Last year's line honours champ is causing me confusion before the race even kicks off!
Syd Fischer, owner of Ragamuffin, line honours winner in 1988, 1990 and 1992, has leased last year's line honours winner Loyal, in what has been promised to be the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny, and the rumour mill has even kicked about the idea that this may be Syd's final trip to Hobart.
Can Ragamuffin Loyal mix it up with the might of Wild Oats XI? I'd love to say, "yes, it will be the ultimate match race all the way to Hobart", but my gut tells me that the weather won't favour Loyal this time around, and that any errors in predicting wind in the Derwent River that may have led to last years shock win will have been ironed out for this years race. In my (completely unqualified) opinion, Wild Oats XI is just too quick to catch!
But it was almost the race that wasn't!
News has been filtering through since about 3:30 PM yesterday (AEDT) that the team behind Ragamuffin Loyal are inspecting damage to the rigging and mast that occurred in an incident on the water on Wednesday afternoon. Details are sketchy at best, but rumour has it that this damage occurred during a training run when the yacht collided with ANZAC Bridge when returning to the dock.
But thankfully the team has announced that whilst they will be out of action this weekend, they will be lining up for the start of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart on Boxing Day! The possibility of a cat and mouse chase down the eastern coast of NSW remains alive.
Still hanging out for the weather report, should be in for an awesome race, as we have come to expect!
- Evan
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