Yachting: Crew on steep learning curve

Alfa Romeo boasts some impressive technology. Picture / Jack Atley

Neville Crichton says that if he had any sense, he would be spending Boxing Day sitting on a beach somewhere in New Zealand.

Instead, he will be sitting on the startline in the 61st Sydney to Hobart in his 30m beast Alfa Romeo, possibly the most technologically advanced race yacht in the world.

The new Alfa Romeo succeeds Crichton's 27.5m boat of the same name, boasting line honours in an impressive 74 races worldwide.

Designed by US firm Reichel/Pugh, the new Alfa Romeo was built in Sydney by McConaghy Boats who, having constructed 10 maxis, regard Alfa Romeo as the company's biggest and most complex project yet.

Built entirely of carbon fibre, the yacht features a canting keel and twin rudders. It has the tallest maxi rig yet built, at 44m, enabling it to carry a huge mainsail and spinnakers.

A crew of 20, including a canting keel technician and a dedicated navigator, will sail Alfa Romeo to Hobart.

There will be five helmsmen, including Crichton and Emirates Team New Zealand's Ben Ainslie. Other Team New Zealand members on board are Joey Allen, Stuart Bettany and Ian Moore.

Alfa Romeo is one of five super maxis competing and its toughest competition is likely to come from the newly launched Wild Oats owned by Australian Bill Oatley.

The two yachts have spent the past week battling it out in the Rolex Rating Series where Alfa Romeo emerged victorious in every race it competed in except one after a plastic bag jammed in its water pickup.

Despite that, Crichton believes it will be "pretty close" between the two, and the crew making the fewest mistakes will win.

"I think we have probably got the edge on them on crew. It always comes back to who can sail the boat best."

Four of the big maxis sport the new canting keel technology, where the keel pivots to give the yacht greater stability by shifting the majority of the keel weight out to the side.

Although there is no doubt the technology provides more power, the concept has had its problems.

In last year's race, Australian entry Skandia capsized and the crew had to leap for safety after a mechanism in the canting keel failed, and several yachts in this year's round-the-world race have had problems with the concept.

But Crichton was emphatic that he had confidence in the keel despite going into such a treacherous stretch of water.

"The boat is extremely strong. I don't think it will be the canting keel that will let us down, it will be some bloody $2 clip or something stupid like that."

Although the mechanism makes the boat quicker, it was more difficult to sail, and the crew were learning every day.

They are gunning for the race record, which stands at one day, 19 hours, 48 minutes and two seconds, and Crichton has asked the weather gods for anything but a south-westerly.

"We prefer not to have wind on the nose all the way down. Unfortunately the long-range forecast looks like we will start with a north-easterly which goes into a south-westerly halfway down the coast.

"The boat is really designed for the Mediterranean for the lighter conditions. If we get a real blow on our nose we are going to have a headache but if it is in any other direction I think it will be a fun race."

A fun race for a man who solemnly declared after winning in 2002 on the old Alfa Romeo, that that would be it.

"I vowed I'd never do it again when we won last time and here I am. Unfortunately sometimes memories are short."

ALFA ROMEO

Launch year: 2005
Sail number: NZL80
Owner: Team Alfa Limited
Skipper: Neville Crichton
Club: Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
Country: New Zealand
Type: Maxi
Designer Reichel/Pugh
Builder: McConaghy Boats Australia
Length: 30m
Beam: 5.2m
Rig: 44m
Mainsail: 314 sq m
Spinnaker: 805 sq m
Other features: Built totally of carbon fibre; canting keel and twin rudders.