Sports Photographics Australia

Sydney Hobart 2008

Sydney Hobart 2008 - Text and Photos by Steve Cuff

In the end Wild Oast X1 cruised to its 4th consectutive victory taking line honours over arch rival Skandia in a time of 1 day 20 hours 34 minutes and 14 seconds. The two yachts had been locked in a ding dong battle of the Tasman Sea for virtually the whole race before Wild Oats drew clear in light winds off the mid Tasmanian east coast.
At the start of the "Blue Ribbon Yacht Classic" Wild Oats X1 powered out of Sydney heads with a reasonable lead over Skandia and it looked like the big Bob Oatley owned maxi was about to make the race its own. Not to be..... as Skandia virtually drew along side on the strecth down the south coast of NSW which produced a match race to finish with the yachts so close it was tack for tack and gybe for gybe most of the way.

When Wild Oats struck a 2m shark in the early evening of Saturday off Shouten Island and had to stop sailing, adjust sails and sail backwards to clear the tangled ocean predator, it could well have been the end of their line honours chances, however skipper Mark Richards said it was a godsend as they had picked up somehting on their keel in the early stages of the race restricting and slowing the yacht, but once cleared after the short stop it allowed the big 30m maxi to gain speed and race clear of Skandia in a light breeze.
Wild Oats was escorted into the Derwent River and all the way to Constitution dock by a huge spectator fleet just like it was at the start (pictured left).
















Earlier in the race there were no celebrations for captain Graeme Ainley and his crew on Georgia (pic top right), who were forced to abandon ship and then watch as their yacht sank off Ulladulla on the NSW south Coast. All on board were forced into life rafts and were rescued by the yacht Telcoinabox Merit who was behind and stood by to render assistance.
“I was sailing in what I thought was my last Hobart – my 25th – but it looks like I may just have to do another one to get that medallion!” said Graeme Ainley.
“It all happened pretty quickly out there. We were running under spinnaker at about 15 knots, and having just completed the radio sked, we heard a loud bang, followed by a second bang. I guess we must have hit something reasonably solid – but we couldn’t see it.
“The rudder stop had pulled out and water came through the back of the boat. We then had no steering and had to get the spinnaker down quickly.
“We then tried to stop the influx of water, but it was getting worse so we made the decision to abandon the vessel.
Pictured left Georgia leaves the Sydney Heads.

Twelve hours into the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and 25 miles off Jervis Bay Ian Kiernan’s stunning Tasman Seabird Sanyo Maris retired from the 628 nautical mile race with a broken goose neck.
“We were changing down spinnakers in 30 knots. We gybed and the gooseneck (attaches the boom to the main mast) carried away,” said a disappointed Kiernan today.
“It wasn’t repairable out here so with regret we retired at around 1am this morning.


The crew of Limit (left) attend to sails in Sydney Harbour prior to the start of the race while a hobie cat sailor trys to steal the limelight from the main fleet (right).
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