BIG Boat Challenge line-honours winner Neville Crichton warned that someone would be killed in the race unless there was better crowd control.
Big Boat Challenge
After ending the three-year Challenge winning streak of arch rival Wild Oats XI, the Alfa Romeo skipper expended more time criticising the crowd control arrangements than he did dwelling on his boat’s 1min 10sec margin over Wild Oats XI, the Sydney-to-Hobart line-honours victor for the past four years.
Arguably the largest spectator fleet in the history of the race assembled on Sydney Harbour to watch most of the fancied maxis for the Sydney-to-Hobart clash for the only time before Boxing Day.
Wild Oats XI led for most of the two-lap event, but was passed by Alfa Romeo after the last mark when it lost valuable time grappling with a twisted sail.
“Better today than Boxing Day,” Wild Oats XI owner Bob Oatley said.
Crichton was in less philosophical mood, describing the situation on the water as “absolutely ridiculous”.
He urged the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) and NSW Maritime to address the issue and said he wouldn’t contest the Challenge again unless he had assurances about tighter control of the spectator fleet.
“I can tell you there’s no way I would go in another race like that. Someone is going to get killed,” he said.
“We’re doing 20 knots coming to these marks and you can’t just stop.
“There was just no crowd control whatsoever. It was absolutely disgraceful.”
Despite his concerns, there were no reports of any collisions or incidents involving the 15 contestants and the spectator fleet.
CYCA officials said there had been at least three boats patrolling the race area.
“We can’t be everywhere, we are under the auspices of the NSW government, we can’t take over the harbour,” CYCA commodore Matt Allen said.