Super maxi Scallywag narrowly avoided disaster in Tuesday's Big Boat Challenge on Sydney Harbour, almost colliding with a traffic patrol boat moments after the race began.
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Skipper David Witt was left seething after the incident, which would have caused significant hull damage and cost the recently rebranded Scallywag a place in this month's Sydney to Hobart had serious contact been made with the maritime vessel.
The boat in question was one of eight NSW Roads and Maritime Services patrol vessels on the harbour assisting with traffic control during the race.
Scallywag miraculously squeezed through a gap between the Roads and Maritime boat and the ferry Rosman to avoid catastrophe, and resume its place in the Big Boat Challenge, where it finished third behind Wild Oats XI and Perpetual Loyal.
"I wasn't planning on going through the gap, I thought the maritime boat would back up, it's supposed to get out of the way," Witt said. "We spun the roulette wheel and came up with zero – very, very lucky.
"You'd expect a boat with 'maritime' written on the side of it would actually get out of the way and not stand there and refuse to move.
"We go down we hit Beau Geste, we go straight ahead we hit the ferry, we go up we hit the maritime boat. Lucky we didn't hit anyone. You wouldn't want to be any closer."
In response to the incident, a Roads and Maritime Services spokesperson said: "Sydney Harbour is the busiest waterway in Australia and by its very nature, racing large yachts in congested and close confines brings unique challenges for Roads and Maritime in ensuring there is sufficient room to manoeuvre while allowing other water traffic on the harbour to continue unimpeded.
"Roads and Maritime works very closely with race organisers, both prior to the race as well as in debriefs. Where improvements are identified in any aspect of the race, including our own conduct, they are made."
Scallywag is under new ownership this year, having been purchased by Seng Huang Lee following its second-placed finish in last year's Sydney to Hobart.
It finished more than eight minutes off Wild Oats XI on Tuesday, the Mark Richards-led yacht eventually taking charge after finally unfurling a troublesome spinnaker.
Runners-up Perpetual Loyal made significant ground upwind during the second lap of the course, but was unable to reel in Wild Oats XI, which will chase a ninth line-honours win in this year's Sydney to Hobart following last year's shock failure to finish after its mainsail was ripped in half.
"Last year some silly mistakes that we've never made before put us out of the race, we've just got to make sure it doesn't happen again," Richards said.
"These big boats, it's all about keeping it simple, you saw a few of the boats today had issues and when it goes bad on these things, it goes bad and it doesn't matter how many people you have on board.
"Upwind in flat water, they [Perpetual Loyal] are very very fast, always they've been faster than us.
"That's the great thing about the Hobart, it comes down to conditions and whoever makes the most of their conditions and does the best job in their bad conditions, they often get to Hobart first."
Perpetual Loyal skipper Anthony Bell was delighted with how his boat performed.
"We've been quiet about our lead-up, we've been trying to keep our expectations really low at this point in time, we're quietly going about our business after breaking down last year," Bell said.
"We've been practicing and training quietly but we knew the strength of our boat is power reaching and also to upwind.
"It will come down to conditions, we've just got to make sure the boat's set up for those conditions.
"There's no doubt that Wild Oats is the benchmark. They're just such an awesomely run team and I've said before they're the Ferrari of co-operative sailing and maxi-boat sailing."
