Sydney to Hobart: Wild Oats XI faced up to real prospect of missing big race after mast snapped
Wild Oats XI is on track to win a 10th Sydney to Hobart line honours, but six weeks ago it was a very different story when the yacht’s 45-metre tall mast snapped to put their participation in extreme doubt.
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Six weeks ago, Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards feared his crew would miss the 75th Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
Charging up the coast near Terrigal, the 100-footer was leading the fleet in the 150-nautical mile Cabbage Tree Island race.
It was dark and windy, but the crew was starting to feel comfortable.
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Suddenly, a loud crack erupted on board.
The yacht’s 45-metre tall mast had snapped, damaged the deck and was threatening to fall overboard.
“When it first broke, I thought, we’re going to lose this, and that’ll be us out of the Hobart,” Richards said.
“It was really dark, we couldn’t see a thing, so it was hard to work out what happened.”
Instantly, the Wild Oats XI crew went into preservation mode, scrambling to keep the broken mast upright and stable.
Richards and his team managed to run down wind with minimal sails up, travelled 40 nautical miles north and pulled into Newcastle, without sustaining further damage to their yacht.
“It’s pretty impressive to see how everyone performs in those conditions, you make the calls you need to and just get through it,” Richards said.
“We did extremely well in really tough conditions, the fact we got the boat to shore in one piece was amazing and it’s the only reason we’re able to compete in the Hobart.”
The next morning, they secured the broken mast to the deck and motored the yacht back to Sydney.
Immediately, the race to repair Wild Oats XI in time for the Sydney to Hobart was on.
Rigging was air freighted to Spain for X-rays and damaged sails were sent to sail lofts in Asia and South America for repair.
A new lower mast was built in New Zealand and technicians worked for four days straight until it was perfect.
Miraculously, the yacht was fixed in under four weeks and bowman Tim Wiseman is satisfied with the new-look mast.
“She might be a little hesitant, but she’s a lot stronger than what we had to start with,” he said.
“The set up is a little different, we’ve had to switch the whole deck area around the mast.”
On Thursday, Wild Oats XI is determined to set a race record and win her tenth line honours victory in the 75th anniversary of the blue water classic.
In 2015 and 2016 she was forced to retire early.
The 100-footer crossed the line in Hobart first in 2017, but a one-hour penalty saw her finish second.
And her thrilling victory last year was marred by Black Jack’s protest that her Automatic Identification System was not switched on for the duration of the race.
“Everyone's hungry for number ten, getting the race taken off us two years ago, it's still etched in everyone's minds,” Wiseman said.
“Last year’s protest was a bit of a storm in a teacup, everyone’s forgotten that and we try to focus on the positives,”
“We don't want any bad blood, we just plan on winning the race fair and square like we have done nine or ten times before.”