| Australia. Skandia set to sail into wild oceans again after $4 million rebuild |
|
|
|
| Thursday, 22 December 2005 | |
|
Dan Oakes: After four months, $4 million and 20,000 man hours of rebuilding, Grant Wharington is poised to throw his super maxi Skandia back into the Sydney to Hobart fray and attempt to wipe clear the memory of last year's catastrophic effort. The 2004 race was defined by the sight of Wharington's pride and joy wallowing upside down in the Tasman Sea after its keel broke off. As the crew of the 2003 winner clambered into life rafts, the dream of back-to-back line honours went with them. It was feared at first that the repair bill would be too hefty to make relaunching Skandia viable, but by May it was back in the water, substantially improved (when asked yesterday where the money had come from, Wharington coyly said he would rather not answer). Rival super maxi skipper Stewart Thwaites, of Konica Minolta, said this week that canting keels, such as the one that parted so spectacularly with Skandia's hull last year, were too dangerous and would soon cause a major accident. But Wharington said that as a result of Skandia's refit his boat now had an even more flexible canting keel, which swings from side to side to improve handling. The skipper also pinned the blame for last year's events on substandard equipment supplied to the team and said legal action against the supplier was pending. "I don't really know why (Thwaites) made that statement because last year he was saying that he wanted to modify his boat to put a canting keel in it," Wharington said. "It's evolving technology, the boats are new and they're cutting edge and canting keels are the thing at the moment where a lot of money and effort is being spent developing the technology. "There are going to be failures along the way but it's a management issue, the boats are going faster and they need to be slowed down by the crews and managed better by the crews." Wharington said Skandia's main challengers for line honours this year would be Alfa Romeo, Wild Oats, Konica Minolta and AAPT, but said he was confident his "more conservative" tactics would give his team the upper hand. He pointed out, though, that with the Sydney to Hobart, it is the weather that has the final say. "You have to be prepared to get anything and get what you're given on the day, because it's a tough race. It just needs to be treated with a lot of respect and you have to be able to handle the toughest conditions and if in the unlikely scenario that you don't get them, it will be a very enjoyable ride to Hobart," he said. "I made the mistake last year of saying we had a very tough boat, it was strong and it had been tested and it proved me wrong. "We've certainly spent a lot of time redeveloping the boat and going over all the calculations, and we hope that we have covered all bases and we've got a really strong boat. But we won't know until late next week." http://www.wildthingyachting.com.au |
|
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 December 2005 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|