Rosebud först under IRC

Roger Sturgeon och hans STP 65 Rosebud verkar ha vunnit Sydney Hobart under IRC. Alla båtar är inte i mål, men de ser ganska ohotade ut då de mindre båtarna har fått lättare vindar på slutet. Foto: Rolex/Daniel Forster

Rosebud blir bara tredje amerikanska båten som tar hem racet. Tidigare har Ted Turners American Eagle (1972) och Jim Kilroys Kialoa III (1977) vunnit. Inget dåligt sällskap! Foto: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

Vaktkapten Malcolm Park säger:

Thank you for the support and well wishes. It was an interesting race and a much different sea state than any of us from the US had ever sailed in. It is a difficult race to optimize for because of the constantly changing conditions. One moment I was cursing the heavy bulb we installed and the next moment I was loving it.

Compared with a race such as Transpac where you know how the basic configuration that you want for the race when you are building the boat (ie water tanks on the starboard side, extra bunks on the starboard side… ). The Sydney Hobart race requires a much more diversified boat. We were changing our minds on our sail spinnaker selection up until 30 minutes before we left the dock in Sydney.

As it turned out, we used every sail we brought at least twice. It was great to have a crew that was patient with Kevin Miller and myself as we constantly second guessed our sail selection.

Hopefully we will be able to take what we have learned and apply it to our crossover chart so that we can make effiecent sail selections in the future.

Foto: Rolex/Daniel Forster

Foto: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

Chutzpah verkar vinna sin klass. Har fastnat några gånger i lättare vind, men snittade ändå 9 knop över nästan tre dygn. Foto: Rolex/Daniel Forster