Every year on December 26 a large fleet of racing yachts sails out of Sydney Heads in the start of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. It's a really big deal and the race is considered one of the world's most significant annual yacht races. So each year my employer (The Australian newspaper) gets me to model one of the yachts for a giant double-broadsheet-spread information graphic.

It's great fun being able to spend a bit of time to visit the boat, take photos of it, and then to come back and build it inside my computer. I used Cinema 4d and rendered it using hdri plus a single light to simulate a bit of sunshine and shadows.

The yacht itself is an astonishing piece of design and construction. It's a Bruce Farr design (those New Zealanders sure know how to design boats). 100 feet long. Maximum speed: well who knows? But 35 knots (65 kph or 40 mph) is not unreasonable for a boat like this one. Yes folks that's enough to not only water-ski but you'd get a speeding ticket on Sydney's roads too. Hard to remember we're talking about sailing.

It took me 2 weeks to produce this image and it appeared in the 22-23 December 07 issue of The Weekend Australian.

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