Wild Oats XI preparing to race ahead of 75th Sydney to Hobart yacht race
She has been sliced and diced in the past. So what’s been done to Wild Oats XI this year to make her race ready for the 75th Sydney to Hobart.
Manly
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There’s been some weight loss, a bit of tinkering and a few tickles here and there in the off-season which top Australian ocean racer Iain Murray said has bought Wild Oats XI right back up to speed for the 75th Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
The supermaxi will have it’s first racing hit out since claiming the 2018 Sydney to Hobart line honours when it lines up in next Friday’s Cabbage Tree Island race from Sydney Harbour.
The 175 nautical mile race will be the Oatley family owned supermaxis first foray back into ocean racing since her fastest time win in December.
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Avalon’s Murray, in charge of the Australian sailing team high performance program ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, has been aboard the Sydney yacht for all her nine line honours wins, two race records and two overall wins.
In the past the yacht has been heavily modified - at one stage cut in half - to stave off the effects of ageing and each year has been reinvented as a major contender in the race south.
This year Murray said the changes and updates have been less radical.
“She has some changes in the board, a little bit of Jenny Craig, nothing major, just bits and pieces,’’ Murray said.
“We have taken out the centreboard in the bow and two daggerboards either side of the mast and just put one in front of the mast.
“It saves a bunch of weight and is about optimising the balance of the boat. It just simplifies things.’’
Last December a protest against the record-breaking supermaxi was found to be invalid with the 100-footer’s ninth Sydney to Hobart line honours win standing.
She is the most winning line honours boat in the history of the race which started back in 1945 as a cruise to Hobart and was contested by a fleet of just nine yachts.
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For the 75th anniversary, a fleet of 169 has entered - the biggest since the record 371 strong fleet in the 50th anniversary back on 1994.
On November 8, Wild Oats will race numerous other yachts heading south this year in the race to Cabbage Tree Island, near Port Stephens, and then back to the finish line on Sydney Harbour.