A KOGARAH design team headed by former world champion yachtsman Steve Quigley will have a strong bearing on defending Sydney to Hobart super-maxi champion Wild Oats XI coming out on top in this years's 628-nautical mile race, starting on Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.
Working out of a smallish and rather inconspicuous factory office, Quigley and colleagues from One2three Naval Architects have been responsible for designing some of the most sophisticated yachts, cruisers, ferries and ships around Australia, and many other parts of the world.
If sailing is his passion — Quigley is an Olympian and 18 foot skiff and Mumm 30 world champion — designing boats for friends like Hamilton Island BRW Rich Lister Bob Oatley is his way of life.
Oatley recently announced he will back Australia's next challenge for the America's Cup, and Quigley confirmed he and his team will be very involved in the design of the super-fast catamaran.
But first Quigley has had the challenge of making Oatley's maxi Wild Oats XI faster than last year's version. Especially as its main rival — the new and wider $10 million Perpetual Loyal — is reputedly the fastest yacht in the world.
Quigley from Cronulla has been involved with the Oatley family the past eight years, and in that time Wild Oats has won six Sydney to Hobart races.
The Leader can reveal that what the Quigley team has come up this year is a maxi champion yacht with about 25 per cent more power than last year.
"At the end of last year's race I sat down with Bob and Sandy Oatley and skipper Mark Richards and we looked at how we could improve what is, compared to Loyal, an older-generation maxi," he said.
"Our sail development team came up with new headsails and spinnakers and a new high-tech mast [about 250 kilograms lighter than last year]."
Then there's the secret he affectionately calls "the plank," a 2.8-metre carbon fibre lift-foil.
"It's like a horizontal centreboard, which sticks out to leeward. What it does is stops the yacht from nose-diving at speed, and thus gives the boat more power, about 25 per cent more, in fact."
So what sails out of the Sydney Heads is what Quigley describes as the "most exciting boat I have ever been involved with".
Quigley is modest.
"Look, we give the tools for ultimate sailing success, but it really gets down to the crew on board . . . and we've got a great crew," he adds.
The design modifications have already showed up with the yacht winning the Big Boat Challenge around Sydney Harbour and the longer Port Hacking to Bird Island race (in record time).
At press time, Quigley was unsure whether he would be part of the yacht's 19-member crew, with a number of America's Cup yachtsmen vying for a place on the boat on Boxing Day.
He says he won't mind if he misses out to a "gun" sailor, as long as Wild Oats can come out on top. "I've got plenty of work to do in the office, anyway," Quigley said with a smile.
Like designing a new cruise boat for the Seychelles.
Oh, and of course there's Australia's next challenger for the America's Cup.
SECRET IS OUT
WHAT: One carbon-fibre lift foil (nicknamed The Plank).
Length: 2.8 metres.
Cost: About $20,000.
Reason: Prevent the maxi nose-diving into waves.
Result: Increases forward lift and boat speed by 25 per cent.
■Sutherland Shire yachtsman David Witt will skipper one of the five 100-foot Hobart super-maxis, Syd Fischer's Ragamuffin which had been locked up for the past month for modifications.
