Grundig due for clean run to Hobart

• NEWS
• 19 Dec, 2002 04:39:00 PM

Grundig due for clean run to Hobart

They say bad things happen in threes. That should provide some comfort for skipper Sean Langman who has suffered a treble of mishaps in the past three Sydney Hobart Yacht Races. Fresh from an overnight crew training sail up the NSW coast to familiarise the 11-crew members to night sailing, the former 18-foot skiff champion says the crew and the boat are better prepared than ever.

They say bad things happen in threes. That should provide some comfort for skipper Sean Langman who has suffered a treble of mishaps in the past three Sydney Hobart Yacht Races.  

Fresh from an overnight crew training sail up the NSW coast to familiarise the 11-crew members to night sailing, the former 18-foot skiff champion says the crew and the boat are better prepared than ever.

“We have spent a lot of time strengthening the boat this year and have removed a lot of the drag,” Langman said. “The tactics will be different this year though, we just want to get there - a finish in the top five would be a bonus.”

Grundig hit a big fish or shark in the 1999 race and limped to Hobart and in 2000 rig damage and a split mainsail forced them out. Last year the 66-footer retired with bow damage Langman told Daily Telegraph sailing writer Amanda Lulham yesterday.

Like Langman,  many of the crew of Grundig come from skiff and high performance dinghy backgrounds,  appropriate for a boat sometimes described as “a skiff on steroids.”

Three time 49er skiff world champion and three time 505 champion Chris Nicholson will be Langman’s weapon for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, which has attracted 57 entries for the Boxing Day start next Thursday.

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Nicholson and new 49er skiff crewmate Gary Boyd are currently training for next month’s Olympic selection trials in Melbourne. Boyd and Chris Nicholson’s brother Darren, his partner in the three 505 world titles, will also be on board Grundig with 75% of the crew current or ex skiff sailors.

Sean, a savvy businessman and radical skipper has taken line honours in every major race north from Sydney in the past three years with his downwind flyer and if a north-easterly sea breeze is maintained over the Rolex Sydney Hobart racetrack next week, Grundig could knock off some major line honours contenders