Wild Oats XI and supermaxi rivals set for a record run in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race The four supermaxis racing for line honours in the Rolex Sydney Hobart yacht race, which starts tomorrow, are destined to enjoy a belated Christmas present – a sleigh ride to Hobart, and probably a race record time for the first yacht to finish. Australia’s internationally recognised yachting meteorologist, Roger Badham, says that if the current outlook remains stable then the first yacht could reach the finish line, on Hobart’s Derwent River, in around one day, nine hours,more than four hours inside the record time set by Perpetual Loyal last year. Ironically, when that amazing time was set, it was tipped by…

When the knife-like bow of the supermaxi, Wild Oats XI, carves across the start line in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on Boxing Day the 20-man crew will have an astonishing 308 starts in the classic to their credit. On top of that, three of them – skipper Mark Richards, Steve “Mothy” Jarvin, and kiwi Robbie Naismith – will have been aboard for every one of the yacht’s 13 starts since being launched in 2005. In total, the number of nautical miles covered by the entire crew in Hobart races is the equivalent of Wild Oats XI having sailed more than eight times around the world – or more than three-quarters of the way to the moon. Graham Taylor…

The Oatley family’s champion Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race supermaxi, Wild Oats XI, is at the centre of a frenetic repair schedule after it was struck by lightning at the weekend. It is uncertain at this stage if the yacht will be in full racing trim for the start on Boxing Day. Wild Oats XI was out of the water and in its cradle at Woolwich Dock, on Sydney Harbour, when a bolt of lightning struck the top of the 45-metre high carbon fibre mast during a thunderstorm early Sunday morning. The 10 million volt-plus discharge from the lightning destroyed a significant number of electronic instruments, all of which are vital if the yacht is to maintain maximum speed…