"Wild Oats" and the Sydney Hobart Race belong together like the Admiral's Cup and "Ruby" once did. What they had in common was the white and red colour scheme, but above all their dominance on the water. The new "Wild Oats XI" owner wants to hold on to both. Indirectly, it is her long-time skipper Mark Richards, whose motor yacht brand Palm Beach is the buyer. The Australian sailed the 30-metre-long supermaxi for 20 years, most of that time with or for Bob Oatley, who died in 2016. Between 2005 and 2018, he won the title nine times with "Wild Oats XI". Line Honours at the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. The 630 nautical mile race to Tasmania is started every year on 26 December in Sydney Harbour.
Mark Richards: from skipper to owner
After a professional career that included two America's Cups, victories in the Match Race World Championships and the 2003 Admirals Cup, Mark Richards started building one-offs in Sydney in 1995 with a young family in tow. From this grew the brand Palm Beach Motor Yachts, which was launched in 2014 by Grand Banks was purchased. Richards now also heads the legendary trawler shipyard with US roots as CEO and chief designer. It is therefore not surprising that "Wild Oats XI" is now called "Palm Beach XI".
Third modification goes particularly far
"Wild Oats XI" was launched in 2005 according to plans by Reichel/Pugh at McConaghy, where the Maxi-30 sisters "Alfa Romeo", "Rambler" and "Morning Glory" were also built. The offshore racer, customised for the rough Sydney Hobart conditions, immediately won its debut in a fabulous time of one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds. A record that stood for many years. The current record has stood since 2017, when the crew on the 100-foot "LDV Comanche" mastered the route in just 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds. In fact, "Wild Oats XI" was slightly faster that year, but was penalised an hour by the jury.
Juan Kouyoumdjian, who was hired for the third significant modification since the first launch 20 years ago, is to bring the veteran back to her former glory. The rocket-like hull remains largely untouched, which, with a width of 5.10 metres, looks almost slender in comparison to the modern, delta-shaped "offshore bowls" such as long-term rival "Comanche" (6.80 m, 2014). The shipyard visit to McConaghy Boats is intended to give "Palm Beach XI" a longer tilting keel with a new bomb and a replacement of the centreboards for better VMG values.
C-Foils make "Palm Beach XI" skim
The team at Juan K Naval Architects and Mark Richards also decided to retrofit recoverable C-foils. They are designed to optimise buoyancy, minimise drag and provide an improved righting moment upwind and downwind. So they're not about taking off, more about skimming across the surface of the water like "Raven". Skipper and shipyard CEO hopes that these innovations will not only catapult "Palm Beach XI" back to the top of the Sydney-Hobart fleet, but will also be incorporated into the Palm Beach Motor Yachts model range in the form of new hydrodynamic findings.
North Sails is supplying the new wardrobe, and Richards is working closely with yacht manager Paul Magee and the shore crew and sailing crew to bring the 20-year-old supermaxi up to the latest technical standards. "Palm Beach XI is the ultimate team effort; we have worked collaboratively to bring this vision to life in a very short time frame," explains Richards. "This project epitomises everything Palm Beach Motor Yacht stands for - our relentless passion for innovation, driven by a team culture that thrives on discipline, precision and shared goals."
