Rolex Maxi Yacht World Championship
Porto Cervo, Sardinia
2 – 8 September, 2007

Bob Oatley’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race record holder, Wild Oats XI, goes into the opening round of the Rolex Maxi Yacht World Championship here today (Monday) with every chance of taking the prestigious title.

Oatley, a CYCA member, has done everything possible to have the yacht at peak form for the week-long regatta. After contesting two lead-up events, in St Tropez and Palma, Wild Oats XI has been fitted with a completely new wardrobe of the most modern high-tech sails, and her downwind performance has been enhanced with the addition of a longer bowsprit, a feature that will allow for considerably larger and more powerful gennakers (spinnakers) to be set.

Wild Oats XI’s new sail plan has been influenced by the latest thinking from the recently completed America’s Cup match in Valencia, Spain. In particular the lightweight gennakers have been made from a specially developed Spectra fabric and are shaped to be considerably flatter and faster than similar sails the yacht has previously used.

As well as wanting to win the world championship Oatley and his crew, fresh from their second overall in the IRC Racing division at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week with the smaller Wild Oats X, sees this regatta as a major step towards their bid this year to score a third consecutive line honours victory in the Rolex Sydney Hobart, which starts on December 26. Only one other boat in the race’s 63 year history has achieved this feat.

There is no doubt that the Australian yacht will be put to the test in Porto Cervo as near sistership and arch rival Alfa Romeo (CYCA member Neville Crichton, NZ) is out to defend the world title it won here last year. Wild Oats XI was third in that regatta, but in the preceding Rolex Sydney Hobart she outgunned the hot favourite, Alfa Romeo, and took the triple – line and handicap honours and the race record.

Both from the drawing board of Reichel-Pugh and launched in 2005, these two boats represent the very latest in racing yacht design and technology. Entirely of carbon-fibre, sporting canting keels, water-ballast and both built by McConaghy yachts in Australia these yachts are at the forefront of the racing maxi world. Cutting edges that few others would dare to dream about, these 30-metre greyhounds that weigh in at a mere 26 tonnes are accustomed to sailing their own race at the head of the fleet.

At this year’s world championship Wild Oats XI and Alfa Romeo will have near identical handicaps, so both teams will be placing as much emphasis on being first home as they will on winning on corrected time.

Another Australian yacht, Stephen Ainsworth’s well sailed 18.3m long Loki (CYCA), should not be discounted in the battle for handicap honours where, lest it be forgotten in the dash to be home first, the overall trophies are decided. – Rob Mundle/KPMS