Grant Wharrington Interview

Grant Warrington at the helm of Skandia Wild Thing during Skandia Geelong Week © Magnus Wheatley

The Skandia sponsored Geelong regatta hit full flight on Friday with two races set against the dramatic skyline of Melbourne City centre, sailed in Port Philip, Williamstown and hosted by the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. Picture perfect conditions and temperate breezes made for exciting sailing amongst the 100 or so boats that competed in the first stage of this regatta-the Australian equivalent of Skandia Cowes Week. The regatta now shifts to the town of Geelong, some 40 miles down the coast in Corio Bay, for the Australia Day weekend and a further three days of racing. The Williamstown fleet sail a passage race today (Saturday) to join the Geelong fleet with numbers expected to top the 400 mark, in this, Australia’s biggest keelboat yachting event.

I was aboard Grant Wharrington’s 98ft ‘Skandia’-the recent Sydney-Hobart winner, for a very enjoyable days sailing that saw the boat extend her race win record to sailed 19, won 19! Pretty impressive stuff, Wharrington and his crack crew of hardened Olympic and Round the World veterans coaxed the super-maxi with its clean lines, powered winches and acres of Doyle-Fraser D4 sailcloth (apologies for calling it 3DL elsewhere!) around the course as the wind built to a steady 19 knot average in the afternoon. The most remarkable thing about Skandia was its relative ease to handle and with no spinnaker pole to confuse things, the crew were sailing the boat like a dinghy. No wonder they made winning the Sydney-Hobart look easy! I caught up with Grant Wharrington to discuss his future plans and the benefits of the Skandia sponsorship package plus caught some pretty exciting gossip about his and Barney Walker’s Volvo Ocean Race plans.

MW: Grant, 19 races, 19 wins, you’ve got to be delighted with Skandia, it’s an awesome boat?

GW: Yeah absolutely, look we’re wrapped in how it’s going and it’s exceeding our expectations, we’re very happy also that it’s competitive under IRC handicap. It’s a real buzz to sail and it’s also an easy boat to sail and it’s also an enjoyable boat to sail because there’s not so much talk because you don’t have the grinders and pedestal systems so it just calms everything down and simplifies all the jobs.

MW: Can you talk about the project itself and how long it took to come to fruition etc…And also why you wanted to keep the boat simple.

GW: I wanted a boat that was at maximum length that was eligible to do the Sydney-Hobart and Fastnet type events. A lot of those have a 30 metre upper limit now so we wanted to have the longest boat that could fit into the handicapping limit. (1.61 is the upper limit for IRC in the Sydney-Hobart race) We also wanted the ability to be able to super-charge her up in the future by canting the keel further if say something like the static-heel rule changes etc so that we’ve got quite a few good years and good times for this boat.

MW: How long was it in the planning and design?

GW: We were planning and designing for probably twelve months in the preliminary stages then the design work continued throughout the construction as well. Our designer worked very closely with us right through to the end. The designer was Don Jones from Mornington in Victoria (the boats home port) and he would give us as much design data as we needed through each stage. When we started the project back in January 2002 we had the hull lines and a general concept but Don kept on feeding and feeding more data into the overall concept that you see today.

MW: After sailing with you today I get the impression that you’re sailing with friends, non-shouters and very cool, calm people…is that what you engender in a team and expect from a crew?

GW: Absolutely that’s how I and we like to sail but don’t be fooled there’s Olympic and Round the World sailors littered throughout and there’s a lot of talent here but yes I like it calm and that’s the kind of guys I use and hang around with. I think it’s an awful lot less stressful if there’s no shouting and it’s a lot more enjoyable. I’ve sailed with most of those guys for a number of years and they know what they’re about and what I expect.

MW: Can you talk about Skandia and their sponsorship of the project and in particular why it sits well with your ethos.

GW: Skandia has been with us now for three years and they were very excited about getting involved in this project with it being a very big boat and line-honours contender. We get on very well because I’ve always had this belief and vision that sailing should be brought to the people and this is one of the things that Skandia does particularly well. They’re very focussed on getting the sport of sailing out to the general population and it’s a very nice relationship that we have. We have very common goals and the people are fantastic to deal with.

MW: Your support of the Skandia Geelong regatta was that a tie in or would you do it in any case?

GW: We would do it in any case and now that Skandia is involved we will make it a definite must to our calendar. There have been a few small issues in the past, particularly concerning the depth of our keel in Corio Bay but that’s just a matter of letting the race committee know of our draft restrictions and they can alter the courses accordingly. I mean we had similar problems in the Solent with our old boat hitting the bottom but it’s no big problem. Looking at Skandia Geelong Week though, it’s a fabulous event and both myself and the crew love going there every year and now that Skandia has picked it up, it’s really going to go to the next level.

MW: So what are your future plans with the boat?

GW: This year we would like to do a round Australia record attempt even though we’re still getting to know the boat. In six weeks we’re going over to Adelaide to see if we can break the Adelaide to Port Lincoln record, then we come back here to Melbourne for the Formula 1 grand prix and take a couple of the drivers out. We may consider a 24 hour monohull speed record although we think that in the Southern Hemisphere it’s not really a viable proposition. Obviously Mari-Cha holds that record now and it’s a sensational record…

MW: Do you think you could beat it?

GW: I think it’s feasible but we would need everything on our side to do it and I think it would be foolish to not be using the Gulf Stream to attempt the record because of the added 100 mile a day or so that it gives. It’s the sort of event that one would love to do but you can potentially break a lot of gear and you need everything on your side to achieve that so I think we’ll save that until 2005.

MW: What do you think about this current trend in sailing towards the line-honours super-maxis…Is the trend good for the sport?

GW: Well I think it is and it’s great to see more big boats getting built and launched but I think it’s very important that the owners get together and make sure we’ve got some limits in place so they don’t just keep on getting bigger and bigger and bigger. There’s always been limits in place for the bigger boats back to the IOR maxi days where it was 70 feet etc before it all changed with the rating rules so I think we just need to get together and find a set of parameters that’s good for everybody and then I think it’ll be really exciting sailing for everybody for the next ten years.

MW: Can you see a circuit developing?

GW: I’d like to think so. I mean look one of the things that disappointed me immensely living in Australia was the decline of the Kenwood Cup series. That was such a fantastic event and I went four or five times to it and it was a real special event in the Pacific that would have been perfect for the bigger boats of today. Unfortunately the event tapered off and the European entries didn’t come through and that was a real shame. On the positive side if the owners can get together and sort out some parameters then the circuit will develop and become a truly stunning series of events.

MW: Have you been tempted to step up another level say to the AC or VOR?

GW: Well we’re currently doing a challenge for the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006 through our Premier Challenges syndicate. We’ve started our design phase already and we’re planning on starting our build programme this year on November 1st so we’re going to be full on into Volvo soon and we’ll be using this Skandia maxi as our corporate entertaining vessel around our Volvo programme for the next couple of years. It’ll be a great joining of bigger, lighter and faster etc…

MW: So is that common knowledge that you’re so far ahead in your schedule for the Volvo?

GW: Probably not but there you go you got a scoop…(laughs)