Neville Crichton 'changes gears' with Mini Maxi Al
After six years of sailing at the leading edge of international maxi yacht racing with his maxi and 'super' maxi yachts Alfa Romeo and Alfa Romeo 2, Neville Crichton, the Australasian businessman and yachtsman, has 'down-sized' - but still retaining the Alfa Romeo marque.
'Alfa Romeo nav station'
Johan Palsson
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The Sydney-based New Zealander has dominated maxi boat racing in the Mediterranean with his 90-footer and his 100-footer, both named Alfa Romeo, sailing the latter to line honours in a remarkable 135 races going into this week's Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup being sailed at Porto Cervo, Sardinia.
In contrast to the 'super' maxi, Crichton's new racing yacht is a 69-foot 'mini' maxi named Alfa Romeo 3. His objective is closer racing competition.
Alfa Romeo 3 has made her racing debut in the new Mini Maxi Division of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. However, she is being sailed there by the Ericcson Volvo Round the World team, headed by Torben Grael, taking line honours in each race so far.
Crichton is skippering his 100-footer Alfa Romeo II in the Maxi Division, but will take command of Alfa Romeo 3 for the Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez regatta in France at the end of September. He plans a full campaign with the smaller boat in the Mediterranean in 2009.
An exclusive review of Alfa Romeo 3, with striking photos of her extraordinary interior, is published in the current edition of Offshore Yachting magazine.
Like her predecessors, Alfa Romeo3 in every respect is at the cutting edge of yacht design, engineering and construction, and in rig and sail design and in sailcloth. With a conventional bulb keel, she is a striking-looking racing boat, with a long bowsprit protruding from a powerful, beamy hull driven by a sweptback spreader rig.
Designed by Reichel/Pugh specifically for competition in the Mediterranean and built in Sydney by McConaghy Yachts, the hull is exceptionally light, the total weight, fitted with engine, deck gear and rudder, when leaving Sydney was just 3.8 tonnes. Her racing displacement will be about 15 tonnes.
However, it is below decks that is the real eye-catcher, in style and colour, with the engine box paint a rich metallic red from a direct view that appears black from an obtuse angle. Visually the paint is constantly changing.
In fact, sitting at the navigation console is like being in the driver's seat of the limited edition Alfa Romeo 8C sports car and it is from the preproduction concept 8C that the engine cover's colour is taken. The Alfa concept can be seen throughout, even to car badges at strategic places on the deck and a companionway that looks like the grille of an Alfa.
Why, after years of campaigning boats among the biggest and fastest racing yachts in the world has the New Zealand speed enthusiast - in cars and boats - 'down-sizing'?
"I would have loved to have built another 100-footer, but the level, quality and quantity of competition in this class is simply not at the level at which I would wish to continue competing," Crichton said. "There are probably ten yachts in this class in the world that are competitive, but it has proven very hard to get a reasonable number of them, let alone all of them, together for the same event.
"With Mini Maxis there will be more of them built and this means strong, more varied fleets, and that's the sort of racing in which I wish to compete. "I'm confident that the Mini Maxi class of yachts between 60 and 79 feet LOA will become very popular, with several yachts in this class being built, making for very some competitive sailing," Crichton added.
by Peter Campbell
Southport, QLD
