Sydney to Hobart 2019: Scallywag hits mystery creature, InfoTrack avoids whale
It wasn’t the weather or rivals who caused drama for this yacht in the Sydney to Hobart. It was a mystery creature of the deep.
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Things that go bump in the night ended one crews hopes of a podium finish in the Sydney to Hobart while another was breathing a sigh of relief after a near miss with a giant of the sea.
It was a collision at sea which took the bite out of Scallywag’s bid for line honours glory in the Sydney to Hobart and left her crew in disbelief at missing a podium finish by 38 seconds.
The supermaxi hit a large object at high speed as she raced towards the finish line on Saturday morning.
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Some swore it was a 4m shark, others a giant sunfish around 1m in diameter.
“It was a sunfish, I should know, I’ve hit enough of them.’’ said Grant Wharrington, a steerer on Scallywag, who suffered race ending damage after hitting a sunfish in previous races aboard his own yacht Skandia.
“We hit it at 25 knots, the rudder stalled, the boat slowed, we had to roll up the sails, back up and shake it off. I saw it.
“It probably cost us 10 minutes.’’
Sunfish or shark, the damage was done with the Hong Kong yacht Scallywag, sailed by a predominantly Sydney crew, beaten into fourth place by just 38 seconds by old rival Wild Oats.
“It basically cost us running second,” said skipper David Witt, who believes he hit a shrak.
“We’re really, really disappointed because it’s probably the best the team has ever sailed.
“I’ve never been so upset with a result in my life because I know we didn’t do anything wrong.”
Lake Macquarie sailor Chris Nicholson said InfoTrack had its own close call with marine life at sea.
But unlike Scallywag the supermaxi owned by Greenwich Sailing Club’s Christian Beck managed to avoid a head-on.
“We has a close call with a whale,’’ said Nicholson., a former Olympic sailor, multiple world champion and round the world racer.
“Fortunately we were only going slow at the time and we spotted it about 30m off our bow.’’