Yachting: Skipper battling to make start line

Skipper Grant Wharington is poised to buy equipment from a second major rival as his maxi Etihad Stadium races against time to make the start of the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race.

Wharington is awaiting the arrival this afternoon of a replacement mast bought from Neville Crichton, the skipper and owner of rival maxi Alfa Romeo.

Victorian Wharington was forced to look for a replacement after his boat's original mast was damaged.

On Saturday, Wharington revealed he was looking at buying a mainsail from Wild Oats XI, the Sydney-to-Hobart line honours winner for each of the past four years.

"We think we will probably buy a mainsail from Wild Oats because they had a spare there that is that mast size," Wharington said.

"They've got half a dozen mainsails, they are going to give us one."

Wharington said he was paying Crichton A$500,000 for his four-year-old mast and he estimated the total bill to get his boat race ready would be over a million dollars.

While the boat remained on course to be ready for sailing on Thursday, Wharington was still reluctant to rate its chances of making the Boxing Day start of the Sydney-to-Hobart at much more that 50 per cent.

"We don't have any control at the moment because we are in the hands of baggage handlers and people in Singapore loading it [the mast] on a plane," Wharington said.

"We ticked off the box when it got off the first plane [from Europe to Singapore].

"I think we are going to make it, but it's going to be very, very tight."

While he has mast builders ready to work around the clock to reassemble the piece of equipment, Wharington has had his team making other preparations on the boat.

"We damaged some stanchions and some rails and the boom was damaged, so we are just repairing all those bits and pieces and just ticking off the safety tomorrow in anticipation of the mast coming," he said.

Meanwhile Limit shaded old rival Loki to win the Rolex Trophy Rating Series and the star-studded Investec Loyal also enjoyed a victory on the final day of racing before the blue water classic.

Most of the major maxis, apart from Loyal, opted to miss the second 19-nautical-mile Passage Race at the weekend.

Loyal, whose crew includes Olympic swimming gold medallist Grant Hackett and Wallabies Phil Waugh and Phil Kearns, enjoyed a morale-boosting line honours win, crossing the line in three hours, three minutes and 45 seconds. In the battle for the Ratings Series title, Loki and Limit entered the final day and last two legs of the six-race series level on points.

The two Reichel Pugh-designed boats, which are almost identical in length and were launched at a similar time last year, enjoyed another intriguing battle.

Limit finished second on corrected time behind Living Doll and one place ahead of Loki to take overall honours.

The Rating Series is normally a good indicator of form for several of the leading handicap contenders heading into the Sydney-to-Hobart.

The fleet enjoyed relatively light conditions on Saturday. Winds of between five and 10 knots from the east-southeast meant there was no repeat of the heavy conditions and damage which occurred on day one of the series last Thursday.

- AAP