Even a 2m shark can't take Wild Oats XI's victory in 2008 Sydney - Hobart
Wild Oats XI won this year’s edition of the Sydney - Hobart race for the forth time in a row. Never before in the history of this 628 mile ocean classic has a yacht achieved this.
Although Wild Oats made it very clear that they absolutely wanted to win the Sydney-Hobart this year, the race didn’t start extremely well for skipper Mark Richards. A torn spinnaker soon after the start, a close encounter with a two-meter long shark and the fierce competition by Skandia didn’t make things easy for the maxi’s crew.
By finishing after 1 day, 20 hours and 34 minutes, Wild Oats was just under two hours too late to break their own record-time which they established in the 2005 race. Although they now hold the record of the most consecutive wins and the record-time, they still need a fews years to beat the Morna/Kurrewa IV record. Morna managed to win the race seven times (under two different owners and two different names). If anyone will ever be able to break that record, Wild Oats will be it!
