Wharington talking up boat despite flop

The planets wouldn't quite align for luckless maxi yacht Etihad Stadium, but owner
Grant Wharington was bullish about his boat's prospects despite their early
retirement from the Sydney to Hobart race.

Two mast-related issues brought the Victorian boat's ill-fated campaign to a
premature close.
After battling over the past two weeks to transport and install a replacement mast
bought from Alfa Romeo owner Neville Crichton, Wharington and his hard-working crew
had to admit defeat just over an hour into the race.
Wharington revealed he realised 10 minutes before the start that he had a problem
keeping his mast properly aligned.
Not wishing to hold up the rest of the fleet, Wharington decided to sail the boat
back up Sydney Harbour and attempt to re-tune his rig before returning to the race.
However, a second problem with the alignment of his runner blocks proved too hard to
overcome and prompted his decision to retire.
Wharington said he was disappointed, especially for his "pretty drained" crew, who
he said had worked tirelessly to get the boat race ready.
"I said all along we needed all the planets to line up for us to be able to get to
be race ready," Wharington told reporters back at the Cruising Yacht Club of
Australia.
"We had transport delays in France, we had aeroplane delays. I'm not blaming anybody
for anything, it was just an incredibly tight set of circumstances that we needed
everything to fall into place.
"It's impossible to explain the scale of difficulties of all items that have to be
put together and have 100 per cent agreement on everything, to be able to go to
Hobart.
"This is not the sort of event you can just go `she will be right, we will be
heading out'."
He acknowledged that all the delays had prevented them from doing a training sail
which might have uncovered the problems which forced their retirement.
Adding to Wharington's disappointment was the way the boat was performing prior to
its retirement.
"You can tell straight away by looking at the computer how much faster the boat is
than it was previously, it was very encouraging before we started," Wharington said.
"We were looking at the numbers, the whole package, saying well we've now probably
got the fastest boat in the world.
"We just need to be able to put together a race and there's nobody that should be
able to beat us, but you've got to be able to race."
Wharington said provided he could obtain replacement runner blocks he would sail the
boat in next week's Pittwater to Coffs Harbour in which Sydney to Hobart line
honours favourite Wild Oats XI is also scheduled to contest.
He said he might also campaign the boat in more Sydney races later in the year,
before looking to contest his 25th Sydney to Hobart in 2010.