Love to see it....... But we would need to get these boats down under. We have some smaller Multis here but would have to get a Maxi Cat for the S2H

Got an e-mail from my mate this morning, all is well, sounds like a wild sail and took refuge at/in Eden.

He was skippering a Sydney 38, not ideal for the race this year at only 38 feet and 5.5 tonnes

Does sound like they had a good sail back from Eden. 30Kts, and 5M waves, clocked a max speed of 16.5 kts - not bad for a 1/2 boat with a lump of lead on the bottom

Isnt there two regular 60+ footer racing Cats every year in the Brissy to Gladstone race?

S.

Yes there are 60'+ big cats/tris on the east coast that I would think capable of doing Sydney to Hobart. I have sailed against some of them in 50kts. at Southern Ocean Multihull Reggatta, held annualy on Western Port Bay Victoria, a nasty wind against tide location causing very difficult seas. But still nothing like S to H so it is only my opinion.

I have heard stories amongst large multihull fraternity in OZ of multis shadowing S to H fleets once they were outside the heads, but have never heard if they went all the way.

Wouter, these navigators know what they are in for, if they could get around the systems they would. I think they can not get around systems as they are sailing upwind and the narrow band of realy bad weather pretty much spreads across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand making it impossible to sail around upwind. This year it seemed to extend right across Bass Strait as well. Supermaxis were damaged near Tassie.

In all this discussion we must not lose sight of how hard and life threatening this race can be, I have a brother who has competed and have spoken to two crew who retired this year in the last few days and previously spoken to chopper pilot that was involved in rescues in the tragic year. I have nothing but respect for their abilities and efforts. Not my type of sailing some offshore racing on monos on west coast of OZ put me off and it was nowhere near as long or strong as S to H.

My main point was that these new canting keels and speeds put loads on Monos that make Multis at least a viable alternative. Of course I think better.

Regards Gary.