Modified Wild Oats XI ready for Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race test

6:25 AM Fri 29 Jul 2011 GMT

'A modified Wild Oats XI is ready for Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race. Photo: Courtesy of Rob Mundle'

A major hull modification for Wild Oats XI, winemaker Bob Oatley's Sydney Hobart race record holder, will be put to the test when the supermaxi yacht starts in the 384 nautical mile Audi Sydney to Gold Coast race tomorrow.

The 30-metre long yacht, which has been first to finish in five of the past six Rolex Sydney Hobart races, is being upgraded to meet a serious challenge from American supermaxi, Rambler 100 (George David), for top Hobart honours in December.

The race to the Gold Coast will be the first chance the Wild Oats XI crew will have to thoroughly test the new twin centreboard system which has replaced the bow rudder the yacht has carried since being launched in 2005. The new foils, which are completely retractable, were designed by America's Cup appendages expert Paul Bieker. They have been created to minimise drag when sailing downwind and to provide greater lift sailing upwind - the perfect scenario in sailboat racing.

Wild Oats XI will start the favourite for line honours in the Gold Coast race, which gets underway off Nielsen Park, on Sydney Harbour, at 1pm tomorrow. Her biggest challenge among the 69-strong fleet will come from Anthony Bell's similar sized and also recently modified supermaxi, Investec Loyal.

'We have done two solid days of testing since the yacht was relaunched and we are very happy with what we are seeing,' said Wild Oats XI skipper, Mark Richards. 'We appear to be achieving everything that we had on our wish list when it came to performance gains. Hopefully we will prove that when we line up alongside Investec Loyal in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race.'

The ultimate goal for Wild Oats XI on this tour to the north is victory in the Grand Prix division at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, which will be staged from 19 - 27 August. When that regatta is complete the big boat will return to Sydney for further modifications: the fitting of a new canting keel and hydraulic ram which will see the supermaxi's displacement decrease and the stability factor increase by an impressive seven percent - changes which will make the yacht even faster.

The Wild Oats XI crew is certainly going to have plenty of time during the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race to test the new centreboard system and experiment with the many options it presents because the latest forecast suggests it could be a long, drawn out affair. Yachting meteorologist Roger Badham is predicting very light winds for the start and variable winds that will struggle to get above 10 knots over much of the course.

Badham suggests that that fastest yachts are likely to take at least 50 hours to get to the finish line off Main Beach - well outside the race record of 27 hours and 35 minutes set 12 years ago by George Snow's maxi, Brindabella. The bulk of the fleet will probably take more than three days to get there.

by Rob Mundle

Newsfeed supplied by

#News #Sailing #North

Modified Wild Oats XI ready for Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race test

Sports/News

Weather Forecasts & Live Reports

Buy & Sell/Classifieds