky,” Cape says, “ä serious structural problem impeding our boat speed.
“I don’t know what will happen overall. We’ll just try to get the shifts right and do our best.”

The Battle of the Walking Wounded - Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2015

[Rustic Charm]

It's certainly starting to show up as the most difficult race conditions since 2004.

I'd love to hear some news reports on the smaller boats but not a word locally. Media isn't interested.

In the mean time the Melbourne to Hobart and the Tamar to Hobart races had a good start yesterday.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Factor View Post
Well done to Comanche, who would have thought that if you heard one boat tearing a main and one damaging a rudder it would be the rudder damage boat that would stop, fix it and then battle on. Wild Oats should be ashamed of themselves. BTW Polux, comanche lost plenty of time effecting the fix. The green line is their track, they turned and slowed effected the repair and then headed off again.

I know I shouldn't ask this Factor, but 'why' should Wild Oats be ashamed of themselves? and Polux is correct, Comanche spend 40 minutes according to media fixing their rudder stock enough to get going again.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Polux

Rambler damaged too:

“We have no idea what we hit, we couldn’t see it,” Rambler’s Australian navigator Andrew Cape said by satellite phone a short time ago. “It might have been marine life or flotsam, but it was a solid hit. It shook the boat.
“Our port tack performance has been badly affected, and it is all upwind to Tasman Island, so we have a lot of pain to come.”
Cape estimates that they have lost about 10 percent of their speed on port tack and, because they can’t lift the daggerboard, they are losing a bit on starboard tack as well. “It’s tricky,” Cape says, “ä serious structural problem impeding our boat speed.
“I don’t know what will happen overall. We’ll just try to get the shifts right and do our best.”

The Battle of the Walking Wounded - Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2015

Whales are the most common objects in the water at the moment.

It seems Comanche will most likely limp in, being first time fir quite a while that an American boat have taken the honors. So for the first two in to be American is a good result for them. Ramblers quite a bit behind Comanche and out of sight. Comanche skipper a few minutes ago said they don't have a dagger board and only part of a rudder attached so it's difficult on a starboard tack. They hit something too. They spent the night trying to work out how to steer on a starboard tack and eventually worked it out.

So far 29 boats have retired sighting damage to vessels. Rough conditions.

[Jim Cate]

I know I shouldn't ask this Factor, but 'why' should Wild Oats be ashamed of themselves?

Well, I dunno about shame, but consider what a cruiser would do if their main blew out in that position...

Were it me, I'd clean up the mess of tattered thousand dollar bills and continue on under headsails alone and finish up the voyage.

I suspect that the egos of these folks say that if they are not in first place, they don't want to be there at all. That's obviously conjecture, and t he disappointment of a big failure like that would be severe...

I really like the response of Comanche, and now Rambler, to similar adversity: keep on racing to the best of their ability!

Jim

[Polux]

One thing is for sure, Wild Oats is the prettiest of them all

Regarding small boats doing very well, you can follow the super race of the JPK 10.80, a 35ft that incredibly is sailing in 23th position among 76 boats, but I think you would be more interested on old small boats and regarding that there is one that is making a fantastic race, a S&S 34 that is on 68th, Quikpoint Azzurro (2th in ORCI).

Regarding the JPK 10.80, for a boat with that performance it has a very nice interior and a nice price too and you can be sure that the guys that build the boat (small production boat) know what they are doing: The builder is an ex-racer and sometimes still races with the owners of the boats he sells. By the way, he is part of the crew on this race

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Well, I dunno about shame, but consider what a cruiser would do if their main blew out in that position...

Were it me, I'd clean up the mess of tattered thousand dollar bills and continue on under headsails alone and finish up the voyage.

I suspect that the egos of these folks say that if they are not in first place, they don't want to be there at all. That's obviously conjecture, and t he disappointment of a big failure like that would be severe...

I really like the response of Comanche, and now Rambler, to similar adversity: keep on racing to the best of their ability!

Jim

Well said Jim. What I was trying to say, far more eruditely expressed. Imagine the alternative, getting in a day after the leaders or two, standing on the dock saying "well we made it, sometimes its not about winning and losing its just about making the journey" or something similar.

I know I shouldn't ask this Factor, but 'why' should Wild Oats be ashamed of themselves? and Polux is correct, Comanche spend 40 minutes according to media fixing their rudder stock enough to get going again.

Is that the same media who said they had retired? Cause if they were correct on the retirement thing then Comanche is out under the RRS - you cannot retire and then say - no just kidding - back in. And oats should be ashamed for not hardening the F up and battling along under adversity. When I say Oats I mean Richards, don't know the guy at all but what little I have seen suggests he wouldn't be on my team, as I said before, no shortage of talent, but in life for me anyway there is more to it than just skill.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Well, I dunno about shame, but consider what a cruiser would do if their main blew out in that position...

Were it me, I'd clean up the mess of tattered thousand dollar bills and continue on under headsails alone and finish up the voyage.

I suspect that the egos of these folks say that if they are not in first place, they don't want to be there at all. That's obviously conjecture, and t he disappointment of a big failure like that would be severe...

I really like the response of Comanche, and now Rambler, to similar adversity: keep on racing to the best of their ability!

Jim

Yep, I've finished a few races DFL but proud to have finished.

In one case we were the slowest rated boat and the wind dropped while we were coming back into the harbour after the rest of the fleet just beat the calm. We sat anchored against an outgoing tide for several hours within sight of the yacht club waiting for the first puff of morning breeze to get us that last mile.

[Pelagic]

As a few know, my negative feelings about Ocean Racing have been formed from past experiences delivering yachts.. Including maxis to their next destination.
Basically I call it "bad seamanship"!

I found this interesting that as of Sunday.....27% of the boats had retired due to breakages.

That was after experiencing what I would consider only a moderate blow.

Would you call this...
"Good Seamanship"?

[GILow]

Only one boat in the cruising division. We owe it to ourselves to do something about this. I'm tracking down the owner of Enchantress when he gets back to the club to see how hard it is to enter this race.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Well, I dunno about shame, but consider what a cruiser would do if their main blew out in that position...

Were it me, I'd clean up the mess of tattered thousand dollar bills and continue on under headsails alone and finish up the voyage.!

Jim

Jim, I think it is more fair to consider these maxis as professional campaigners.... where after they are out of contention due to failures, Logistics takes over to identify and manage the setback and solve the problem as quickly and as cost effectively as possible.

Don't think it is so much ego, but business management by the admin in charge.