Special Delivery - 1 Tonne Mast for Etihad Stadium Maxi Yacht

[Kelvin R]

Hi,

I caught a glimpse last night on the news of Etihad Stadium's mast being unloaded from the nose of a 747 Freighter but didn't catch any of the other details apart from the $200,000 freight costs for this item.

Does anyone have any further details, was this a special charter or did the mast come in on the regular Frankfurt freighter flight?

I understand the mast is Alfa Romeo's spare and had to be air freighted from France after Etihad Stadium demasted on its delivery sail from Melbourne to Sydney.

I am a bit confused as the mast arrived (I am presuming in Melbourne?) at 1:30am Tuesday morning, but (the boat) Etihad Stadium is in Sydney and the mast is being fitted tonight by crane. This also leaves me wondering how they got it from the airport to the boat.

Thanks !

[Gareth Forwood]

I noticed on the shot on the news that the nose of the 747 had "Operated on behalf of Qantas Airways" which suggests it was one of the Atlas 744Fs. Didn't notice a rego.

[Jason H]

I saw it on the news too, and they said it arrived "late last night", except i think it arrived around 9pm, i think N492MC, as the ACARS listed a Atlas Air arrival from Singapore.

[Adrian B]

Etihad Statdium / Wild Thing blew a mast during thw week. There was some major issues getting it through France to get it to an airport which could cater for a freighter big enough to collect it.

Not 100% sure it will make the Sydney to Hobart Race but a good chance.

[Sarah C]

Just to clear up the times - it actually arrived Monday night and from the news reports, it started its journey in Switzerland (another competitor had a spare mast there so they had to get it to FRA). They showed it being hand carried out and loaded onto a long truck. It looked like it sat on top of the other freight containers. Quite a logistical task and a hefty bill as well (about $1m) - it will be worth it it they win!

[Russell D]

I'm praying for a minor miracle :p

I've always backed Etihad Stadium (Formerly Skandia/Wild Thing), and I've just about had it with this yacht. This year is her last chance to redeem herself in my books. Otherwise I'll have to join the crowd and cheer on Wild Oats XI or something in future :D

[Mario Facchini]

The mast has been received and placed on Ethiad Stadium.

they have a couple of days prep and practice before the race.

Barring any other mishaps, they will be racing on boxing day !

[Karl M]

Yes the mast came in on N429MC, on Monday. It then ferrried to MEL and took some cattle to Indonesia.

[Kelvin R]

Thanks for the additional info. Personally I hope Alfa Romeo is first to cross the line. The freight bill is a nice little Christmas bonus for Qantas. I guess we will know in 48 hours or so if it was worth it.

[Andrew P]

failure, as the Etihad Stadium withdrew within minutes of its start

a very very costly exercise

[Ryan N]

All that effort for nothing.

[Russell D]

Yup. I'm devastated. Sadly that's the final straw that's done it for me.

But I must say, you got to feel for the crew after all that effort, expenses, and missing most of their Christmas time...:(

They say they are going to be back next year though.

[Philip Argy]

The official story from race headquarters:


It was a miracle that they were on the start line at all. Two weeks ago the maxi lost her mast on the delivery trip to Sydney from her homeport of Melbourne. Since then it has been a race against time to fly a new, 44 metre carbon fibre mast from France, bake it back together after it was cut in two to fit onto the plane, put it into the boat and recut the giant sails to suit the new, longer spar. They looked to have somehow got it done by midnight last night. There were still a hundred things to fine tune, but it looked as though they could race.
Ten minutes from the start the fairy tale began to unravel.
“We realised we weren’t able to keep the mast exactly in column (straight in layman’s terms) and we weren’t sure why because we hadn’t got it up to full racing pressure, so we started, and cleared ourselves of the fleet, so we wouldn’t impede any other boat, then sailed back up the harbour to see if we could sort it out,” Wharington explained.
As the fleet pounded its way out to sea Etihad Stadium tacked around the harbour trying to fine tune the rigging. Under the race rules boats have six hours to clear the seaward mark, race officials promising to leave the marks in place until then.
But as Etihad Stadium circled her crew found a second problem, this time the blocks that manage the 15 tonne forces on the masts runners were out of alignment. Her race was over.
“I said all along that all the planets had to line up for us to be race ready. We had transport delays in France, aeroplane delays - everything had to fall into place,” Wharington said dockside.
“I’m enormously disappointed, especially for my team. We have had more than 50 people working on this for the last two weeks, and an enormous input from every single person to get us so close.”
“We’ll have a couple of beers tonight and there’s a little bit of discussion around the camp that we might come out next week for another race that heads north. “