Etihad Stadium Supermaxi now heading for Sydney

11:59 AM Sat 12 Dec 2009 GMT

'Etihad Stadium following its dismasting in Bass Strait en route to Sydney for the Boxing Day start of the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart' Etihad Stadium Click Here to view large photo

Rolex Sydney Hobart campaign update.

After a very long night and day at sea with no mast, the Etihad Stadium (formerly known as Wild Thing) Supermaxi crew has split in two groups at Eden on the NSW South Coast.

Half of the crew are en route back to Melbourne in cars, likely to arrive around 2:30am Sunday morning. They'll grab a few hours sleep before a big day of logistics begins in the early hours - there'll be no 'day of rest' concept for their Sunday, or in fact probably the next 13 days....

The other half of the crew are now back at sea, motoring to Sydney after a re-fuel and one hour stopover in Eden at around 6pm this evening (Saturday) - with this next leg of their delivery to take around 24 hours - getting them into Sydney at around 7pm tomorrow night ( Sunday).

Owner and skipper Grant Wharington is still baffled as to what caused the 41 metre carbon fibre mast to fail.

'Whilst we were coming down off the back of a large wave 10 miles off Deal Island, it's certainly nothing different to conditions we've been in many times over - it's just been an incredible stroke of rotten luck 'he said.

'We've had such a great lead up over the last few weeks with everything coming together - but I guess there's nothing like a challenge like this one to get our lateral thinking going!! ' Grant said, still managing to find a positive in what has been a pretty intense 24 hours.

When mobile phone reception allowed, the phone was running hot all day today (Saturday) with calls back and forth between freight forwarders and world renowned mast builder, Southern Spars.

'After contacting our shore support crew, my very next call was to Alfa Romeo owner Neville Crichton, whose spare 45 metre carbon fibre mast, currently located in the south of France, will play a vital role in whether we do or don't make it to the Rolex Sydney Hobart start line on Boxing Day 'said Grant.

'Neville has been great, and with any luck and a whole lot of logistical management, we might just find ourselves back in one piece and racing in the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart' he said.

by Jody O'Brien

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Etihad Stadium Supermaxi now heading for Sydney

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