Yachting: Trimaran team eye Sydney to Hobart

Auckland based trimaran G3 skipper Simon Hull. Photo / APN

TeamVodafoneSailing are facing a big challenge this summer as they look to overturn a ban from entering next year's Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

The team have had their sights set on entering the race since their giant 60-foot trimaran was relaunched in August this year under the Vodafone banner.

They were unable to get ready in time for this year's race which gets under way on Boxing Day. There are no New Zealand entries among this year's 90 participants.

But skipper Simon Hull was hopeful his team would be able to line up in next year's race and had filed a written application to the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) to participate in the Sydney to Southport race in July next year and the Sydney to Hobart at the end of the year.

Hull received a one-line response from the club which amounted to a resounding "no".

"The CYCA is a monohull racing club and as such a trimaran would be unable to participate in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race," said sailing manager Justine Kirkjian in the club's emailed reply.

Hull's application to compete in the Hobart, sent in August, has not yet been acknowledged.

Hull, who imported the Orma 60 racing yacht from Europe two years ago, finds the CYCA's unwavering position "perplexing".

"It just seems an extremely conservative and staid approach to take and it really flies in the face of the way yachting has moved over the last 10-15 years," he said.

"All the local yacht clubs now seem to have woken up and realised that multihulls are here to stay and are actively accepting and embracing multihulls into the fold, whereas CYCA seem to be acting otherwise."

Multihulls were successfully integrated into the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's race fleet several years ago and monohulls and multihulls have raced side by side in the Coastal Classic, New Zealand's largest yacht race, for several years.

This year America's Cup holders BMW Oracle announced plans to break with 153-years of monohull racing tradition and stage the next regatta in 2013 in catamarans.

Hull plans to have further discussions with the club.

"Somebody has to start the ball rolling and start asking questions and challenging the thinking.

"Even the America's Cup is in multihulls now, so I'm quite surprised the Australians are so far behind the eight ball."

Hull said if they were unable to get the CYCA to budge, TeamVodafone would do what many other multihull yachts had done over the years and race regardless as a "pirate entry".