Grant Wharington’s Wild Thing 100 has officially retired from the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, citing damage and deteriorating conditions offshore.
The decision came around 0330 hours on Saturday, roughly 30 hours into the race, as the yacht punched into steep, breaking seas off the New South Wales coast.
“It was just crunching — nasty, nasty conditions,” Wharington said after returning to Sydney. “You’re trying to beat a 70-footer designed exactly for those conditions.”
The retirement followed a failure in the runner block system, which damaged the runner tail and forced a temporary repair. Wharington said this raised red flags.
“I don’t like makeshift repairs anymore,” he admitted. “I’m a lot more risk-averse than I used to be.”
Wharington emphasised the cost of damage. “When you’ve got four million dollars’ worth of mast in the air, you analyse things a bit more carefully than you once might have,” he added.
Despite showing speed in flatter water, Wild Thing 100 struggled in rough seas. “There’s no way our lighter boat is going to beat the heavier boats in those sorts of conditions,” he said.
Celestial V70 crossed ahead of them, nullifying a previous lead and pushing Wild Thing 100 further behind on both line honours and corrected time.
“You can’t have a measurement system that accurately measures two completely different boats across all conditions,” Wharington stated.
Now back at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the crew is recovering. Spirits are low but steady, with plans already in place for the New Year.
“We’ll lick our wounds,” Wharington concluded. “Then we’ll go back and see what we can do to make the boat heavier for next year.”
