Kiwis hoping for outrageously good fortune in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

5 January 2012

A bunch of sailors from West Auckland have arrived in Sydney for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race aboard a boat named after a popular New Zealand TV show about a bunch of West Aucklanders.
Quintin Fowler’s Beneteau First 45, Outrageous Fortune, sailed in through Sydney Heads on Monday exactly a week after the only New Zealand entry in this year’s fleet of 93 cleared customs at Opua, north of Auckland, and set off across the Tasman.
While at sea, Fowler, a self-confessed “true blue westie” from Swanson celebrated his 51st birthday with the crew’s rousing rendition of ‘happy birthday’ and an afternoon happy hour.
During the delivery they also experienced 50 knot winds and a busted Windex that had Fowler climbing to the top of the mast mid-ocean.
Lining up for the Rolex Sydney Hobart has been a long held dream for the owner/skipper who, like many of his countrymen, has tried to crack into the circle of crew who make the lucky final draft for the southern hemisphere’s greatest annual ocean race.
He helped deliver the former maxi yacht Zana from New Zealand eight years ago hoping a berth would open up, but was sidelined.
With time ticking away Fowler decided prior to last year’s race, “that’s it, I’ll bring my own boat,” he said yesterday at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia after clearing his Cat 1 safety check list.
All the boxes have been ticked and Outrageous Fortune is tickety boo and ready to take part in the 1pm Boxing Day start on Sydney Harbour when Fowler anticipates he and the crew will be “feeling a little bit nervous and excited at the same time.”
On their start strategy he’s well aware of the huge logistical effort of bringing a boat across the Tasman Sea, and intends to be conservative. “We will make sure we get a good start but won’t be too pushy. Having come all this way we don’t plan to be protested in the harbour.”
At the end of this week the delivery crew of four will return to New Zealand and arrive back late December with the full race crew, just as the waterfront is really starting to hum.

Two of Outrageous Fortune’s eight crewmembers have previously started a Rolex Sydney Hobart and one completed the 628 nautical mile course. Local knowledge may be in short supply. However, when it comes time to tackle the famous stretch of water the crew has extensive offshore experience to draw from, including Auckland - Fiji and Auckland - Noumea races.
Fowler says the ultimate would be the touted handicap win, but standing in his way is every other entry racing under IRC handicap and in particular, Darryl Hodgkinson’s sistership Victoire, which has the Midas touch.
By Lisa Ratcliff/Rolex Sydney Hobart media team

Yacht Details: Outrageous Fortune

Launched in 2008, Outrageous Fortune has been raced extensively both around New Zealand and offshore. She competed in the 2009 Auckland-Noumea race and the Auckland Muscat Cove (Fiji) race this year.
She has added a few trophies to owner Fowler’s cabinet over the last few years including the Nexus Gold Cup and the IRC Silver Cup to name just a few. She has competed each year in the Coastal Classic (Auckland-Russell) race securing 1st place in division 2 in the 2008 race.
Outrageous Fortune has a very experienced crew, most of whom have sailed thousands of offshore miles – but for most this will be their first Rolex Sydney Hobart and they are truly looking forward to the race and are hoping to rise to the challenge.

Email report Sat 24th December:
Hi from Sydney. The rest of the crew arrived last night after the radio check and all the cruising sails were bricked ready to go into the container going to Hobart.
First thing this morning the new wind vane was attached up the top of the mast and re wired at the bottom. Upon close inspection of the rig on the way down a crack in the middle stbd spreader was noticed. The crew have been working on repairing and reinforcing it all day (typical Beneteau problem) Despite the set back, all are in good spirits and reasonably confident that we can solve the issue. The provisioning has been done,skippers meeting heard. Long range weather forecast is for NE at the start changing to southerlies during the first night. Approx 15 knots for the remainder of the race. A beat is what we are all wanting.
TV 1 NZ news at 6:30pm tonight will be showing the interview they had with us this morning.
All the best, Richard

Email report Sun 25 December

Yesterday was bit of a roller coaster. First we found the crack in the spreader, which we fixed and then we went for a test sail, out in the Sydney harbour and out through the heads. The new wind gear we fitted on the mast was not working. We traced the problem back to the base of the mast after a few hours of testing the systems out one by one. At the same time we noticed that our electronic compass reading was out by 150-200 degrees. We traced the fault back to the connection behind the electronic compass and refastened it all. Success at last. Now we have all our electronics working.
Up at 6am this morning and reshifted the weight under the v berth in the forward cabin. Decorated the back of the boat for the Australian media. Had Santa come and meet the boat and give us some presents including a rugby ball and water bottles from the RWC. Saw this as a good omen. Spent the rest of this morning taking off as much as is allowed off the boat. This will go in the container for Hobart.
Will update before the start tomorrow.

cheers, Richard.

Entrant Status Finished
Actual elapsed time 04:08:04:38
Actual speed 6.0 kt
Position 58
IRC
Handicap 1.121
Actual corrected time 04:20:40:14
Actual corrected speed 5.4 kt
Position 48
Division 3
Position 16
ORCi
Handicap 1.0617
Actual corrected time 04:14:29:56
Actual corrected speed 5.7 kt
Position 25
Division 2
Position 8