The maxi yacht Wild Oats Xl in Sydney during the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht race last year. Image Credit: AP
Sydney (AP) Wild Oats XI has a confident skipper and crew, the acknowledged fastest boat in the fleet and has won four of the five last Sydney to Hobart races.
With its major competition from last year gone, the 30-metre yacht should be first out of Sydney Harbour today and is the overwhelming favourite to win line honours when the race finishes at Hobart on the island state of Tasmania on January 1.
Even a strong southwesterly wind forecast for the first half of the race shouldn't bother Wild Oats XI — significant changes to sails and rigging have the yacht primed to perform better upwind than previously.
Boat's speed
"I'm very confident in the boat's speed, there's no question there at all," Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards said yesterday.
"It just comes down to your luck and Mother Nature."
Britain's RAN, which had some of its crew arrive late due to bad weather in Europe, heads the overseas challenge which also includes boats from the United States, France, Italy, New Zealand and two partially Russian-crewed yachts.
The 87-yacht fleet will start from two separate lines on Sydney Harbour.
Alfa Romeo _ which took line honours last year _ and British yacht ICAP Leopard, which was third behind Wild Oats XI, are not returning.
Alfa Romeo is being campaigned in Europe by the boat's new Russian owner, who decided not to bring the yacht back to Australia for an attempt at consecutive line honours in the 628-nautical-mile (723-mile, 1,163-kilometre) race.
Record of one day
Last year, Alfa Romeo won in a time of two days, 9 hours, two minutes, well off the race record due to light winds.
Wild Oats XI holds the record of one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes, set in 2005, a time that is unlikely to be improved on this year due to the wind forecasts.
