Old men of the sea make it win No 9

The one component of Wild Oats XI that has not been overhauled is its crew.

Wild Oats XI sails to victory along the Derwent River. Picture: Borlenghi Rolex/Studio

When the late billionaire winemaker Bob Oatley built himself a radical supermaxi racing yacht in 2005, he chose a relatively unknown young dark-haired sailor from Pittwater, Mark Richards, to skipper the boat.

Richards was a dedicated sailor who had made a name for himself in everything from skiffs to America’s Cup boats but was somewhat new to the world of ocean racing.

He was best known as the helmsman aboard Bob Oatley’s 2003 Admiral’s Cup yacht Wild Oats X.

As Oatley’s new boat, Wild Oats XI, was launched only a couple of weeks before the start of the annual Sydney-Hobart race, Richards had to move fast to assemble a crew — so he called on his old mates from the worlds of Sydney’s famous 18-foot skiffs and the America’s Cup.

On Boxing Day that year, Wild Oats XI revolutionised ocean racing in Australia.

She not only took line honours in the 2005 race but also won on handicap and established a new course record. At one stage on the run to Hobart the yacht was touching 35 knots and tactician Iain Murray had to order Richards to slow down.

The yacht took line honours in eight of the next nine Sydney-Hobart races and also racked up another treble in 2012. Yesterday, just over 14 years since she was launched, Wild Oats XI again took line honours in the race, bringing her total to nine.

It followed a bad run of two retirements and last year’s one-hour penalty for an incident with Comanche just after the start in Sydney Harbour which stripped her of the win and a new race record.

The boat that finished yesterday was very different to that launched in 2005. She had been extended several feet, chopped in half once and fitted with a new bow section.

The mast had been moved, as had the deck layout, including the twin steering wheels, and dozens of new sails had been made over the years.

At one stage, so many modifications had been made to the wings and foils that protruded from the hull that she was nicknamed the “Swiss Army boat”.

But one thing didn’t change — the crew. And they couldn’t be modified and updated like the boat, so the years have been less kind to them. The dark hair and sculptured jaw lines of more than a decade ago were replaced yesterday by grey hair, salt and pepper beards and expanding waistlines.

Only Richards looked largely unchanged. At 51, he still has a full head of hair black enough to rival Elvis, and fighting the wheel of a 100-footer for 628 nautical miles keeps him slim.

Crossing the line yesterday, Richards handed the steering duties to Bob Oatley’s grandson, Dan Oatley, who had sailed as a sewerman aboard the yacht.

With the young man taking the boat over the finish line, Richards punched the air in triumph.

Mark Richards and crew members of Wild Oats XI attend the awards ceremony at Constitution Dock. Picture: Getty Image

“This is redemption,” Richards bellowed as the yacht was tied to its Hobart berth.

Whispers around the Hobart waterfront suggest that having again proved that Wild Oats XI is the best supermaxi in the world, the Oatley Family and Richards might be planning to quietly retire from ocean racing.

Keeping a yacht such as Wild Oats in tip-top racing order costs upwards of $2 million a year and keeping an ageing crew together is probably even harder.

Asked about the future, Richards said he would have to think about it. Seconds later he held up both hands with all fingers extended but one thumb folded in.

“What do you reckon,” he said with a wide grin. “There is something not quite finished about that.”

Wild Oats XI finished in one day, 19 hours, seven minutes and 21 seconds, well outside last year’s course record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds but almost 30 minutes ahead of second-placed Black Jack and with last year’s winner Comanche a further minute behind.

The fourth supermaxi, InfoTrack, was 13 minutes behind Comanche.