Published The Advocate, January 7, 2006
THE super-maxi Wild Oats XI completed the latest Sydney-Hobart race in less than two days – a tad under 43 hours – and yachtsmen are talking of a 35-hour win before long. The Wild Oats crew said it was like clinging to a rocket, going faster and faster, the only limit being imminent destruction. Another maxi AAPT saw its carbon fibre boom crack under the pressure. Wild Oats has a canting keel that swings from side to side to make the boat move more efficiently through the water. The keel is driven by onboard hydraulics. The maxi yachts have to keep their engines constantly running to power all the hydraulics, electronics and computers. It’s a far cry from my days as a teenage sailor on Corio Bay. Our dinghy’s keel was moved up and down by hand. The only power source was the wind. Dinghy sailing meant you either were wet and miserable or dry and bored, and there were always cleaning and maintenance chores to be done. I had better things to do with my life and did them. Even so, I also did a coastal navigation course with no intention of ever owning a boat. Coastal navigation is done using marine charts, a compass and a ruler. It is fairly straightforward provided the coastline is kept in sight. Which brings me alongside Quetzalcoatl, a Tassie entrant in the recent Melbourne-Hobart race, which mysteriously lost its electronic navigation system on the way across Bass Strait to the start line. The crew had to go "back to basics". I took this to mean they had to use a sextant or navigated by the stars. But, no, they completed the crossing using a hand-held Global Positioning System unit. Matthew Flinders, who explored Bass Strait in a leaky sloop without GPS, must be rolling in his grave. Australia’s most famous keel, the winged one, helped to give Australia II victory in the 1983 America’s Cup. Toyota even named a car after the designer, Ben Lexcen. There was no canting. Wild Oats is not a graceful thing at rest. The bow resembles a brutal log splitter. This year’s race toll included several giant sunfish and a large shark that was sliced in half. I went for a look at Wild Oats in Hobart last weekend and frankly it looked boring tied to the dock. Instead of laying waste to ocean creatures, it had become a floating billboard for its sponsors. The crew was fashionably dressed in crisp Henri Lloyd shirts and caps, wore flash HDX sunnies and each received a Rolex winner’s watch from the race sponsor. Cruising the world and being paid to race in rich men’s yachts is obviously not a bad gig. But it’s sailing in name only. The slowest Sydney-Hobart finisher this year was Gillawa, which took over seven days. I doubt Gillawa killed any fish or moved its keel but I bet the crew toasted their last placing by raising a glass to the true romance of sail.
