Wild Oats Chopped; LC2 Rebranded
Two maxi speedsters that wowed the West Coast with their transpacific feats this summer are getting new looks. In the case of the 100-ft Australian monohull Wild Oats XI, the overall winner of July’s Transpac, the surgeon’s knife cuts deep.
On Wednesday, folks around Sydney Harbour were treated to a most unusual sight: a 67-ft long, snub-nosed hull being towed upstream. The color scheme told the tale: this was Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI, revealing the extent of the modifications she is undergoing — her bow was missing.
Last week, the 33-ft forward section was removed, and on Wednesday she was launched, towed up-harbor, hauled out, and loaded onto a truck destined for the McConaghy yard, where a new and longer bow section will be attached. Another section will be cut off the stern so that when she is back in the water and in racing trim she will again measure 30 meters overall, the maximum length allowable in December 26’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.
The new forward section has already been prefabricated at McConaghy Boats, so the remainder of the project is expected to take about eight weeks to complete, and Wild Oats should be sailing again by mid-November.
The major surgery is designed to make Wild Oats more competitive in the Sydney Hobart against arch-rival 100-ft maxi Comanche, launched last year and owned by Silicon Valley tech giant Jim Clark and his wife Kristy Hinze. Comanche set a new 24-hour monohull world record of 618 miles — just 9 miles short of the Sydney Hobart course distance — on July 10-11 while competing in the Transatlantic Race.
Meanwhile Lending Club 2 (ex-Banque Populaire VII, ex-Groupama 3) is getting new colors. Her erstwhile co-skipper, Ryan Breymaier, is in the process of handing over the 105-ft VPLP trimaran, which set the outright L.A.-to-Honolulu course record in July, to Francis Joyon. The Frenchman plans to use the boat, to be rebranded Idec Sport, for a new assault on the Jules Verne around-the-world record. The time to beat, 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes, 53 seconds, was set in 2012 by Loïck Peyron on the Banque Populaire V trimaran.
Best known for his singlehanded exploits, Joyon hopes to become the first sailor to hold the solo around-the-world record (57d 13h 34m 6s, set in 2008) and the crewed equivalent.
The changes to Lending Club 2 will be more than just decorative. Joyon says, "We shall be fitting systems to protect the helmsman and the crew on the winches taking care of the sheets. These positions are too exposed for the Southern Ocean. They need to be better protected for the watches in that part of the world, with fittings to allow them to hold on to avoid getting swept overboard by the waves. We also need to install a desalinator, as well as a system to dry the waterproofs and boots," which means the boat can be lighter with less gear and fewer clothes on board. Joyon hopes to launch Idec Sport by October 8.