The most successful yacht in the 72-year history of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, the Oatley family’s supermaxi Wild Oats XI, has received another international accolade, this time from the world’s oldest “Royal” yacht club, the Royal Thames, in London. A half-model of the 30-metre long silver-hulled yacht has become the latest addition to that club’s internationally acclaimed Model Room. Royal Thames Yacht Club, which is located not far from Buckingham Palace and has as its Commodore, HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was founded in 1775. The Model Room traces the evolution of international yacht design through the display of more than 250 half-models of hulls dating back to 1834, all to the same scale. The honour of…

In the closest finish in more than 15 years, the Oatley family’s record-breaking supermaxi, Wild Oats XI, has claimed line honours for the sixth time in the 384 nautical mile Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Race. The 30-metre long, silver-hulled racer knifed its way across the finish line off Main Beach soon after sunrise; and only 3m 31s behind was the similar sized Black Jack, owned by Peter Harburg, out of Brisbane. These two yachts started life as near-identical Reichel-Pugh designs in 2005. Harburg purchased Black Jack from a European owner earlier this year, shipped it to Sydney and had it modified just in time for this race. Light to medium headwinds made what was the 32nd staging of the…

Australia’s most successful ocean racing supermaxi yacht, Wild Oats XI, will return to competition tomorrow as a starter in the 384 nautical mile Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast race. The 30-metre long, silver-hulled racer, which is owned by the Oatley family, made a dramatic exit from the Rolex Sydney Hobart race last December when the hydraulic mechanism controlling the canting keel failed. Wild Oats XI was leading the fleet mid-Bass Strait when the incident occurred. The cause for the keel failure was confirmed after the yacht limped back into Sydney Harbour and was lifted from the water. “We did exhaustive tests on every piece of the hydraulic keel mechanism to make sure this was a once only problem,” said the…