Wild Oats News

Sydney-Hobart race weather is likely to be “on the nose” for the big boats

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Any thoughts of a post-Christmas sleigh ride for the supermaxi yachts contesting the Rolex Sydney Hobart race are decreasing as the Boxing Day start time approaches. A preliminary weather prognosis from acclaimed yachting meteorologist, Roger Badham, indicates that while the fleet of 109 will initially make a fast run south from Sydney, their progress will be slowed dramatically when a cold and powerful southerly change confronts them within hours of the start. It is then likely that the winds will be “on the nose” – from the south – well into the next day. Badham’s current forecast predicts that a strong southerly change averaging around 30 knots will hit the fleet during the afternoon on Boxing Day and persist –…

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Supermaxi takes to the water minus her bow

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  Supermaxi takes to the water minus her bow Residents and office workers around Sydney Harbour were treated to a most unusual sight today: a 20-metre long, snub-nosed hull being towed upstream. Only the colour scheme told the tale. This was Australia’s most successful ocean racing yacht, Bob Oatley’s supermaxi Wild Oats XI, revealing in public for the first time the extent of the modifications she is undergoing. She was minus her bow. Last week, a 10-metre section of the bow was cut off, and today what remained of her once sleek, silver hull was re-launched at Woolwich Dock so it could be towed up harbour, hauled out of the water and loaded onto a truck. Overnight, this large chunk…

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SUPERMAXI YACHT WILD OATS XI GETS THE CHOP

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Australia’s most successful ocean racing yacht, Bob Oatley’s 30-metre supermaxi, Wild Oats XI, is 30-metres no more. The sleek, silver-hulled beauty literally got the chop today at the hands of Bob Oatley and skipper Mark Richards. Armed with a high-revving chainsaw, the pair took to the carbon fibre hull just forward of the mast, and by the time the job was finished one hour later, 10-metres of Wild Oats XI’s bow had been lopped off. It was the first stage of a three month program that will see the yacht back to being 30-metres long, but with a completely different profile: all part of a plan to bring a new lease of life to the record-breaking, 10-year-old yacht and make…

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