Oats comes home second with a wet spinnaker

IT WAS appropriate, but not pleasingly so, that a wine glass foiled the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge party for the much-heralded champion 100-footer Wild Oats XI. For Wild Oats XI owner Bob Oatley funds the cost of running the boat from his winery proceeds. But yesterday the wine glass was half empty when the huge spinnaker wound itself tightly in its middle, forming a wine glass shape, forcing the boat to relinquish its hard-fought small lead in the prestigious 14-nautical mile sprint lead-up race to the Sydney to Hobart classic. An edge hit the drink as the problem was fixed.