Croaky sells Hobart winner

New Zealand-born but Sydney-based yachtsman and car importer Neville "Croaky" Crichton has sold Alfa Romeo -- the 30 metre super maxi in which he blitzed the fleet in last year's Sydney-Hobart Race.

Crichton says he has sold the record-setting yacht to a keen yachtsman from Slovenia who plans to race it on the big boat circuit around Europe this northern summer. He did not disclose the sale price but harbourside scuttlebutt suggests it was more than $US5 million.

Built four years ago and beaten in its first Sydney-Hobart race by Bob Oatley's 30 metre super maxi Wild Oats, Alfa Romeo went on to set an astonishing racing record around the world. By the time Crichton sailed the giant sloop back into Sydney Harbour late last year, Alfa Romeo had taken line honours in more than 100 ocean races in Europe, America and New Zealand.

In last year's Sydney-Hobart Crichton turned the tables on Oatley and trounced the previously unbeatable Wild Oats. Oatley, who is in his 80s, did not sail to Hobart on his doctor's advice but was waiting on Constitution Dock to hail the race winner.

Crichton says he has now had enough of the Australian yacht racing scene and the Sydney-Hobart in particular as it is "too wet and too cold". He is planning to race his newest yacht, a Rachel Pugh designed mini-maxi -- again called Alfa Romeo -- in Europe. He says there is better competition in the northern hemisphere.

However things haven't gone too smoothly. When he took delivery of Alfa Romeo III, he immediately tagged it as a dog -- and sent it straight back to the McConaghy boat yard in China where it was constructed. Crichton says there were design faults in the yacht's hull.

He had the deck prised off and a new hull fitted underneath.

"It's not a world beater," he says of the rebuilt boat, "But I think we can still win with it."