Penned in to make a historic mark at King's Cup

2:46 AM Mon 30 Nov 2009 GMT

'King's Cup Modern Classic division entrant, El Oro, in full flight as she competes in her first regatta' Unknown Photographer

Elegant in design and presentation, the French built 68-foot yacht El Oro premiered today in the world of international racing competing in Thailand's 23rd Phuket King's Cup.

For many years El Oro languished on a mooring in Spain, largely unused by its previous owners. Just over two years ago Australian Tim Wilson, hailing from Pittwater on the northern side of Sydney, fell in love with the magnificent yacht and bought the boat. Under the guidance of skipper Simon Blundell, El Oro was then sailed to Burma. There the yacht received a total refit, completely stripped out and then rebuilt to survey.

'It has been returned to a traditional cruising yacht,' Blundell said.

Commissioned by the co-founder of Bic pens, Baron Marcel Bich, El Oro's design was based on his 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race yacht, Kriter, which finished third in the race. In 1974 El Oro was launched.

Whitbread Around the World 1973 competitor, Kriter, sister-ship to King's Cup 09 entrant, El Oro - Unknown Photographer

Bic was also famous in the world of America's Cup, racing for the cup four times between 1970 and 1980.

Racing in the Modern Classic division in the King's Cup will test of the yacht and crew. Blundell said the boat is still being commissioned. 'We have only taken her out of the shipyard two weeks ago and always you bring them out two months too early. So, we are still making sure the systems are working.'

Before the yacht returns El Oro to the Mediterranean where she will be sold, Blundell said Wilson is realloy looking forward to the opportunity to racing her in the King's Cup, an event that he has competed in several times before with another of his cruising yachts, the 24m Ben Lexcen designed Cordelia.

'The owner loves racing and this is such a great race week.'

The 7,000 nautical mile delivery trip to Burma helped Blundell and his crew to discover El Oro 'goes like a freight train off the wind'. But in like all big boats, he said 'she wants strong winds which we are unlikely to get here in Phuket.'

El Oro is racing against yachts of similar vintage within the newly introduced Modern Classic division which requires entries to have an IRC Series Date of 1980 or earlier. While El Oro is the largest yacht in this fleet, it is racing against perennial King's Cup campaigner Nick Band on his S&S 48 footer Emerald Blue, Peter Wood's 42-foot Winstar, Clive Gessing-Richardson's little 36 footer Aleph and Simon Jupe's 45-foot Waconda. The key to El Oro beating these smaller boats may be in the handicap and in the crew work.

To counter the lack of time preparing El Oro for the King's Cup, Wilson has signed up some secret weapons in his crew of 11. 'We have mostly Australians on the team.' In that team though are two extraordinary sailors. One is David Adams, winner of the single-handed round the world BOC Challenge 1994-95 and Australian Olympic Sailing Team coach. The other is another single-handed sailor and naval architect, 28-year-old Simon McGoldrick, who in September 2009 raced in the Mini Transat, the youngest Australian to compete in the event, finishing 19th .

With Adams and McGoldrick leading the El Oro team and last minute offloading of some cruising weight, Bludell is confident the big, powerful cruising yacht will flex her muscles on the King's Cup race course to deliver winning results.

by Tracey Johnstone