About 2km separated the three leading yachts in the Sydney to Hobart race yesterday, with New Zealand’s Alfa Romeo edging into the lead early on the first evening.
Alfa Romeo, skippered by Neville Crichton, was ahead of four-time and defending champions Wild Oats XI, followed by Britain’s ICAP Leopard, which gave up an early lead.
“It looks like they [Leopard] are starting to struggle a bit in the easing breeze,” Alfa Romeo navigator Tom Addis said.
PHOTO: AFP
Leopard, twice winners of the Fastnet ocean race, is a heavier boat and sails better in stronger winds.
With forecast light winds, none of the leading yachts were expected to break the race record. The first yachts are scheduled to reach Hobart, on the island state of Tasmania, tomorrow.
The record came in 2005 when Wild Oats XI, skippered by Mark Richards, finished the 1,163km race in a record 1 day, 18 hours, 40 minutes, when it crossed the line at Constitution Dock in Hobart.
The yacht is seeking its fifth straight win in the annual race, first held in 1945.
Alfa Romeo took advantage of a spinnaker problem on board Wild Oats XI to take the lead out of Sydney Harbour. Leopard, skippered by Mike Slade, was third to sail between Sydney Heads and into open ocean.
Etihad Stadium, formerly known as Skandia, only just made the start after transporting and installing a replacement mast from England. Skipper Grant Wharington spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the repairs, but a problem with the rigging in the new mast forced him to retire the boat before it even left the harbor.
“Just disappointed ... for my team more than anything,” Wharington said. “We’ve had probably 50 people for the last two weeks, with an enormous input from every single person.”
Before the race started amid hundreds of spectator craft in the harbor, Richards predicted the race would be a “mind-bender” because of lighter than expected winds.
“It’s going to be a tricky race, nowhere near as windy as what everyone thought, which is going to be a good thing for the fleet,” Richards said after the pre-race briefing. “It’s going to be testing times for all the big boats ... a very tactical race, a real mind-bender.”
The race has been hit by severe storms in the past.
In 1998, six sailors died and seven boats sank during a storm that hit the fleet early on the first night of the race. In 2007, eight sailors had to abandon a sinking vessel and three others were airlifted to hospital with injuries.
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