Supermaxi Wild Oats breaks Sydney-Hobart record

Australian supermaxi Wild Oats broke the Sydney-Hobart race record yesterday, shaving a little more than an hour off the record, when the hi-tech carbon fibre yacht took line honours sailing only under a headsail.

In its first major offshore race since being launched in November, Wild Oats finished the 628 nautical mile race in one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds.

The previous record set by Nokia in 1999 was one day, 19 hours, 48 minutes and two seconds.

Another recently launched supermaxi Alfa Romeo finished second.

Australian supermaxi Skandia and New Zealand's Konica Minolta were battling it out for third.

Skandia took line honours in 2003 but capsized in 2004 and had to be rebuilt.

Wild Oats survived a minor scare just six miles from the race finish when a mainsail batten broke and it was forced to drop the big sail and continue only under a headsail. Despite having only one sail up, Wild Oats flew up the Derwent River at about 10 knots to cross the finish line.

"We thought it was just too easy going and something had to go wrong and it did," Wild Oats skipper Mark Richards said.

"It doesn't matter, we still finished, broke the record and the boys are very happy," Richards told reporters once Wild Oats had docked in Hobart.

Wild Oats, a hi-tech 30-metre (98-feet) yacht with canting or swinging keel, won the start of the Sydney-Hobart on December 26 and flew down Australia's southeast coast with building tailwinds.

But the usually gruelling bluewater classic proved to be a race of navigational tactics with light, fickle winds at one stage seemingly robbing the big boats of a race record.

Favourable breezes

"They have been benign conditions," said Geoff Lavis, commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia which organises the Sydney-Hobart race.

In 1998, six sailors died and dozens were rescued after a terrifying storm slammed into the fleet.

Wild Oats' winning strategy was to hug the Australian coast picking up more favourable breezes, while arch rival Alfa Romeo chose to sailing further out to sea.

"We knew if it was a downhill race we'd be hard to beat," Richards said.

"Alfa Romeo was faster for the first 12 hours but once we got the spinnaker on we took off."

On the first night of sailing Wild Oats clocked 32 knots.

"On the first night (we decided) to stick inshore and it really paid dividends," Richards added.

"The next day we woke up to find ourselves ahead of everyone and it stayed that way. A great game plan, we stuck to it and it worked."

Under a major rule change for the 2005 race there was no upper speed limit, enabling boats unrestricted use of sail area, water ballast, canting or swinging keels and mast heights.

In the past, an upper speed limit was imposed for safety reasons but with improvements in yacht design, race officials have dropped restrictions on the use of new technology.

"They really haven't had any strong breeze. These boats are capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots, so they have a lot up their sleeves," said commodore Lavis.

Richards also believes a supermaxi could finish the Sydney-Hobart race in as little as 35 hours.

"I'm sure this record will be shattered. Bigger boats go faster, it's as simple as that," he told reporters.