Sailing shit...

51 second shitbox

From Sailing Anarchy

Nobody in the sailing community would begrudge LawConnect owner Christian Beck his amazing come-from-behind line honors victory in the Sydney-Hobart race. He’s been runner-up in the three previous years.

What a profound feeling of satisfaction that must have been for him and his crew as they out-thought and out-sailed Comanche over the last few hundred yards to the line.

There have been close finishes in the past – just seven seconds separated Apollo and Condor of Bermuda in 1982 – but this one-hour slow-motion gybing duel in the faintest of catspaw puffs on the Derwent River will become a legendary moment in the history of the race – a 51-second delta!

There were multiple lead changes as the two fat-arsed 100-footers strained for the smallest advantage. We witnessed triumph and despair in a single, final moment of match-racing tactics. After 600 brutal miles offshore when the supermaxis often clocked speeds in excess of 25 knots they finished at a crawl, and within spitting distance of each other.

But even as LawConnect ghosted to their well-deserved glory it was difficult to push away the thought that Wild Oats XI would have been unbeatable in the same situation. Her narrow beam and low wetted surface made her much easier to drive in light wind. Scallywag, too, might have been quick in those conditions. (Remember that as Ragamuffin 100 she outran Rambler in a similar drifting finish a few years ago.)

On the morning of the start on Boxing Day owner Christian Beck described LawConnect as a “shitbox” compared with Comanche. Maybe now he’s not so sure, and it’s quite possible that his will be the only 100-footer in the fleet for the next Sydney-Hobart. The days of these Down Under mastodons would seem to be numbered.

– anarchist David